'RIP VAN WINKLE' Premiere, THE HEART OF ROBIN HOOD Headline Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival's 2018 Season

The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival has announced the complete lineup for the 2018 summer season.

The 2018 Season will include two Shakespeare classics, RICHARD II and THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, alongside David Farr's adaptation of THE HEART OF ROBIN HOOD, and the world premiere of Seth Bockley's RIP VAN WINKLE; or, CUT THE OLD MOON INTO STARS, the first original piece ever commissioned by HVSF, featuring 40-plus members of the Hudson Valley community alongside a cast of 4 professional actors. The season will also feature the HVSF Conservatory Company in an original clown piece, THE SEA-MAID'S MUSIC, devised and directed by Zachary Fine.

"If the purpose of playing is to hold the mirror up to nature, as Shakespeare wrote, then our 2018 Season aims to do just that, with five plays that reflect our world today in powerful and surprising ways," said Artistic Director Davis McCallum. "Yes, there are revolutions, insurrections, collusions, depositions, and abductions. But there are also moments of joy and heroism, moments when we find characters striving with great generosity and courage to forge a more just and humane way of living. Whether the story is hilarious or heartbreaking, or some complicated combination of the two, I know that HVSF audiences will see themselves reflected in these characters, and their open-hearted struggle to make sense of a complicated and often confounding world. The 2018 Season fits squarely into our vision of HVSF as a home for some of the most exciting artists working today, and a destination for local and national theatergoers."

The 2017 Season at HVSF included productions of Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT, Lauren Gunderson's THE BOOK OF WILL, Richard Nelson's THE GENERAL FROM AMERICA and the world premiere production of Kate Hamill's adaptation of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, co-produced with Primary Stages. Following the sold-out run at HVSF, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE is currently in previews at the Cherry Lane Theatre, leading up to opening on November 19.

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THE HEART OF ROBIN HOOD

By David Farr

Directed by Tyne Rafaeli

A forest is owned by no man.

To escape her impending marriage to the villainous Prince John, Marion flees to the forest seeking a new life with the rogue hero Robin Hood and his merry band of do-gooding men. Instead, Marion finds a group of common crooks, stealing from the rich and giving to... their own pockets. As the Prince schemes to betray the King and endanger all of England, Marion must find the cunning and courage to take him down, save her people, and inspire the aloof Robin to find his own heart. Commissioned in 2011 by the Royal Shakespeare Company, an iconic folktale over 700 years in the making is completely reimagined in David Farr's adaptation for audiences of all ages.

RICHARD II

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Davis McCallum

Such is the breath of Kings...

King Richard believes himself to be God's chosen on earth. His word is infallible and absolute. But he is also a flawed human being, ill-suited to the demands of kingship. When Richard banishes his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, he sets off a dramatic sequence of events that seals his fate, splits his kingdom in two, and changes the course of history forever. Shakespeare's poetic masterpiece is a story of power and privilege, of family and loyalty, of poetry and politics. But beneath all the pageantry is an aching examination of what it means to be fully human. Artistic Director Davis McCallum and a huge cast of fan favorites will come together for HVSF's first-ever production of this sweeping historical drama.

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Shana Cooper

If I be waspish, best beware my sting.

Fire-hearted Kate isn't first on any suitor's list. But her father has sworn no man will wed his favored daughter, Bianca, until Kate is led away to the altar herself - kicking and screaming. When Petruchio, a wild outsider hoping to secure his fortune, rolls into town looking for a wife - and her accompanying cash dowry - everyone's expectations are upended, and all the rules are thrown out the window. This delirious exploration of the roles we play and the complicated things we do for love, lust, and legacy raises questions about gender, anger, and power that are as timely as they are timeless.

An HVSF Original Commission

RIP VAN WINKLE; or, CUT THE OLD MOON INTO STARS

Written and Directed by Seth Bockley

Freely Adapted from the Story by Washington Irving

The Catskill Mountains have always been a region full of fable.

It's a familiar story: an indolent dreamer falls asleep high in the Catskills, wakes after twenty years, and returns to a world he doesn't recognize. But in Seth Bockley's new take on this old tall tale, Rip isn't the only one rambling. In the New Dutch village of Falling Waters, we find Rip's adventurous daughter and her hard-working mother, tinkers, butchers, innkeepers, tall-tale-telling wives, a few seafaring ghosts, the bespectacled author behind the original story, and the beating heart of a community poised somewhere between the distant past and the not-so-distant future. Our story is told by our community: played by over 40 citizen actors, presented at venues throughout the Hudson Valley, and shared with our neighbors for free over Labor Day weekend as part of HVSF's Full Circle program. This world premiere adaptation is the first-ever commission by Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.

THE SEA-MAID'S MUSIC

Devised and Directed by Zachary Fine

Featuring the HVSF Conservatory Company

Shakespeare meets his muse and his match!

As every seafarer knows, the Mermaid's song can turn the world upside-down. Sailors for centuries have brought back tales of a song so beautiful, so transfixing, that even the stars have shot madly from their spheres, and the rude sea grew civil at her song. For a young Will Shakespeare aching to break free from his small town life, these tales of far off wonder transport him from the everyday, to a place in which anything is possible. In this original clown show, made from scratch in collaboration with the actors of HVSF's Conservatory Company, a young Mermaid is the source of literary inspiration for Shakespeare himself, as well as for anyone and everyone who hears the call to make something beautiful out of nothing at all. Consummate clown Zachary Fine is a 2015 Helen Hayes Award winner and the dreamer/director behind HVSF's 2016 devised production, SO PLEASE YOU.

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Season tickets and single tickets ($20 - $84) will be available for purchase on March 19. Early access to tickets is available for members of HVSF's Saints & Poets Society and Festival Circles Program.

Celebrating its 32nd summer season in 2018, 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 under an iconic, open-air Theater Tent overlooking the Hudson River at historic Boscobel House and Gardens. 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 60,000 students and educators annually through its year-round Education programs.

HVSF's mission is to engage the widest possible audience in a fresh conversation about what is essential in Shakespeare's plays. The company's theater lives in the here and now, at the intersection of the virtuosity of the actor, the imagination of the audience, and the inspiration of the text.

For more information, visit www.hvshakespeare.org.