COLD SPRING, N.Y.: Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival has announced the lineup for its 2016 summer season, its 30th.
“As HVSF prepares to celebrate 30 years in the Hudson Valley, we also join Shakespeare theatres around the world to mark 400 years of Shakespeare’s art triumphing over his death,” said artistic director Davis McCallum in a statement. “We will produce a trio of masterpieces from our resident playwright: As You Like It, the glorious comedy of love and imagination, set in the forest of Arden; an all-female production of Macbeth, which will focus on the witches as the prime movers in the tragedy of Scotland, offering a new perspective on this brutal and spellbinding play; and Measure for Measure, a searing comic drama about the delicate interplay between justice and mercy, between love and desire, between the head and the heart.”
Those three Shakespeare plays will run in repertory from June to the end of August. Measure for Measure, will be directed by McCallum. As You Like It will be directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch. Macbeth will be directed by Lee Sunday Evans.
In addition to the Shakespeare trio, Hudson Valley Shakes will also produce Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. In an approach inspired by the Public Works program at New York City’s Public Theater, the cast will consist of HVSF company members alongside volunteers from the Hudson Valley community. Our Town will be presented in two free performances at the end of the summer 2016.