American Repertory Theatre
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The American Repertory Theatre (or A.R.T.) is housed in the Loeb Drama Center at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1980 by Robert Brustein and Robert J. Orchard. Its present artistic director is Robert Woodruff. The A.R.T premiered the Pulitzer Prize winning play Night, Mother by Marsha Norman in 1982. It is also famous for director JoAnne Akalaitis' 1984 production of Samuel Beckett's Endgame, which angered the author by not following his stage directions and setting the play in a subway. In 2003, Time Magazine recognized it as one of the top five regional theaters in the US.[1]
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[edit] Famous playwrights and directors
The A.R.T. prides itself on presenting both American and World premiere productions. Over the years, these have included works by Robert Auletta, Robert Brustein, Anton Chekhov, Don DeLillo, Keith Dewhurst, Christopher Durang, Elizabeth Egloff, Peter Feibleman, Jules Feiffer, Dario Fo, Carlos Fuentes, Larry Gelbart, Leslie Glass, Philip Glass, Stuart Greenman, William Hauptman, Allan Havis, Milan Kundera, Mark Leib, David Lodge, Carol K. Mack, David Mamet, Charles L. Mee, Roger Miller, John Moran, Robert Moran, Heiner Müller, Marsha Norman, Han Ong, Amanda Palmer, David Rabe, Franca Rame, Adam Rapp, Keith Reddin, Ronald Ribman, Paula Vogel, Derek Walcott, Naomi Wallace, and Robert Wilson.
The A.R.T. has also engaged a collection of world famous stage directors throughout the years, including JoAnne Akalaitis, Andrei Belgrader, Anne Bogart, Lee Breuer, Robert Brustein, Liviu Ciulei, Ron Daniels, Liz Diamond, Joe Dowling, Michael Engler, Alvin Epstein, Dario Fo, Richard Foreman, David Gordon, Adrian Hall, Richard Jones, Michael Kahn, Jerome Kilty, Krystian Lupa, John Madden, David Mamet, Des McAnuff, Jonathan Miller, Tom Moore, David Rabe, François Rochaix, Robert Scanlan, János Szász, Peter Sellars, Andrei Şerban, Susan Sontag, Marcus Stern, Slobodan Unkovski, Les Waters, David Wheeler, Frederick Wiseman, Robert Wilson, Robert Woodruff, Yuri Yeremin, Francesca Zambello, and Scott Zigler.
[edit] Educational institution
In 1987, the A.R.T. founded the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training, a five semester professional training M.F.A. program which includes a three month period working and training at the Moscow Art Theatre School in Russia. This program provides training for graduate-level actors, dramaturgs, and voice students. For a time, the Institute included a director-training program, which is currently defunct.
[edit] Performance venues
In addition to the mainstage at the Loeb Drama Center, in 2005 the A.R.T. opened a new black box theater space in Cambridge, at Zero Arrow Street, the aptly named Zero Arrow Theatre. This 300 seat space will house productions by the A.R.T. as well as outside companies and organizations.
Before the Zero Arrow Theatre opened the A.R.T. used the old Hasty Pudding theatre in addition to the Loeb Mainstage, and the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training used the sub-basement of The First Parish in Cambridge, Zero Church Street, a flexible almost black box venue, which they still occasionally use.
