Poster for ‘The 39 Steps’ Image Provided Terry O’Brien, Founding Artistic Director of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival has announced that The 39 Steps will be the third play rounding out the Company’s 2012 season.

Directed by Drama Desk Award winner Russell Treyz, The 39 Steps will run in repertory with Love’s Labour’s Lost, directed by O’Brien and Romeo and Juliet, directed by Associate Artistic Director Christopher Edwards from mid-June through Labor Day Weekend. Online ticketing begins on March 7 at www.hvshakespeare.org and the Box Office will open on May 7, 845-265-9575.

The 39 Steps, adapted by Patrick Barlow, from the novel by John Buchan, from the movie of Alfred Hitchcock, will follow in the footsteps of the festival’s critically acclaimed non-Shakespeare productions of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged (2009 and 2010), and Around the World in 80 Days (2011).

With a cast of 4 playing over 140 characters, an onstage plane crash, handcuffs, missing fingers, and some good, old-fashioned romance, The 39 Steps is a fast-paced comedythriller that promises an evening of fun for the entire family. “The HVSF Company is extremely creative and it will be fun to work with them to create a production with their unique and freewheeling stamp on it,” said Treyz. “Even if people have seen the Hitchcock movie or the play when it was on Broadway, I feel confident in saying that this production will offer an entirely new and entertaining experience.”

This will be Russell Treyz’ directorial debut at the Hudson

Valley Shakespeare Festival. His extensive credits include Twelfth Night and Hamlet at the Orlando Shakespeare Festival, King John at the Utah Shakespeare, Tartuffe and School for Scandal at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, The Importance of Being Earnest at the McCarter Theater and The Front Page at the Merrimack Repertory Theater. He has also directed productions at the American Place Theater, Playwrights Horizons, the West End Theater, the Pearl Theater Company, the Goodspeed Opera Company, the Alliance Theater, and the Actors Theatre of Louisville among many others.

The 39 Steps is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.

For more information about the 2012 season at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, as well as information about their ongoing Education and Community Outreach Programs, visit www.hvshakespeare.org or contact the HVSF office at (845) 809- 5750.