delacorte theatre productions introduced many new actors and actresses to outdoor shakespeare and to new york audiences for free. among the memorable performances (including some from before papp had the delacorte for his shakespeare) were george c. scott's obie-award winning "richard iii" in 1958; colleen dewhurst's kate, lady macbeth, cleopatra (opposite george c. scott's mark antony), and gertrude; the prince hamlet of stacy keach opposite dewhurst's gertrude with james earl jones' king claudius, barnard hughes's polonius and sam waterston's laertes; sam waterston's hamlet (opposite the gertrude of ruby dee) with the laertes of john lithgow and andrea marcovicci's ophelia; the benedick and beatrice of sam waterston and kathleen widdoes in "much ado about nothing" with barnard hughes's keystone kops version of "dogberry"; the early work of meryl streep as isabella in "measure for measure"; mary beth hurt as randall duk kim's daughter in pericles; james earl jones as king lear (1973) with rosalind cash and ellen holly as his wicked daughters; raul julia as edmund in jones' 1973 king lear, as osric to keach's hamlet, and as proteus (in a musical adaptation of "two gentlemen of verona" which transferred to a broadway run). julia also played othello with frances conroy as his desdemona and richard dreyfuss as iago. and, in 1968, one year before his breakthrough in "the subject was roses", martin sheen played romeo. a complete list of the productions through 1995 is available in "joe papp: an american life" by helen epstein.