It looks like they're given out at 1pm at the Delacorte Theate for that night's performance but what time is it best to get there to ensure getting tickets? Should I be prepared to get there a couple hours in advance? Thanks

There hasn't been much buzz this year (at least that I've heard) so 1 hour early should be plenty. I got there 20 minutes early last year and got tickets, but I wouldn't advocate trying that. If you really want the best tickets and don't mind waiting, get some picnic food from Zabars and brunch on the lawn.

I jog by there almost every day in the late afternoon and there's always an extraordinarily long line of people. I presume they are ticket-holders waiting to get into the theater? Many of the people look like they've basically camped out in line, playing cards, eating sandwiches, etc. Doesn't look terribly pleasant to me.

if there's a long line in the late afternoon, it's unlikely that they already have tickets--seats are numbered and reserved and they don't open up the gates to the seats until about 7:30 so there would be no reason to hang around

Walked by last Saturday morning around 10am and there was a line of at least 100 people. Some had pillows and blankets - would they have been there all night? I should have asked. Maybe it's not so bad on weekdays.

I used to ride my bike by the theater every Saturday morning and there were always at least 100 people on line at 9:30 AM.

Weekends are certainly tougher than weekdays(since people don't have to take off work) but there are lots of students/people who don't work days/etc who are always willing to wait in line.
Unless you plan on spending several hours inline, I would wait until just after 1 pm when the tickets are actually given out. That way, at leat the line moves quickly and you'll know fairly soon whether or not you'll get tickets Otherwise,you could end up waiting in line for 3+ hours and still not get tickets, so maybe it's not worth the time.
Pretty much all seats are good (and free is free, so would you really complain anyway?? )

ttt

not enough info, come on NY, you can do better

looks like plenty of info here:
There will be lines, get there early--what else is there to say???

--Better: who has been there on a weekday? how long did it take? which weekday is least busy? are there matinees?

--there used to be some way that you could get tickets without standing in line, by making a donation to somehting or something like that.

No matinees.
You can get tickets by being a donor ($$$) to the Public theater but not any other way I know of

My husband walks through the park to work every morning and he told me there were about 50 people in line at 9am. This was Tuesday or Wednesday last week. So I wouldn't think you'd need to get there super early. But most definately an hour or two.

The person who saw the long line in the afternoon might have seen the line of people waiting for cancellations. When they run out of tickets in the morning they hand out numbers to come back about two hours before the show and wait for cancellations. This happened to me and a friend a couple of years ago for The Winters Tale. Then as they receive tickets that won't be used they hand them out again in order of the number you got that morning. We did get the tickets, but it was a long day of waiting in line.
I'd rather get there a little earlier and just have one wait rather than two. Bring a blanket, some snacks and a good book.

If you donate $100 to the Public you get one ticket to Twelfth Night and 20% off summer merchandise. $200, two tickets etc. www.publictheater.org

Now we are cooking, thanks