Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival Unveils 2024 Season Featuring Two World Premieres & More

The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival has unveiled announced their 2024 Season, which will include three adaptations of classic works, including two World Premieres, as well as their annual Educational Tour.
 
HVSF’s Mainstage season will include By The Queen, by Whitney White (Macbeth in Stride), adapted from William Shakespeare’s Henry VI and Richard III, and directed by Shana Cooper (The Taming of the Shrew at HVSF); the World Premiere of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Heidi Armbruster (Mrs. Christie), adapted from Agatha Christie, and directed by Ryan Quinn (The Tempest at HVSF); and the World Premiere of Medea: Re-Versed, by longtime HVSF company member Luis Quintero (Love’s Labor’s Lost), adapted from Euripides, and co-conceived and directed by Nathan Winkelstein (Seascape), in a co-production with Red Bull Theater and Bedlam. All three productions will run in repertory throughout the summer.
 
Davis McCallum, the Festival’s Artistic Director, said, “A classical theater company like ours is always building bridges between the past and the present, a conversation across centuries, or sometimes millennia, that happens in the very present moment of live performance. Our 2024 season will feature three adaptations of classic stories – carrying on the tradition of Shakespeare himself adapting existing stories for his own plays – brought to new life by some of the most exciting artists working in the American theater today.”
 
HVSF will also produce an HVSF Educational Tour of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing directed by Kholoud Sawaf which will be available to regional middle and high schools from March 20 – April 28, 2024.
 
Full details about HVSF’s 2024 season, including casting, dates, and ticket information, will be announced at a later date.
 
This will be HVSF’s third season on the grounds of its new home in Garrison, NY, using its pre-existing seasonal theater tent during the construction of a permanent open-air theater venue, slated to open in 2026. HVSF has engaged a team of experts including Jeanne Gang + Studio Gang, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, and Fisher Dachs Associates Theater Consultants to lead the design process of the performance space and surrounding campus. Now and into the future, HVSF audiences will continue to experience the company’s signature open-air productions and pre-show picnicking on the grounds.
 
 
MORE ON THE 2024 SUMMER SEASON:
 

By The Queen

By Whitney White
Adapted from William Shakespeare’s Henry VI and Richard III
Directed by Shana Cooper
 
“What does it take to survive? Everything. It takes everything.”
 
By The Queen is a sharp, humorous and of-the-moment look at Shakespeare’s story of the War of the Roses, through the lens of one extraordinary woman’s reflections on her remarkable life. From her roots as a provincial princess of France, to her ascension to the all-powerful Queen of England and then her eventual downfall, the character of Queen Margaret is the ultimate survivor in a country coming apart at the seams.
 
By The Queen received its world premiere last year at Trinity Repertory in Providence, RI.
 
 
The World Premiere of

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

By Heidi Armbruster
Adapted from Agatha Christie
Directed by Ryan Quinn
 
“The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to the seeker after it.”
 
The murder of Roger Ackroyd sends shockwaves through the tight-knit community of King’s Abbot, a drowsy village now awash with suspicion and secrecy. Not to fear -- a certain mustachioed Belgian detective is on the case! This highly theatrical adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1926 masterpiece delves deep into the human psyche's intricate dance with truth and deception, re-inventing the pleasures of the theatrical whodunnit with HVSF’s signature playful and freewheeling style. 
 
 
A World Premiere Co-Production with Red Bull Theater and Bedlam

Medea: Re-Versed

By Luis Quintero
Adapted from Euripides
Co-conceived and directed by Nathan Winkelstein
 
“There’s more to her than anyone could ever infer – 
You can kick my words to the curb. I think it’s time that we heard from her.”
 
An ice-cold, high-octane adaptation of Euripides' play written in battle rap verse, this brand-new hip-hop version of Medea sheds contemporary light on the classic tragedy of family, power, and revenge - as terrifying and shocking today as it was two thousand years ago. Quintero’s version of the story reignites the sacred rage of our ancestors and illuminates in the most human terms the extraordinary lengths that some people will travel to even the scales of justice. 
 
Originally commissioned and developed by Red Bull Theater. The rolling world premiere of Luis Quintero’s Medea: Re-Versed begins at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in Garrison NY, in June 2024 and Off-Broadway at Red Bull Theater and Bedlam in NYC, from September 12 to October 15, 2024.
 
 
HVSF Educational Tour

Much Ado About Nothing

By William Shakespeare
Directed by Kholoud Sawaf
March 20 – April 28, 2024
 
“There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and Beatrice: they never meet but there's a skirmish of wit between them.”
 
Scandal abounds in Shakespeare’s hilarious, biting comedy about lies, courtship, and the chaos created in pursuit of true love. The famous bantering lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, trade barbs while matching wits (and hearts) in this celebrated romantic romp. Perfect for the whole family, this 90-minute production is built to tour, and geared towards audiences of all ages. Learn more about education programming here.
 
 

ABOUT HUDSON VALLEY SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL

Founded in 1987, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (HVSF) is a critically acclaimed (The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal), professional, non-profit theater company based in Garrison, NY, one hour north of Manhattan. The Festival has established a reputation for lucid, engaging, and highly inventive productions staged in rotating repertory under an iconic, open-air theater tent overlooking the Hudson River. In recent years, the Festival has also ventured beyond the tent, touring its work to other venues throughout the Hudson Valley as part of its HVSF On the Road series, transferring productions to other theaters, engaging its community through radically participatory art-making, and reaching over 50,000 students and educators annually through its year-round Education programs. HVSF began performances at its first permanent home in 2022.

Rooted in the landscape of the Hudson Valley, with the plays of William Shakespeare as their touchstone, HVSF engages the widest possible audience in a theatrical celebration of our shared humanity.
 
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
WWW.HVSHAKESPEARE.ORG
 

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