ROOTED: A Campaign for Our Permanent Home
Campaign Case Statement Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival
Contents 3
Welcome
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Mission, Work, and Values
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Opportunity, Vision, and Team
10 Project Vision: Cultural Placemaking 12 Project Vision: Community Engagement 14 Project Vision: Environmental Sustainability 19 Long-Term Site Vision 20 Timeline 22 Campaign 23 Join Us in Our Next Act
Let’s create one of the most extraordinary open-air theaters in the world, in one of the most beautiful and important landscapes in America.
Dear Friend, Shakespeare is a poet in touch with the power of place. His characters often embark on a journey from the court to the woods, from the pressures of politics and commerce to the clarity and possibilities of the natural world, a place where a process of discovery and transformation can take root. The Hudson River Valley is such a place, and it has been a wellspring of inspiration to poets, painters, writers, and musicians since long before Henry Hudson sailed on the tidal estuary then known as Mohicanituck. The power of place has shaped the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival for over three decades. And now, for the first time, our theater will have a permanent, year-round home in the heart of the Hudson Highlands: Philanthropist Chris Davis is conveying over 97 acres of breathtaking river-view land to HVSF to be reimagined as an open-air theater campus with publicly accessible parkland, picnic space, trails, and a worldclass performance venue. This is one of the most significant acts of generosity in the American theater in more than a generation. Not only is this a singular opportunity for our theater company, it will also enable us to serve as a vibrant hub for our local community, a year-round cultural anchor for the greater Hudson Valley region, and a model for environmental sustainability
“Said the river: imagine everything you can imagine, then keep on going.” - Mary Oliver in the wider landscape of the American theater, as we re-imagine the performing arts for the post-pandemic era. Mary Oliver is right: as it has for as long as anyone can remember, the river is asking us to open up our imaginations. Let’s heed that call by embracing the power of place and creating a space where the experience of nature and culture is available to everyone. We can’t do it without you. After reviewing Rooted: A Campaign for our Permanent Home, we hope you will join us on this journey. Warmly,
Davis McCallum Artistic Director
Kate Liberman Managing Director 3
Mission Work Values
PLAYFULNESS
Rooted in the landscape of the Hudson Valley, with the plays of William Shakespeare as our touchstone, HVSF engages the widest possible audience in a theatrical celebration of our shared humanity. Founded in 1987, HVSF is a critically acclaimed, professional, non-profit theater company based in Garrison, NY, one hour north of Manhattan. The Festival has established a reputation for lucid, engaging, and highly inventive productions – plays by Shakespeare and contemporary playwrights alike – staged under an iconic, open-air Theater Tent overlooking the Hudson River. By reaching over 35,000 audience members and more than 38,000 students and educators annually, the impacts of our work are broadly felt throughout the tri-state region. In recent years, we’ve toured to venues within the Hudson Valley, transferred productions to other regional theaters, engaged our community through radically participatory art-making, connected with area schools through year-round education programming, and embraced mission-aligned digital outreach in response to COVID-19.
EXCELLENCE
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, 2019
INCLUSION
GENEROSITY
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, 2017
SUSTAINABILITY 4
AN ILIAD, 2015
THE HEART OF ROBIN HOOD, 2018
RIP VAN WINKLE, 2018
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“Improvisatory, frolicsome, and of our time.” Jesse Green The New York Times
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INTO THE WOODS, 2019
ROOTED: A Campaign for Our Permanent Home
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The Opportunity Current Lease Boscobel
The Vision New Permanent Home The Garrison
This transfer encompasses over 97 acres on the site of what is currently The Garrison: a golf course, inn, restaurant, and event venue. Between now and 2024, we will reimagine the parcel as an open-access theater campus with parkland, picnic space, trails, and a world-class performance venue.
“I am delighted to have found the perfect steward for this extraordinarily beautiful land,” explains Mr. Davis. “HVSF is a nationallyrecognized arts organization with deep roots in this community. With this transfer, we can assure that this place continues to be a positive force for the region while becoming a cultural hub for the Hudson Valley.” Our first regular performance season in our new home is slated for 2022.
With this opportunity, we will know we’ve realized this vision when we are... A classical repertory theater that speaks to the present moment. For us, Shakespeare and the classics are more than texts; they are sites of inclusion and community, co-created by artists and audiences in the here and now.
An arts organization that values people over stuff. Our work springs from the most essential of elements – actor, audience, language, and landscape. We prioritize human relationships, and our people feel strongly invested in our success.
The Team Landscape Architect
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More than just a home for our theater company, though, we envision the new campus as a model for environmental sustainability in the performing arts, a vibrant hub for the local community, and a national arts destination. It will create opportunities to foster meaningful human connections at the convergence of nature and culture, at a time when our neighbors are most in need of inspiration and connectedness.
Architect
Theater Consultant
A year-round community resource for all of the people of the Hudson Valley. Our campus is an extraordinary space for gathering, and we actively share it with our neighbors as a public good. A national model for sustainability in the performing arts. As part of a long line of land stewards in this region, we are rooted in the rich tradition of environmentalism in the Hudson Highlands.
Project Manager ROOTED: A Campaign for Our Permanent Home
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Project Vision
Cultural Placemaking
HVSF’s mission is to engage the widest possible audience in a theatrical celebration of our shared humanity, and our new home will be a place of gathering and belonging, with the theater at its center. Improved facilities will support our commitment to artistic excellence, with a permanent tent theater and backstage spaces to support it, as well as on-site artist housing to ensure HVSF is a place where the country’s best talent continually wants to work.
10 OUR TOWN, 2016
The social isolation with which we’ve all become familiar must be countered with community, and with artistic inspiration. Our expansive new campus will be an immersive arts destination, and may well be the first (and only) significant theater constructed in the years immediately following the pandemic. Our ambition is to create one of the most extraordinary open-air theaters in the world, in one of the most beautiful and important landscapes in America, and we want this
experience to be available to everyone. For that reason, we are designing the campus and its structures as models of inclusivity and accessibility, with an extensive institutional commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion. Buildings will be optimized for the differentlyabled, and the rolling parkland on the property will be available for passive uses such as walking and biking, as we transition a golf course to an open greenspace offered as an amenity to the public.
New Campus Impact Artistic Excellence • Permanent Tent Theater • Improved Back of House Support • On-Site Artist Housing • “Tent Pole” New Play Development Access for All • Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Focus • Broad Accessibility Upgrades Common Ground • Open-Air Gathering • Parkland for Public Use
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Project Vision
12 RIP VAN WINKLE, 2018
Community Engagement
Our new home will enable us to grow from a seasonal festival to a year-round cultural anchor for the community. Our already robust education programming will wrap around the calendar year, and an extended performance season will allow for fall student matinees.
In-school education programming
We will activate new partnerships with other Hudson Valley non-profits (environmental, Indigenous, historical, among others) through on-site programming to offer a truly intersectional educational experience for students. By sharing space with other organizations in our community, we will ensure that the campus serves as a year-round resource and local hub.
We will continue to facilitate and produce large-scale participatory theater, forging a more interconnected and resilient community through the shared experience of art-making. Finally, with complete ownership of our calendar and facilities, our regional impact is projected to grow 65% –to $7.6M annually by 2024. The effects of our relocation will be felt across industries throughout our community– in construction, hospitality, retail, and beyond.
New Campus Impact Education & Outreach • Student Matinees • Intersectional Programming • Year-Round Residencies On-Site Partnerships • Collaborative Programming • Space Sharing/Gathering Participatory Art-Making • Workshops • Community-Led Theater Making
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Project Vision
Environmental Sustainability
Chris Davis bought this land in the 1990’s to protect it from development and to ward off the threat of suburban sprawl in the Hudson Highlands. Now, his visionary transfer allows this land to be preserved, while also transforming it into a vibrant asset to the community.
Our role as stewards calls us to care for this land on behalf of our community, by transforming the golf fairways to native meadows, reducing fertilizer and supporting biodiversity, planting new trees, rehabilitating wetlands and establishing an ecological maintenance plan for the entire site.
As a theater, we will serve as a national model for sustainability in the performing arts, with a demonstrated record of climate action and green production practices in our everyday operations.
New Campus Impact Conservation/Preservation • Continuing Chris Davis’ Legacy • Low-Impact Site Use Golf Course Restoration • Ecological Maintenance Plan • Native Plantings • Wetland & Biodiversity Protections ClimateSmart Performing Arts • Material Frugality/Set-Free • Sustainable Audience Amenities • Sustainable Production Practices
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ROOTED: A Campaign for Our Permanent Home 15
MAY 13, 2021 PLANNING BOARD WORKSHOP
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Plan Changes
The Site
Theater Tent Back of House
Long-Term Vision
Concessions and Restrooms 11
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Picnic Lawns Route 9 Entry Road (reconfigured)
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Pervious Parking Lots Welcome Center Box Office + Picnic Pickup Welcome Garden
“This Green plot shall be our Stage.”
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15
19 18
5
17
Rehearsal and Administration
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New Pro Shop and Cart Barn (eliminated)
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9 Hole Golf Course (eliminated)
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10
Year-Round Theater
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Act 3, Sc. 1) 11 Artist and Guest Lodging Buildings Pavilion
(reduction by 8)
8 6 7
4
22
1 Amenity Building 20 Room Hotel
3 2
9
1
Existing Parking Lot 5
Wedding Venue Valley Restaurant 18
Existing Guest Lodging
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.
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14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.
Theater Tent Back of House Concessions and Restrooms Picnic Lawns Entry Road Pervious Parking Lot (225 Spaces) Welcome Center Box Office + Picnic Pickup Welcome Garden Rehearsal and Administration Year-Round Theater 6 Artist and Guest Lodging Buildings Parking - Staff (45 Spaces) 5 Artist and Guest Lodging Buildings + 1 Amenity Building Pavilion 20-Room Hotel Pervious Parking Lot (78 Spaces) Wedding Venue Valley Restaurant Existing Guest Lodging Existing Parking Lot (94 Spaces) Future Residence Pervious Parking - Staff + Overflow (80 Spaces) New Snake Hill Road Entrance
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Future Residence 23
Timeline
Fall 2020 & Beyond
Engage Stakeholders
Fall 2021-Spring 2022
Schematic Design
Fall 2022-Spring 2023
Comprehensive Plan Ridgetop View
In collaboration with our designers, board, staff, and stakeholders, we’ve completed initial site investigations and a Comprehensive Plan for our new home.
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Final Boscobel Season
Transitional Season
As one of the few theaters planning to produce outdoors, our 34-year partnership with Boscobel came to a safe–yet thrilling–close with Shakespeare’s The Tempest and James Ijames’ The Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington.
HVSF’s first season on the grounds of its new home in Garrison, NY, using its preexisting temporary theater tent with productions of Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare, Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play by Anne Washburn and Where We Belong by Madeline Sayet.
Summer 2024-Summer 2025
On Site Artist Lodging New Theater Tent, Welcome Center & Amenities Summer 2023 Summer 2024 2024 & Beyond “Hard60 Hat” Season Welcome Season Larger Vision
Picnic Lawns, Utilities, Site Infrastructure & Restoration
Before, after, and midway through performances, activity spills into the Commons. Seen here from the top of the ridge, this comfortable Fall gathering concessions, and convenient amenities patrons. 2020 space offers, fabulous views, Summer 2021 Summerfor2022
Fall 2023-Spring 2024
While permanent facilities take shape, we’ll welcome audiences as our existing tent enjoys its final hurrah.
With our new theater and back-of-house structure now in use, we’ll continue to find creative opportunities to improve the audience experience.
Our full vision includes on-site accommodations for audiences and visitors, a secondary year-round theater space, walking and biking paths, and more.
ROOTED: A Campaign for Our Permanent Home 21
Campaign
Site Restoration & New Facilities
G
oal
$30m
$3 5m
Please join us in our next act by pledging your support today.
(Soft & Hard Costs)
Your backing at this crucial stage will determine the extent to which we can achieve our vision. Help us reshape the cultural landscape by making a formal campaign commitment:
To request other supporting materials, including a list of naming opportunities, contact:
Kate Liberman, Managing Director kliberman@hvshakespeare.org
Semra Ercin, Director of Development sercin@hvshakespeare.org
$3m
Capacity Building & Institutional Transformation
$2m
Increased Reserves
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CYMBELINE directed by Davis McCallum, 2019.
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Case Statement ROOTED: A Campaign for Our Permanent Home Credits All maps and renderings courtesy of Nelson Byrd Woltz and Studio Gang. P2-3: Photos by Amy Brown. P4-5: Photos by T. Charles Erickson, Gabe Palacio, and Richard Termine. P6-7: Photo by T. Charles Erickson. P8: Photo by Ashley Garrett. P10-11: Photos by Gabe Palacio and Amy Brown. P12: Photos provided by Nelson Byrd Woltz. P22-23: Photo by T. Charles Erickson. Rear: Still from HVSF’s ‘20 virtual gala.
Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival P.O. Box 125, Garrison, NY 10524 hvshakespeare.org | @hvshakespeare 845.265.9575