Hudson Valley Shakespeare had already been a cultural fixture in the region for over 30 years when the offer came in, proof that it sometimes takes both a village and a visionary to turn an idea into a reality.
Chris Davis, chairman and portfolio manager of Davis Funds, had purchased the land in 1999, in large part, to protect it from commercial development. Hudson Valley Shakespeare (HVS), meanwhile, had become accustomed to the annual grind of erecting and disassembling its open-air theater tent on the grounds of nearby Boscobel House and Gardens. A permanent structure seemed like a midsummer night’s dream.
Then Davis did the unthinkable. He gifted HVS 98 acres (plus 57 acres to The Hudson Highlands Land Trust) to create a permanent theater and cultural campus.
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This summer, HVS opened the 451-seat Samuel H. Scripps Theater Center. Architecture and urban design firm Studio Gang created not only an open-air theater, but an immersive environment that connects the Hudson Highlands with the theatrical experience.
Theatergoers meander through native meadows that lead to the hilltop theater, a curved, timber-framed grid shell that frames views of Storm King Mountain, the Hudson River, and Breakneck Ridge—a site that fills artistic director Davis McCallum with awe.
“I lived in Brooklyn for 25 years, and anything north of the Bronx for me was kind of like terra incognita,” McCallum tells 1 Minute Critic. “I had no idea how far it was or how long it would take to get there. It’s shocking, I think, for a lot of New Yorkers to learn that our train station is just 75 minutes from Grand Central Station, and there’s a shuttle that picks people up and takes them right to the campus.”
Despite overseeing a packed inaugural repertory season in the new location, which includes As You Like It, King Lear, and Les Misérables, McCallum has found his favorite spots.
“There’s an eight-acre native meadow that’s been planted, and when you’re walking to the theater, you kind of walk on this path up through the meadow, and you get up to the rise where the view of the Hudson River first kind of opens up. It’s a little bit off the beaten path, and there’s a boulder under a tree that you can go and sit and have a picnic or read a book. Often, when the actors are on a dinner break, one of them will sneak over there, look over their lines, have a sandwich, and get ready for their half-hour call. It’s a coveted picnic spot for audiences and artists alike.”
HVS’s next phase will include opening artist housing for the 2027 season, making that coveted spot just a short walk from their accommodations.
The alchemy of playing two worlds at once
An increasing rarity among theater companies, HVS is embracing its roots as a repertory company, in which actors are hired for multiple productions throughout the season.
“There’s a kind of alchemy that happens when you ask a company of actors to address themselves to two different worlds at once,” says McCallum. “You start to feel that one world informs and catalyzes the other, and vice versa. And it’s cool for the audience, too. You get to see a great actor who you saw play Orlando last week, then you come back to the theater, and they’re playing Edmund, or watch them sing their guts out in Les Mis. You come away with a renewed appreciation for the versatility and depth of talent in the company.”
From a design perspective, the natural setting does a lot of the heavy lifting. You’re unlikely to see massive scenic elements obstruct the landscape, and that’s part of the company’s artistic sensibility.
“The solutions are kind of simple, and they’re ingenious, but the company drives them,” says McCallum. “We don’t have a lot of stuff on stage, and that’s part of the aesthetic that we’re trying to pursue here, which is to make it about the people. Right now it’s a tough time for the American theater; we’re putting our chips down on the idea that at the end of the day people want to come and see great actors, they want to be in proximity to great acting and company storytelling, and hopefully we’ll find audiences who feel that way too.”
With only nine rows of seats, the intimacy is palpable, yet the vastness of the surrounding Hudson Valley can become another character. “When a thunderstorm rolls over those mountains, it’s like it’s in cinemascope, even though the foreground is really quite intimate. I have found that when we put regular theatrical scenery in front of that view, it just feels dinky. It’s better to have nothing and to imagine it.”
As the days get shorter and the temperature drops, HVS’s season winds down with the sold-out run of Les Misérables concluding on Sept. 27. As for next year’s picks, one phrase tends to rumble around the artistic office: “Here we are.”
“I think that’s the premise of Shakespeare’s dramaturgy. Here we are—all together in one space, and a story is going to emerge between the actors and the audience. If it’s a play in which the audience has an explicit or central role in how the play unfolds, then it starts to feel like it could be done here, where the audience’s presence is unmistakable and undeniable.”
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