The mid-Hudson Valley is blessed with many splendid arts venues, large and small, sharing cultural treasures ranging from the amateur to the illustrious, representing styles from classical to avant-garde to downright funky. Every community takes pride in its museums, galleries, stages and concert halls, and the hard work and talents of many locals go into keeping them busy and vibrant. But there are a handful that stand out as world-class, enticing visitors from far away to spend more than $5 billion per year on cultural tourism in our region.
The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, on the site of the 1969 Woodstock Festival in Sullivan County, hosts open-air concerts by big-name rock stars each summer. Bard SummerScape at the Frank Gehry-designed Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts in Dutchess County draws opera aficionados from New York City in droves with its revivals of unjustly forgotten operatic works (there’s even a dedicated Metro-North railcar). Olana in Columbia County and Cedar Grove in Greene County, the mansions-turned-museums of painters Frederic Church and Thomas Cole, are veritable shrines to the Hudson River School of Art. Lovers of large-scale modern art come from all over to visit DIA: Beacon in Dutchess County, as well as the outdoor sculpture gardens at Storm King Art Center in Orange County, Art Omi in Columbia County and Opus 40 in Ulster County.
Strong arguments can be made for additional venues, but these are obvious examples of places that motivate people to travel a little farther to enjoy the arts than their usual jaunt to the neighborhood cinema or a dive bar known to feature the best local bands. And all of these attractions, along with others offering comparable delights in the visual and performing arts, are going to have to slide over on the bench this summer to make room for the newest heavyweight. After years of anticipation (tinyurl.com/58bcpczk), the Samuel H. Scripps Theater Center — now the permanent home of Hudson Valley Shakespeare — is finally opening on the former Garrison Golf Course in northern Putnam County.
Construction of the new theater is now complete. An invitation-only ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held this Thursday, May 14, but anyone and everyone is welcome to tour the site at the Community Day celebration this Sunday, May 17, from 1 to 4 p.m. The inaugural performance of As You Like It is set for June 10, with King Lear premiering on June 12 and Les Misérables on August 12.
Hudson Valley One was treated to a private tour last week, thanks to an Ulster County resident who travels to the Garrison site daily to perform her duties as director of marketing and communications for Hudson Valley Shakespeare. We first made the acquaintance of Kirsty Gaukel in 2022, when she and her husband, Andy, took up the reins of Denizen Theatre in New Paltz (tinyurl.com/bdf77h4r), serving as executive director and creative director, respectively, for two years. More recently, Kirsty was marketing and public relations manager for the Hudson River Maritime Museum before joining Hudson Valley Shakespeare in February 2025.
A native of Scotland, Kirsty Gaukel spent her childhood immersed in drama, dance and music, playing trumpet in the Edinburgh School Jazz Band. “I got to travel to Sweden and the Montreux Jazz Festival,” she recalls. She worked summers on the finance team at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival while majoring in English literature at the University of Aberdeen. There were no college programs at the time preparing young people with her skills and interests for a career in the “business of arts,” she notes, so she sought experience via internships at arts-related publishers in England. In 2002, she accepted a management internship at Trinity Repertory Company at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where she met her future husband. Andy, a Kentucky native, was studying for his MFA in acting and making contacts in the world of avant-garde puppet theater that shaped his later career.
Kirsty and Andy got married, lived in Scotland for a few years and moved back to the U.S. in 2008. Working at an advertising agency in Cincinnati while Andy started a puppet theater company, Kirsty found that she missed the arts. So she took a more rewarding position at the Actors’ Theater of Louisville, collaborating with “incredible playwrights” while promoting its annual Humana Festival of American Plays. “I stayed there five or six years,” she says.
In 2015, the couple relocated to New York City, where Kirsty became marketing director for the Off-Broadway theater complex 59E59. The COVID shutdown hit the theatrical community particularly hard. She and her colleagues addressed the challenge by creating alternative “space” for practice, performance and professional development via Zoom. Meanwhile, Andy taught puppetry and stop-motion animation in schools through CUNY and founded a new company called Atomic Arts. He has continued to commute to the city since their purchase of a fixer-upper house in the hamlet of Tillson in the Town of Rosendale in 2020.
“The house has been a labor of love. I’m very much into my garden,” says Kirsty, who has been putting down roots in the broader community as well. “I really enjoyed the Hudson Valley Ideas Festival that recently took place at the Rosendale Theatre. We go to see a lot of music and shows.” During the pandemic, she studied Reiki and “took a nine-month herbal apprenticeship.” The couple takes advantage of the local trail systems by hiking with their dogs. “It’s a special place, Tillson. I get eggs dropped off at my door. There’s a guy on my block who makes maple syrup.”
She has nothing but praise for her recent 18-month experience at the Maritime Museum in Kingston, especially the institution’s commitment to depicting the working-class history of the region’s shipping trade and the interrelated bluestone, brickmaking and cement industries. “It’s a wonderful organization,” she says, “an incredible resource.” But when the position at Hudson Valley Shakespeare opened up in early 2025, there was no question in her mind that the much longer commute would be worthwhile: “These opportunities don’t come along very often.”
If the views of the Hudson Highlands were spectacular from Hudson Valley Shakespeare’s previous rented home at Boscobel House and Gardens, they’re even more of a knockout from the Garrison site, set at a higher elevation less than 4 miles away. From the seats in the new theater itself, the eye is drawn directly to the iconic vista known as the Wey-Gat, or Wind Gate, where the Hudson River passes between Storm King in the west and Breakneck Ridge in the east. “I was blown away by the beauty of the place,” says Kirsty.
The 98-acre campus was an outright gift to HVS from philanthropist Christopher Davis, who had purchased the Garrison Golf Course in 1999 to rescue it from the threat of subdivision and development. His vision was to transform a formerly exclusive playground for the well-heeled into an environmentally sustainable community asset; the acreage that will not be used by HVS will be managed by the Hudson Highlands Land Trust.
HVS now owns the pre-existing clubhouse, restaurant and events business, The Garrison, which hosts about 130 weddings a year, and will continue to operate it under a for-profit subsidiary that will help subsidize the nonprofit arts center. Next door, a temporary theater tent has been hosting productions for the past two years while HVS navigated the permitting process for construction of the new building. The former Valley Restaurant has been renamed Folio, referencing both the Latin word for “leaf” and the legendary First Folio in which Shakespeare’s plays were originally collected.
“It’s a marriage of theater and nature, which is what this building represents,” Kirsty explains as she proudly shows us around. “This is going to be a major cultural destination.” The new theater was named for newspaper heir, legendary arts patron and longtime Rhinebeck resident Samuel H. Scripps by his descendants, who donated the lead gift in the project’s capital campaign. The 14,850-square-foot timber-frame structure is the first purpose-built performing arts venue in the country to be certified as LEED Platinum: “green building” lingo for the highest level of environmental sustainability. The architect, Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang, was a 2011 MacArthur “genius grant” fellow and was awarded the 2013 National Design Award for Architecture from the Cooper Hewitt/Smithsonian Design Museum. Gang’s signature design approach is to connect modern architecture with nature, focusing on organic forms and materials.
The three-sided wraparound layout of the new permanent theater building recapitulates the engaging, informal vibe of the original white canvas tent at Boscobel, and it was sited to preserve the thrill of cast members appearing over a grassy rise at the beginning of a play, with a stunning Hudson Highlands view as the backdrop. The sturdier structure needs no poles, however, which means no seats with obstructed views. Long, arching beams constructed of a laminated amalgam of recycled wood and synthetic materials support not only a weatherproof domed roof, but also a circular catwalk festooned with at least a hundred spotlights. Theatrical lighting designers are going to find themselves thrilled with the possibilities offered here.
Surrounding the main theater building are multiple outbuildings, decks and walkways, including conveniently sited, accessible bathrooms and a circular concession stand that will sell beverages, light snacks and picnic boxes. For more formal meals, the Folio restaurant will remain open, a short walk away. Two lawns specifically designated for picnicking, plus a “conversation pit” with stone benches called the Crescent, are laid out on the grounds adjacent to the theater — all featuring outstanding river views.
Theater audiences aren’t the only people this complex is designed to serve, however. An impressive “back-of-house” cluster of buildings contains a green room with kitchen, lounge area and outdoor patio, dressing rooms, makeup chairs, costume assembly and repair shop, bathrooms and showers for the actors and technical crew. Phase 2 of the development of this site, to be completed in 2027, will include overnight cast housing a little way down the hill, next to existing rehearsal studios; but for now, these comfortable new spaces will make the artists feel at home.
Intrigued yet? Come and explore the new Samuel H. Scripps Theater Center for yourself — with free entry and parking, and no RSVP necessary — this Sunday, May 17, from 1 to 4 p.m. There will be guided tours; a preview at 1:30 of Best in Show, a regular Wednesday pre-show event featuring cast members with adoptable rescue dogs; and the Salt Cracker Crazies jug band performing at 2:30, a sample of the regular Friday pre-show Overtures musical programs.
At 3:30, as an example of the regular Thursday pre-show Prologue discussions, representatives of Processional Arts Workshop, the creative team that leads HVS’ annual Highland Lights event, will hold a Community Conversation. This year’s event, titled Assembly, will take place on July 4 and reflect on the 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Attendees this Sunday can learn how to participate in workshops leading up to the event and on the day itself, and will be asked for their input as to which revolutionary figures from the distant and recent past should be celebrated.
If you’ve ever attended a Hudson Valley Shakespeare show, you already know that the participating actors and directors, while perhaps not household names, are top-shelf theatrical professionals. Some have been members of the company for many years. I’m particularly keen to see the two longest-serving HVS veterans, married couple Kurt Rhoads and Nance Williamson, play Lear and his Fool this summer. And you’ll know that any production here will be of the highest quality, at well below Broadway ticket prices. The range is from $35 to $120, with discounts for kids, students, seniors, military personnel and season passes.
As You Like It will be performed on June 10, 13, 16, 18, 20, 24, 27, 29, July 2, 5, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 23, 25, 27, 30, Aug. 1, 22, 27, Sept. 5, 11 and 18. King Lear will be performed on June 12, 14, 17, 21, 22, 25, 26, 28, July 1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 29, 31, Aug. 2, 20, 23, 28, Sept. 4, 9 and 17. Les Misérables will be performed on Aug. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 24, 26, 29, 30, 31, Sept. 2, 3, 6, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27. Most shows take place in the evening, with matinees on certain Saturdays. See hvshakespeare.org/events#calendar for specifics and to reserve tickets.
Hudson Valley Shakespeare is located at 2015 Route 9 in Garrison, with alternate access from Snake Hill Road. Drive time is about an hour and 15 minutes from Kingston. You can also take Metro-North to the Garrison station, and then a taxi, Lyft or Uber to the site.
Join the family! 
