All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages…

– As You Like It 

The prodigious legacy of William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, England’s most celebrated dramatist and poet, is one of timeless nature, independent of age and eras. His vast repertoire has been translated into a staggering 80 languages—including Klingon, the constructed language spoken by a fictional alien race of the same name, in the Star Trek universe. Notwithstanding the Shakespearean words and phrases that are now tossed around in the quotidian and countless adaptations and appropriations of his literary work, the global audience still, unwaveringly, anticipates these iterations with renewed zeal. Shakespeare's enduring relevance and influence on drama and films are demonstrated by the numerous festivals centred around the playwright's oeuvre conducted every year throughout the world. The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (HVSF) in New York is one such occasion that gives Shakespeare enthusiasts a chance to see his acclaimed plays performed live.

We know what we are, but know not what we may be. – Hamlet

All the world's a stage…

As the 2024 edition of HVSF draws nigh, the event team—Davis McCallum, Artistic Director; Kendra Ekelund, Managing Director—alongside architecture and urban design practice Studio Gang unveil its new home that will echo with The Bard’s voice. The winged timber shell, located in Garrison, New York, will be the first purpose-built LEED Platinum theatre in the United States. The giant 13,850 square foot design is conceived as a permanent harbour for HVSF, the beloved theatre company that enthrals with all-encompassing open-air productions of classics and new productions—all set against the backdrop of the Hudson River and the enveloping natural landscape. “HVSF was given the extraordinary opportunity—and challenge—to establish a permanent home that considered not only the future of our theatre and the American theatre at large but also the urgent need to reexamine our relationship with nature,” says Artistic Director Davis McCallum.

We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.

–The Tempest

A tale of towering passion

Since its first edition in 1987, HVSF has nurtured a reputation for engaging and astoundingly imaginative productions staged in a collection of improvised, temporary tents at Boscobel House and Gardens overlooking the Hudson River. “HVSF is such a beloved cultural institution, with a truly unique natural setting in the Hudson Valley,” says Studio Gang Founding Principal and Partner, Jeanne Gang. “Our design aims to help the company build on their strengths, with low-carbon architecture that improves daily functionality and amplifies the traditions that define its open-air performances—like the spectacular proscenium arch framing an iconic Hudson River view—as well as create new opportunities for audiences and actors to interact before and after the show,” she adds. With Shakespeare as its touchstone, the ‘be-all and end-all,’ HVSF attracts nearly 50,000 people each year through participatory art-making and theatrical celebration.

‘Action is eloquence’

Studio Gang, based in Chicago, San Francisco, New York, and Paris, is a practice fuelled by an ethos of ‘actionable idealism,’ an ideology reiterated in HVSF’s new home. A terse quote in Shakespeare's Coriolanus comes to mind: 'Action is eloquence.' A transformative new theatrical haven for the performing arts community, the theatre design provides greater versatility for its actors, audiences, and back-of-house operations—aiming to extend the viable performance season into the fall. A confluence of nature and art comes to the fore as the theatre’s curving timber-framed grid shell and timber columns emerge in dialogue with the landscape of the Hudson Hills. The proscenium arch of the stage is oriented to frame arresting views of the Wey-Gat (or ‘Wind Gate’) of Storm King Mountain, the Hudson River, and Breakneck Ridge. It also enables the actors to utilise the existing topography to emerge from the landscape.

Let heaven kiss earth! Now let not Nature's hand
Keep the wild flood confined! Let order die!
And let this world no longer be a stage
To feed contention in a ling’ring act.

– Henry IV Part II

Landscape elements are carefully weaved into the timber architecture; outdoor gathering spaces tracing the theatre’s periphery foster human connection with each other and with nature. A nearby overlook acts as an intimate space for pre and post-programming. “The ecology of the site also receives a new level of care, replacing a monocultural lawn with a biodiverse landscape that brings resiliency, wildlife, and seasonal beauty for all to enjoy,” Gang notes.

What is the city but the people?

The new timber design by Studio Gang aggrandises the theatrical experience for visitors and audiences alike through enhanced rehearsal, performance, and amenity spaces, better accessibility for visitors and advanced technical additions for production. Anchored by an open-air theatre, the programme is spread across several pavilions that include a back-of-house facility, a concession building, and standalone public restrooms. Each pavilion dons a garb of natural materials reminiscent of the minerality of the region. Expressing his thoughts on the new home of HVSF, McCallum shares, “Studio Gang and the team have met the moment with a design that is not only visually stunning but also supremely functional and sustainable in every sense. Their inspired work will reconnect us with the roots of open-air theatre, emphasising the interplay between the actors, the audience, the play and the place.”

Located on a 98-acre site which was gifted to the HVSF in 2020 by philanthropist Chris Davis, the former water-intensive golf course is replaced by an original landscape design by Nelson Byrd Woltz. Replacing the manicured and manufactured golf greens with native grasses and shrubs that support biodiversity and decrease resource use. The landscape is envisioned as an experiential sequence; the visitors, as they arrive, will encounter unpaved and accessible paths that lead them up and through a hillside meadow, terminating in picnic lawns and the theatre plaza, which unites all the pavilions.

O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't.

– Tempest

Several features are introduced to achieve a sustainable design and improve environmental performance, including natural ventilation and brise soleil systems, low embodied carbon structure and cladding, rooftop solar panels, and an extensive green roof, to name a few. Care for the environment remains centre stage throughout the design—ensuring a harmonious coexistence of natural and built entities.

500 years (and counting) — one curtain call at a time

Disregarding a lack of such monumental theatrical edifices back in the 16^th century, there was one, rather short-lived structure that is associated most with The Bard: the Globe. Its lost ethos was rekindled decades later through Shakespeare’s Globe, a true-to-history reconstruction of the original. A similar pursuit of preservation and amplification is conspicuous in HVSF’s new home, despite the lucid disparity between the respective structural semantics. The linearity of the Green Oak frame (previously timber) in the Globe is in stark contrast to the sinuosity of Studio Gang’s timber chassis, while the classic multi-storeyed viewing galleries of the former, are replaced with a more contemporary open-air theatre in the latter. Separated on the timeline, apropos of visual languages, amenities and innovation, the two theatres unite in their core purpose: a celebration of the very spirit of Shakespeare and his ingenious gift to literature and drama for generations to come. Groundbreaking on the site of the new theatre is scheduled for 2024.

As the denouement arrives and the performers take a curtain call, the haze of the storytelling melts into thin air, the bubble of a fictitious world pops, and the theatre resounds with applause as the spectators arrive unto reality. Glances, at last, move away from the stage to meet others, or perhaps to observe the landscape, and then, more stories are shared—as one on the stage silently withdraws.

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear.

– A Midsummer Night’s Dream