When New York audiences think of free Shakespearean park performance, they might first think of Central Park’s Delacorte Theater. But the city boasts many parks, and many companies bringing free Shakespeare to local communities, including Burdman’s New York Classical Theatre, the Queens-based Hip to Hip, and the Upper West Side’s Hudson Classical Theater Company (HCTC).

Marla Mindelle’s mother was sure she knew me from somewhere. It was just before a preview performance at the Orpheum Theatre of The Big Gay Jamboree, the new off-Broadway musical for which Mindelle serves as co-composer, co-lyricist, co-book writer, and star.