Posted June 13, 2025
By Peter Aaron and Brian K. Mahoney
Bridge Street Theatre
Through November 23
Certainly one of the Hudson Valley’s most active spots for live theater, Catskill’s Bridge Street Theatre has a set of five plays booked for 2025: playwright Brian Dykstra’s timely comedy written in iambic pentameter, “Polishing Shakespeare” (through June 1); a new “nautical musical” by local Carmen Borgia, “South” (July 24-August 3); Hannah Moscovitch’s drama about a journalist investigating a domestic violence case, “Red Like Fruit” (October 2-12); and an in-house interpretation of Ernest Thompson’s award-winning “On Golden Pond” (November 13-23). Also: “Sinatra: the Man, the Myth, and the Music” (June 29), Bridge Street Dance’s “Reclaiming” (June 21), and a Bob Dylan tribute by the Complete Unknowns (June 6-7).
Shadowland Stages
Through December 21
Shadowland Stages is currently celebrating its 40th season. The new schedule at the historic former vaudeville-era theater in Ellenville presents Judd Hirsch in “I’m Not Rappaport” (through June 29), the poignant comedy “King James” (July 5-20); the musical “Waitress” (July 25-August 24); the new “Darker the Night, Brighter the Skies” by “Almost Maine” playwright John Cariani (August 29-September 14); the uproarious “Becoming Dr. Ruth” (September 19-October 5); the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning drama “Proof” (October 10-26); and the delightful holiday musical “Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberly” (December 5-21).
Great Barrington Public Theater
June 5-August 17
Great Barrington’s nexus of “new plays with a focus on playwrights and theater artists living in and nearby the Berkshires,” Great Barrington Public Theater is gearing up for another inspiring run. This season, the theater is producing three tantalizing works: “How to Not Save the World with Mr. Bezos” (June 5-June 22), which has the titular billionaire giving “an interview in exchange for information on the federal case against him… The fall of capitalism is about to get very messy”; “Madame Mozart the Lacrimosa,” about the great composer’s widow, Constanze Mozart (July 10-27); and the hilarious and poignant comedy “The Best Medicine” (July 31-August 17).
Hudson Valley Shakespeare
June 8-September 7
Presenting a repertoire that includes Shakespeare’s classics as well as plays by contemporary writers in an open-air setting since 1987, Hudson Valley Shakespeare is once again bringing the good stuff to its 98-acre campus. The Bard’s evergreens for 2025 are “The Comedy of Errors” (June 6-August 2) and “Julius Caesar” (September 9-10), with the rest of the season rounded out by Thornton Wilder’s “The Matchmaker” (June 8-August 3); “Octet” by Dave Malloy (“Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812”) (August 11-September 7); HVS Cabaret with the work-in-progress “Fathertime: Birth, Death, and Songs” (August 6-7); and HVS Cabaret with “Bebe and Friends – The Women of Woods” starring Bebe Nicole Simpson (August 8).
Powerhouse Theater at Vassar College
June 20-July 27
Vassar College’s Powerhouse Theater returns for its 39th season with a dynamic slate of plays, workshops, and readings by established and emerging voices in American theater. Highlights include the Mainstage premiere of “A Trojan Woman” by Sara Farrington (July 25-27), and the musical adaptation of “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” by Alex Brightman and Drew Gasparini (July 18-19). Other projects include “The Holes” (July 19-20) “A Simple Herstory” (July 5-6), and the devised work “The Chamber” (July 11-13). Free outdoor stagings by the Training Company include “The Comedy of Errors” (July 11-13) and “The Seagull” (July 18-20), plus a Soundpainting experiment at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center.
Ancram Center for the Arts
June 28-October 19
In rural Columbia County, the Ancram Center for the Arts is headquartered at the Ancram Opera House, originally built in 1927 as a Grange Hall. For its 10th season, the center is featuring the storytelling night “Real People Real Stories” at Hillsdale’s Hilltop Barn (June 28); the folk musical “Where the Mountain Meets the Sea” (July 11-20); “Plein Air Plays,” an outdoor play series at various locations in Ancram (August 7-10); the drama “Blue Cowboy” (August 16-17); the musical “Penelope” (September 19-28); and a show of music and words by local playwright Mary Murfitt, “Framed” (October 19).
Voice Theater
July 10-27
Launched in Paris with funding from the French government, Voice Theater moved to New York City in 1989 before finally landing in Kingston. To date, the company has produced more than 45 full-scale productions that range from original plays to American classics, festivals, and numerous other stagings. This summer it’s putting on Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off” (July 10-27), which the producers describe as “a bedroom farce, a hilarious comedy revolving around mistaken identities, physical gags, sexual liaisons, and sardines. An under-rehearsed group of English actors tour tiny UK towns whilst vengeful vendettas, jealousy, and passion erupt on and off stage.”
Catskill Public Theater
July 10-August 17
Now in its second season, this Sullivan County upstart is making noise—literally—with a state-of-the-art mobile stage and a pay-what-you-wish model that brings free outdoor theater to breweries, barbecues, and backyards across the Catskills. This summer’s lineup includes “Woodstock Ripples,” a multimedia swirl of original plays, live music, and rarely seen photos from the 1969 festival; “Renegade,” a revival of the company’s gripping interactive courtroom drama; and “The Gin Game,” a bittersweet Broadway classic about cards, aging, and regret. With performances scattered across beloved local venues like Catskill Brewery and Kauneonga Lake Fire Pavilion, Catskill Public Theater is doubling down on its mission: community-powered art under the open sky.
New York Stage and Film
July 11-August 3
Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, the Marist University-based New York Stage and Film was founded in 1985 and was the incubator for such hits as “Hamilton,” “Hadestown,” and “American Idiot,” among several other acclaimed shows. This year brings Noel Coward’s “Vivas Privadas” (July 11), “Tee Tee and La La Show” (July 12), “Gertrude” (July 12), “Backyard Boys” (July 13), “Shelter” (July 19-20), “Stokely” (July 25), “Manakin” (July 26), “I Said Evolution” (July 26), “Searching for Mr. Moon” (July 27), “None” (July 31-August 2), and “The Pushover” (August 3).
Woodstock Shakespeare Festival
July 25-August 31
This year marks the 35th season of Woodstock’s Bird-on-a-Cliff Theatre Company, which was founded by Elli Michaels and David Aston-Reese in 1990. The organization began under another name, the Byrdcliffe Theatre Festival, and during its debut season put on the first all-female production of Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.” This summer Bird-on-a-Cliff is presenting the 30th year of its Woodstock Shakespeare Festival, with a staging of the perennial farce “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” which was first published in 1602 and supposedly written at the request of Queen Elizabeth I. The performances will take place on the company’s outdoor Elizabethan Soundstage at the Comeau Property in Woodstock.