Hudson Valley Shakespeare Company announces 2026 season in new, permanent venue
Seeing live theater along the Hudson River has been an extraordinary experience for years, as Hudson Valley Shakespeare (HVS) has entertained in the open air since 1987 – in tents – moving around from the lawn of Boscobel to grounds near a golf course in Garrison.
After 38 years of performing in a tent, HVS has announced that its 2026 season will be the first in the company’s new permanent theater space in Garrison, the Samuel H. Scripps Theater Center – the first public purpose-built LEED Platinum theater in the United States and the centerpiece of a 98-acre campus – still overlooking those famed ’Valley vistas and offering open-air performances.
According to a press release: “Bringing nature and art closer together, the theater’s curved, timber-framed grid shell and timber columns emerge from the landscape to create a dialogue with the Hudson Highlands. The stage’s proscenium arch is carefully oriented to frame picturesque views of the Wey-Gat (Dutch for “Wind Gate”) of Storm King Mountain, the Hudson River, and Breakneck Ridge, and allows the actors to utilize the existing topography to emerge from the landscape.”
The upcoming season – which runs from June 10 through September 27, 2026 – will include William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, directed by Miriam Laube and featuring original music by Amanda Dehnert (HVS’s Love’s Labor’s Lost); Shakespeare’s King Lear, directed by Artistic Director Davis McCallum (HVS’s The Matchmaker) and featuring Kurt Rhoads in the title role; and, by arrangement with Cameron Mackintosh, a new production of Boublil and Schӧnberg’s Les Misérables, presented by arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI) and CAMERON MACKINTOSH LTD, directed by Jenn Thompson (HVS’s Into the Woods) with music supervision by Amanda Morton (Operation Mincemeat).
“The well-known monologue in Act II of As You Like It refers to the stages in life, so it is fitting that the play will be the debut performance in HVS’s new space, the Samuel H. Scripps Theater Center, as we enter our next stage of life as a company, and a community,” said HVS Artistic Director Davis McCallum said.
For 2026, HVS is also extending its educational programming with a new student matinee series, offering the same mainstage productions. Student matinee performances will be available for As You Like It and King Lear and will be $15.
2026 season passes will go on sale November 4.
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