New York Times Critics' Pick. "The Matchmaker, now enjoying a fine revival at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in Garrison, N.Y., is a musical lover’s delight, besotted with song." -Jesse Green, New York Times
Listen to episode #105 of Behind The Awards With Eila Mell & Bruce Gotlieb, where one of their hosts discuss their experience at HVS.
"I think a theater performance should be a communal event...And the story that unfolds happens between the actors and the audience, and they kind of create it together. That’s why it’s so much fun. It’s not just this inert thing that you go and observe. It’s a thing that you go and actively participate in." -Davis McCallum, HVS Artistic Director
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.
If you want to understand what kind of place the Hudson Valley really is, look at summer's cultural calendar: dance at Kaatsbaan; jazz on the Poughkeepsie waterfront; Shakespeare in Garrison's fields; art exploding out of barns, black boxes, basements.
"It's not summer until I find myself under the tent at Hudson Valley Shakespeare in Garrison, ready to be taken on a theatrical ride."
The Comedy of Errors includes two sets of twins separated at birth all on a search for soulmates. Nance Williamson and Kurt Rhoads star in the Thornton Wilder play, The Matchmaker, that inspired the 1969 film Hello, Dolly!
Beyond the new theater rising on a ridge above the river, things are percolating as the acting company now known as Hudson Valley Shakespeare prepares for its 38th and final season under the tent.
