2009 Shakespeare in the Park will present The Bacchae and Twelfth Night

The Public Theater has announced that the 2009 Shakespeare in the Park summer season will begin in June with a new production of William Shakespeare�s Twelfth Night directed by Daniel Sullivan and featuring Academy Award nominee Anne Hathaway as 'Viola.' Twelfth Night will run 9 Jun - 12 Jul 2009 at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

In August, JoAnne Akalaitis will return to direct Euripides�s The Bacchae, translated by Nicholas Rudall, and featuring original music by Philip Glass. The Bacchae will run from 11 Aug - 6 Sep 2009.

�With Shakespeare�s most glittering comedy paired with the greatest of the Greek tragedies, the full range of human experience will be in the park this summer,� said Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. �Anne Hathaway, one of our most brilliant young actresses, will be making her Public Theater debut under the inspired direction of Daniel Sullivan; and JoAnne Akalaitis, whose long history with the Public stretches over 30 years, will be returning for the first time in 15 years to create theater in the open air of the city with one of the greatest composers of our time, Philip Glass.�

The season kicks off with a production of one of Shakespeare�s most beloved comedies. The Public welcomes Academy Award Nominee Anne Hathaway as she makes her Public Theater debut playing 'Viola,' one of the canon�s most charming heroines.

This beguiling comedy follows the romantic adventures of Viola and her identical twin Sebastian, both shipwrecked in the enchanted dukedom of Illyria. At the helm of this time-honored story of cross-dressing and mistaken identity, all in the name of love, is Tony Award-winning director Daniel Sullivan.

Twelfth Night has been produced by The Public Theater in Central Park six times since 1958. The first production was directed by Joseph Papp with a cast that included Maria Tucci, William Windom and Peter Bogdanovich.

Anne Hathaway (Viola) has been nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, an Independent Spirit Award, and a SAG Award for her performance in Jonathan Demme�s film Rachel Getting Married. Her stage credits include the lead role in the critically acclaimed 2002 City Center Encores production of Carnival! and Paper Mill Playhouse productions of Jane Eyre and Gigi.

Daniel Sullivan (Twelfth Night Director) has directed A Midsummer Night�s Dream (2007), Stuff Happens (2006), and The Merry Wives of Windsor (1994) for The Public Theater. He won a Tony Award for his helmship of Proof (2000), and has been nominated for Tony's for The Heidi Chronicles (1989), Conversations With My Father (1992), The Sisters Rosensweig (1993), Morning's at Seven (2002 revival) and Rabbit Hole (2006).

The second Shakespeare in the Park production will be Euripides�s The Bacchae, translated by Nicholas Rudall, directed by JoAnne Akalaitis, and featuring original music by Philip Glass. The Bacchae will run from 11 Aug - 6 Sep 2009.

The Bacchae will be presented as it was always meant to be seen � in the open air of the city. Akalaitis� interpretation, featuring a choral score by Glass, re-imagines the classic story about what happens when a government attempts to outlaw desire.

JoAnne Akalaitis (The Bacchae Director) won a 1993 Obie Award for Sustained Achievement and won Obies for her direction of Through the Leaves (1984) and Cascando (1976) as well as two Obie special citation Awards. She is founder of Mabou Mines in New York. A former Artistic Director of The Public, she has staged works by Euripides, Shakespeare, Strindberg, Schiller, Beckett, Genet, Williams, Philip Glass, Janacek, and her own work at Lincoln Center Theatre, New York City Opera, Goodman Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Court Theatre, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and The Guthrie Theater.

Philip Glass (The Bacchae Composer) repertoire includes opera, dance, theatre, orchestra and film. He composed Einstein on the Beach and Music in Twelve Parts, Glass also wrote the score of Koyaanisqatsi and the Academy Award-nominated Kundun, directed by Martin Scorsese. Premieres in 2002 include Symphony No. 6 (Plutonian Ode) with text by Allen Ginsberg and the opera Galileo, Galilei directed by Mary Zimmerman; his other works for opera include The Voyage, featuring a libretto by David Henry Hwang, and Satyagraha (revived at the Metropolitan Opera in 2008).