HVS opens theater in Philipstown

Standing under the curving wooden proscenium of the just-finished Samuel H. Scripps Theater Center in Philipstown, Davis McCallum recalled the moment last month when he showed the company's actors the building for the first time.

Some of them were speechless, said McCallum, the artistic director of Hudson Valley Shakespeare. Some cheered, danced or sang. Some hugged him. But the actors who had been part of the troupe for years, performing under a seasonal tent at Boscobel and then at its current home, the former Garrison Golf Course on Route 9, said it felt like a homecoming.

"It's hard to overstate the commitment that a person makes when you decide you want to be a theater actor," said McCallum. "There's not a lot of glory; there's not a lot of remuneration. You do it for the love of the craft and the art of theater. To have a space dedicated to exactly that feels like a real validation for the company."

"It's as simple as it needs to be, and it provides everything you could need to do your job very well," added Kendra Ekelund, the managing director.

HVS provided the media — reporters from The New York Times, Times Union, Times of London and NY1, among others — with a sneak peek on Thursday (May 14) during the building's ribbon-cutting. The public will be able to visit the 451-seat theater for the first time during an open house with tours and music on Sunday (May 17), 599 days after the 2024 groundbreaking. Once the season opens on June 10 with previews of As You Like It, the HVS grounds will be open to the public from dawn to dusk.

"The golf course was a place that people were already very accustomed to walking their dogs and having access to, and we wanted to maintain that and honor the incredible opportunity that receiving this land is by sharing it with our neighbors as a public good," said Ekelund.

"And there's great birding here," said architect Jeanne Gang.

Gang is a founder of Studio Gang, a past recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant and named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time in 2019.

Her work has been hailed for incorporating sustainability in surprising and practical ways. The WMS Boathouse at Clark Park doubles as a stormwater management system for the Chicago River, diverting runoff from the sewers and the river itself. The Gilder Center, which opened in 2023 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, swirls around a towering atrium that lets in enough natural light and air circulation to drastically lower the building's energy demands. Even the roof of Studio Gang's Chicago office has been transformed into an urban prairie, with nearly 100 species of native wildflowers.

Before the May 14 ceremony, Gang and Ekelund showed off the features they hope will qualify it to become the country's first purpose-built theater rated LEED Platinum, the highest possible rating offered by the U.S. Green Building Council. Some features, such as solar panels and dots on the soaring windows to prevent bird collisions, are obvious. But tucked behind an elegant green room where actors will relax before performances sits a massive tank that captures rain from the roof to flush the toilets.

Photos by Ross Corsair

"It was important for us to be water-conscious because the golf course had been such a large user of water," said Studio Gang's Teo Quintana, the project leader.

The theater presents a stark contrast from what HVS actors, technicians and audience members experienced for decades under the tent at Boscobel. No longer will crew members have to fight off raccoons determined to chew through lighting cables, or audience members sit behind support poles, or actors use dressing rooms outfitted with folding chairs, card tables and black curtains thrown over pipes.

The crew will also no longer have to stay up until 2 a.m. after each performance to shake sand from the costumes and drive for miles to an off-site laundry r...