NEA Awards the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival Grant

Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, announced that the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival has been awarded a $20,000 grant to support its upcoming production of Hamlet as part of the "Access to Artistic Excellence" program. The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival is one of the 1,145 not-for-profit national, regional, state, and local organizations given money as part of the federal agency's fiscal year 2011 grants. In total, the Endowment will distribute more than $88 million to support projects nationwide.

Access to Artistic Excellence encourages and supports artistic creativity, preserves our diverse cultural heritage and makes the arts more widely available in communities throughout the country. While projects in this category may focus on just one of these areas, the Arts Endowment recognizes that many of the most effective projects encompass both artistic excellence and enhanced access. Particularly relevant at this time are projects that demonstrate innovation by generating new forms of art making, new directions in the field, and/or innovative uses of creative resources.

The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival has taken on a number of Shakespeare's "difficult" plays to audience and critical acclaim, including Troilus and Cressida, Pericles and Cymbeline. However, the Festival will present Hamlet for the first time in its 25-year history this season. In order to develop an unforgettable interpretation of Shakespeare's longest tragedy in the Festival's signature style of simplicity and irreverence, Founding Artistic Director Terrence O'Brien has partnered with HVSF Associate Artists in a highly collaborative rehearsal process, giving the Company significant influence in the direction of the production.

"We requested and are going to use the grant funds for what I feel is most important to our work, our Actors" said Terrence O'Brien, Founding Artistic Director of HVSF and the director of Hamlet. "The award will go toward salaries for increased rehearsal time and to cover fees for trainers who will provide skills development for the Actors. Our Actors have always been our highest priority, and the generous support from the NEA helps us significantly in this area."

Hamlet will run in repertory with productions of The Comedy of Errors and Around the World in 80 Days, an adaptation of the Jules Verne classic with five actors taking on 39 characters, from June through Labor Day weekend. For tickets and information visit http://hvshakespeare.org or call the Box Office at 845-265-9575.

About the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival
The region's only professional resident Shakespeare company, HVSF makes its home under an open-air tent theater perched high upon the banks of the Hudson River on the grounds of the historic 19th Century Boscobel estate in Garrison, New York. Using the dramatic views of the Hudson Highlands and the sweeping vistas from the elegant lawns of Boscobel as near-perfect stage scenery, the critically acclaimed Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival presents unparalleled productions with the perfect marriage of theater and nature.

About the National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector. To join the discussion on how art works, visit the NEA at http://arts.gov.