Hudson
Valley Shakespeare Festival
By Ross Rice
It’s
an otherwise beautiful July afternoon, with a welcome break from
the heat and humidity, heading south on the ThruwayI toward Newbur
gh. Ther e is, however, an ominous corner of sky brewing, but it’s
far enough away not to warrant concern. We make the switch to 84
East, over the Hudson, then forgetting which Route 9 to take south
to Garrison: is it 9D? 9G? The realizition that it’s actually
supposed to be 9D occurs seconds after missing the exit. Fortunately,
you can take the original Route 9 South, and jog over on Route 301
to Cold Spring. All 9’s will get you there, I suppose.
Wrong
turns notwithstanding, it’s a pleasant drive down to Boscobel
Restoration, site of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, now
in its 21st season. An efcient crew guides you to parking on the
grounds (literally,) from which it’s a short walk over to
the box-ofce building. Then, on through a sweetly fragrant orangery,
past a ower-bedecked fountain, and out of the garden into the open
eld leading up the bluff overlooking the...
Wow.
I mean, really...wow.
It’s
worth the trip for this view alone. You don’t realize you’re
up on the high bluff until you look southward down the Hudson. You
can well understand why preservationists chose this spot to reassemble
Boscobel, a mansion that was originally built in 1804, 15 miles
south in nearby Garrison, for New Amsterdam Dutch descendant (and
British loyalist in the Revolutionary War) Morris Dyckman. Parts
of it were stored in barns for years, then eventually transported
to and restored on this particular spot, re-opening in 1961. The
price the building was purchased for at auction? 35 dollars. CONTINUE...
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