Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer has announced plans to secure $1.5 million of federal funding to support the previously announced construction of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival's new amphitheatre. Schumer is now advocating to deliver this funding through a bill that Congress must pass later this year.
The venue is designed by architecture and urban design firm Studio Gang and expected to open for the summer 2026 season. The new space will be the first purpose-built LEED Platinum (a rating system that tracks structures' eco-conscious design) theatre in the U.S.
The 13,850 square-foot structure will be on the company's 98-acre campus in Garrison, New York, land gifted to the company by philanthropist Chris Davis. The performance space will continue the company's tradition of presenting outdoor productions that use the Hudson River and surrounding landscape as its backdrop, essentially a permanent version of the temporary structures they have been erecting on the site annually since 2022 (the company had performed on the Boscobel campus in Philipstown prior to Davis' gift).
Along with the stage, the structure includes rehearsal space, expanded accessibility for visitors, a concession building, and standalone public restrooms. Nelson Byrd Woltz has provided landscape design, which will restore native grasses and wetlands to support biodiversity and lessen the facility's reliance on water.
“For too long this long-desired project to create a permanent home for the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival and beautiful new theatre overlooking the scenic Hudson River faced a question: ‘To be or not to be?’ Well I am here today to announce that I have just secured funding to say it is to be! The $1.5 million I just secured in the Senate appropriations bill is how we can ensure this project quickly moves forward and breaks ground so that the show can go on for this beloved Putnam County tradition bigger and better than ever before,” Senator Schumer said in a statement. “Tens of thousands of theatre lovers every year come to the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, pumping millions into our shops, restaurants and the Hudson Valley economy. I helped save the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival during the pandemic with my Save Our Stages Act because I know how important the arts and live theatre are to this community, and I won’t stop fighting to deliver this $1.5 million in the final FY 2025 Ag-FDA appropriations bill. Today, we take a major step forward to turning this ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ into a reality for the Hudson Valley.”
Schumer previously helped secure a $10,000 federal grant for the HVSF and championed the Save Our Stages Act, which provided critical relief for cultural institutions that were impacted by the economic effects of the pandemic. The HVSF was awarded $1.1 million through the Save Our Stages Act’s Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, which provided the organization with critical relief.
The company's 2024 season includes Whitney White's By the Queen, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry VI and Richard III; Heidi Armbruster's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd; and Luis Quintero's Medea: Re-Versed. All three productions are running in repertory throughout the summer in a season tent near where the permanent home will be.
Visit HVShakespeare.org.
