James Ijames' The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington will be part of a 2021 summer season at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival under its open-air tent, should circumstances allow.
The 2021 season will also include Shakespeare's The Tempest as well as a radio play of Macbeth (shared with partner schools as a podcast).
Taylor Reynolds will direct Ijames' contemporary play about the lasting legacy of slavery in America. Ryan Quinn will direct The Tempest, while Raz Golden will helm the HVSF Educational Audio Production of Macbeth. Casting and performance dates will be announced later.
“Planning a season in an ongoing pandemic is a challenge, but we feel that we are uniquely positioned to make theatre under an open-air tent next summer,” said Artistic Director Davis McCallum. “A scaled-back, two-play season will allow us to adapt to the changing circumstances of the pandemic and returns us to our roots as a repertory company, with many of the same actors appearing in both plays. In The Tempest, Shakespeare writes of a ‘brave new world,’ but these plays make it clear that we must reckon with our past in order to move freely into our future. They speak to the current moment and to each other in powerful and surprising ways and will be the perfect send-off to the site we have called home for over three decades. We are also thrilled to make the spellbinding auditory experience of Shakespeare’s Macbeth widely accessible to audiences of all ages, by releasing it as a podcast to our Education partners throughout the region.”
If in-person performances are not able to proceed, HVSF will work to bring these plays to audiences in alternative formats next summer.
This will be HVSF’s final season on the grounds of Boscobel House and Gardens, where the company has been in residence for 34 years. Beginning in 2022, HVSF will move to the company’s first permanent home in Philipstown, New York.
