Photos: AS YOU LIKE IT and KING LEAR at Hudson Valley Shakespeare 2026

As You Like It will feature costume design by Herin Kaputkin, lighting design by Jeff Croiter, sound design by Charles Coes, and properties by Buffy Cardoza. Carl Howell is the Music Supervisor, Luis Quintero is the Fight Choreographer, Alithea Phillips is the voice and dialect coach, and Daniel Vaughn is the stage manager.

All the world’s a stage as imagination takes the spotlight in this exuberant, music-filled romp. Rosalind and her cousin Celia adopt new identities and seek refuge in the Forest of Arden, where exiles become adventurers, friendships bloom into romances, and wit collides with whimsy. Enjoy Shakespeare’s bucolic romantic comedy against the backdrop of the Hudson River valley in this celebration of love, identity, and transformation.

The cast for King Lear will include the previously announced Kurt Rhoads in the title role, Eric Berryman as Edgar, Helen Cespedes as Regan, Aamar-Malik Culbreth as Lear’s Knight, Zack Fine as Earl of Kent, Lucas Hakoshima as King of France, Katie Hartke as Goneril, Carl Howell as Oswald, Melissa Mahoney as Cordelia, Sean McNall as Duke of Cornwall, Keshav Moodliar as Edmund, Anand Nagraj as Duke of Albany, Howard W. Overshown as Earl of Gloucester, Ronald Sopyla as Old Man, Caroline Santiago Turner as Curran, and Nance Williamson as the Fool, with additional casting to be announced.

What happens when the crown slips from a king’s head and into the hands of those who would destroy him?  Shakespeare’s tragic tale of madness, power, and betrayal roars to life in this gripping open-air production. An aging monarch divides his kingdom between daughters demanding their love as proof of loyalty, and setting off a chain of deceit and destruction that tears family and country apart. In the heart of the tempest, Lear learns too late that a king must first be a man, and the price of wisdom is everything he once held dear.