The New York Times reports that Ambrose will play opposite the Romeo of Oscar Isaac, who was seen in the Shakespeare in the Park revival of Two Gentleman of Verona in 2005. Grey Gardens and Rent’s Michael Greif will direct Ambrose and Isaac in what is arguably Shakespeare’s best-known work. Romeo and Juliet, as previously reported by Playbill.com, will run June 5-July 8. The Public Theater has not produced Romeo and Juliet since 1988, when it presented the classic tragedy in the Anspacher Theater, in the company's Lafayette Street space. Peter MacNicol and Cynthia Nixon starred in the title roles. The play hasn't been at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park since 1968, when Joseph Papp directed a production that starred Martin Sheen and Susan McArthur.

Daniel Sullivan, who directed the current revival of Prelude to a Kiss, will helm the second summer offering, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Dream will play the Delacorte Theater Aug. 7-Sept. 9.

Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis said in a statement that 2007 "is the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love, and we hope to revisit the utopian and joyous impulses of that era through the medium of two of the greatest of Shakespeare’s plays."

Lauren Ambrose made her Broadway debut last season in the Lincoln Center Theater revival of Awake and Sing! In London she co-starred in the National Theatre's production of Sam Shepard's Buried Child, directed by Matthew Warchus.

For more information visit www.publictheater.org.