Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival to Host Annual Gala, 6/4

The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (HVSF) will host its Annual Gala on Saturday, June 4 at its theater tent on the grounds of Boscobel House & Gardens in Garrison, New York. Celebrating 30 years of Shakespeare in the Hudson Highlands, the gala will feature cocktails on the great lawn; performance highlights which will look back on 30 seasons; a special anniversary tribute given by Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney; a live auction with Nicholas D. Lowry, President and Principal Auctioneer at New York's Swann Galleries; an elegant dinner; and dancing under the stars with the Alex Donner Orchestra. All gala proceeds will support HVSF's programing which brings live theater performance to nearly 90,000 in and around the Hudson Valley each year. Event Co-Chairs include HVSF Board Chair Robin Arditi and Ralph Arditi; Steven L. Holley and John W. Hamilton IV; Dan Kramer and Judy Mogul; Chip Lowenson and Susan Brune; and Frederic C. Rich. For information, and to reserve your tickets, to the Hudson Valley's event of the season, contact Catherine Taylor-Williams at ctwilliams@hvshakespeare.org, or by phone at 845-809-5750 x12.

The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival season runs from Tuesday, June 7 through Monday, September 5. In his announcement of the 2016 season, Artistic Director Davis McCallum said, "As HVSF prepares to celebrate 30 years in the Hudson Valley, we also join Shakespeare theaters around the world to mark 400 years of Shakespeare's art triumphing over his death. We will produce a trio of masterpieces from our resident playwright: As You Like It, the glorious comedy of love and imagination, set in the forest of Arden; an all-female production of Macbeth, which will focus on the Witches as the prime movers in the tragedy of Scotland, offering a new perspective on this brutal and spellbinding play; and Measure for Measure, a searing comic drama about the delicate interplay between justice and mercy, between love and desire, between the head and the heart."

The three Shakespeare plays will run in repertory from June through the end of August. Measure for Measure, will be directed by McCallum; As you Like It, will be directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, who directed last season's acclaimed production of An Iliad, and the Fall 2014 production of Turn of the Screw; and Macbeth, will be directed by Obie Award winner Lee Sunday Evans (A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes) who will make her HVSF debut. In addition, a milestone production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, with a cast of 45 Hudson Valley volunteers and three HVSF professional actors will be directed by HVSF alum John Plummer (Twelfth Night), and run for four free performances from September 2-5 at Boscobel, the Paramount Hudson Valley, and a venue in Newburgh.

For information about HVSF visit http://hvshakespeare.org