Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival

The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (HVSF) is a critically acclaimed, professional, non-profit theater company based at Boscobel in Garrison, New York, one hour north of Manhattan. The Festival - running a roughly twelve-week repertory season each year - has established a reputation for lucid, engaging, and highly inventive productions featuring exceptional industry talent and a backdrop of stunning vistas overlooking the Hudson River.

Each year, its productions attract a total audience of more than 50,000 from the Hudson Valley, New York City, and beyond, including New Jersey, Connecticut, and 40 other states, and regularly achieve over 80% capacity under its open-air Theater Tent. HVSF also takes the magic of Shakespeare and live theater throughout the tri-state region by touring limited runs of fan favorites through its HVSF On The Road series and by bringing student-oriented productions and education programs to nearly 50,000 elementary, middle, and high school students and educators each year. HVSF’s acclaimed arts education programs also include training for early-career theater artists by way of its Conservatory Company, professional development for educators, and free audience engagement offerings before and after performances throughout the summer.

HVSF is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization.

HVSF was founded by Melissa Stern and Terry O’Brien in September 1987 with an outdoor production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Manitoga, home of industrial designer Russell Wright, in Garrison, NY. The following year, Boscobel House and Gardens agreed to host HVSF’s mainstage season on the estate’s expansive grounds, and that summer’s production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It was performed under a tent overlooking the Hudson River.

In 1994, the Festival added a second show to its season and began hands-on, performance-driven education programs within area schools. In 2004, HVSF began to tour productions to middle and high schools. In 2006, HVSF acquired a custom-designed, open-air Theater Tent with seating for 540, establishing a performance venue unlike anything else in American theater.

The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival was the subject of a one-hour documentary and two hour film of a performance of Twelfth Night which premiered on the PBS affiliate WNET (Channel 13 in New York City) on September 18, 2008. The program also aired on WLIW (Channel 21 on Long Island).

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