Hudson Valley Shakespeare Celebrates Sold-Out Run in New Theater
Hudson Valley Shakespeare welcomes new and old fans under a new roof as it unveils the new Samuel H. Scripps Theater.
The sun begins to sink behind the mountainous ridges of the Hudson Highlands as King Lear enters into the newly constructed Samuel H. Scripps Theater Center on a late summer night at Hudson Valley Shakespeare (HVS).
HVS is a professional nonprofit theater company that performs both Shakespeare’s works and contemporary plays in an open-air theater. This past season was historic for HVS, as the company opened its newly built Scripps Theater.
The troupe performed under a tent for decades, acquiring a custom-designed tent in 2006. After five years of planning and construction, actors and audiences alike were able to gather under the curved, seashell-like roof.
The performances run from June through September, featuring three shows a season. This year, fans came out of the woodwork, with all shows sold out during the last six weeks of the season.
“We knew that opening a new theater would attract somewhat similar, but different patrons, but we didn't expect to have the success that we did,” said Sean McNall, associate artistic director and director of education at HVS. “We certainly didn't think that we were going to be selling out the last month and a half of our run, which we've never done — certainly not since I've been here, 12 years it would be.”
McNall said that in the past, only one or two shows would sell out towards the end of the season. HVS is considering expanding next year’s season due to popular demand, according to McNall.
Architect Jeanne Gang was the lead designer behind the theater. Gang and others at HVS wanted the theater to not only fit into the landscape, but represent it as well.
“It is a building that is in response to, and in conversation with, the environment,” said McNall. “It's our intention in its materiality, the rough timber, to feel like something that could naturally erupt from this particular location, but could simultaneously be in conversation with the river.”
McNall is also an actor. This year, he played the Duke of Cornwall in “King Lear” and Jaques in “As You Like It.”
“The really shocking and stunning thing for me every night is to sort of be standing in the wings before I make my entrance and just see how various the sunset can be, or how incredible the vista looks during a storm, and what it means on any particular night,” McNall said. “It inspires you in the moment creatively, but you can also feel the audience's relationship to the play.”
Dr. Geoffrey L. Brackett, executive vice president at Marist University, has been a longtime supporter of HVS and a dedicated audience member. In anticipation of the new theater, Brackett brought his Shakespeare class from the previous semester to tour the campus while the theater was still under construction.
“The new location is a stunning upgrade from what was already considered one of the best outdoor theatrical locations in the Hudson Valley,” Brackett said. “The view from the Scripps is even more incredible than the tent at Boscobel, and Davis McCallum and team use it to enhance the power of the theater produced there in profound ways.”
HVS was founded in 1987 by Terry O’Brien and Melissa Stern. In 1988, the company established permanent residence at the Boscobel House and Gardens, which remained its home until 2022. The group then moved to a 98-acre campus in Garrison, New York, formerly a golf course, gifted by Chris Davis.
“What makes the experience here, now up on the ridge, so wonderful, is the expanse and the view,” McNall said.
HVS plans to announce its titles for next year to the public on Saturday, Oct. 17 at its annual gala.
“The Scripps will be recognized as one of the great natural artistic venues in the world, I am sure,” said Brackett.
“The final month was pretty shocking and wonderful,” McNall said. “And I think a great harbinger, a positive harbinger, for what's to come.”