MISSION AND HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATRE

ROBERT J. ORCHARD
Executive Director
GIDEON LESTER
Acting Artistic Director
ROBERT BRUSTEIN
Founding Director & Creative Consultant

The American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) seeks to expand the boundaries of theatre, exploring the best texts from across cultures and ages. A resident company of professional artists, teachers, technicians, and administrators, the A.R.T. provides a home for outstanding directors, a training ground for young artists, and a vital cultural resource for the community.

Past productions with web pages are listed below. For a complete list of productions since 1980, see Production History.

The American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) occupies a unique place in the American theatre. It is the only professional not-for-profit theatre in the country that maintains a resident acting company and an international training conservatory, and that operates in association with a major university. Over its twenty-seven year history the A.R.T. has welcomed American and international theatre artists who have enriched the theatrical life of the nation. The theatre has garnered many of the nation’s most distinguished awards, including a Pulitzer Prize, a Tony Award, and a Jujamcyn Award. In December 2002, the A.R.T. was the recipient of the National Theatre Conference’s Outstanding Achievement Award, and in May of 2003 it was named one of the top three theatres in the country by Time magazine.

Since 1980 the A.R.T. has performed in eighty-three cities in twenty-two states around the country, and worldwide in twenty-one cities in sixteen countries on four continents. It has presented one hundred and eighty-seven productions, over half of which were premieres of new plays, translations, and adaptations.

The A.R.T. was founded in 1980 by Robert Brustein and has been resident for twenty-seven years at Harvard University’s Loeb Drama Center. In August 2002 Robert Woodruff became the A.R.T.’s Artistic Director, the second in the theatre’s history. Gideon Lester became Acting Artistic Director in July 2007, joining Executive Director Robert J. Orchard as the theatre’s management team. Mr. Brustein remains with the A.R.T. as Founding Director and Creative Consultant.

The A.R.T. is known for its commitment to new American plays and music/theatre explorations; to neglected works of the past; and to established classical texts reinterpreted in refreshing new ways. The A.R.T. is also a training ground for young artists. The theatre’s artistic staff teaches undergraduate classes in acting, directing, dramatic literature, design, and playwriting at Harvard, and in 1987 the A.R.T. founded the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training. In conjunction with the Moscow Art Theatre School, the Institute provides world-class graduate level training in acting, dramaturgy, and special studies.

The A.R.T. attempts to establish historical continuity as contemporary artists reinterpret the past, and classical work helps to inform the present. The Company prides itself on being an artistic home for top-level playwrights, actors, directors, designers, technicians and administrators. A full list of participating artists can be found on the A.R.T. web site.

NEW WORKS

The A.R.T.’s American and world premieres include among others, works by Robert Auletta, Edward Bond, Robert Brustein, Don DeLillo, Keith Dewhurst, Humberto Dorado, Christopher Durang, Rinde Eckert, Elizabeth Egloff, Jules Feiffer, Dario Fo, Carlos Fuentes, Larry Gelbart, Philip Glass, Stuart Greenman, William Hauptman, David Henry Hwang, 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, David Rabe, Franca Rame, Adam Rapp, Keith Reddin, Ronald Ribman, Paula Vogel, Derek Walcott, Naomi Wallace, and Robert Wilson.

DIRECTORS

Many of the world’s most gifted directors have staged productions at the A.R.T., including JoAnne Akalaitis, Neil Bartlett, Andrei Belgrader, Anne Bogart, Lee Breuer, Robert Brustein, Chen Shi-Zheng, Liviu Ciulei, Martha Clarke, Ron Daniels, Liz Diamond, Joe Dowling, Michael Engler, Alvin Epstein, Dario Fo, Richard Foreman, Kama Ginkas, David Gordon, Adrian Hall, Richard Jones, Michael Kahn, Jerome Kilty, Krystian Lupa, John Madden, Ola Mafaalani, David Mamet, Des McAnuff, Jonathan Miller, Nicolas Montero, Jerry Mouawad, Tom Moore, François Rochaix, Robert Scanlan, Dominque Serrand, János Szász, Peter Sellars, Andrei Serban, Susan Sontag, Marcus Stern, Slobodan Unkovski, Les Waters, David Wheeler, Frederick Wiseman, Robert Wilson, Mark Wing-Davey, Robert Woodruff, Yuri Yeremin, Francesca Zambello, and Scott Zigler.

TOURING

A.R.T. productions were included in the First New York International Festival of the Arts, the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival in Los Angeles, the Serious Fun! Festival at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the International Fortnight of Theatre in Quebec; the international festivals in Asti, Avignon, Belgrade, Edinburgh, Haifa, Jerusalem, Ljubljana, Singapore, Taipei, Tel Aviv, and Venice; and at theatres in Amsterdam, Perugia, Rotterdam, and London (where its presentation of Sganarelle was filmed and broadcast by Britain’s Channel 4). In 1986 the A.R.T. presented Robert Wilson’s adaptation of Alcestis at the Festival d’Automne in Paris, where it won the award for Best Foreign Production of the Year, and in 1991 Robert Wilson’s production of When We Dead Awaken was presented at the 21st International Biennale of São Paulo, Brazil. In March 1998, the A.R.T. opened the Chekhov International Theatre Festival in Moscow – the first American company to perform at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre – with The King Stag, Six Characters in Search of an Author, and Joseph Chaikin and Sam Shepard's play When The World Was Green (A Chef's Fable). In October 2000 the A.R.T. embarked on a year-long national and international tour of The King Stag, with stops in twenty-seven American cities in fifteen states, ending with a three-week residency at London’s Barbican Centre in the summer of 2001. Most recently, productions of Lysistrata, The Sound of a Voice, The Miser, Lady with a Lapdog, Amerika, No Exit, and Oliver Twist have been presented at theatres throughout the US; the A.R.T. returned to the Edinburgh International Festival two years in a row, with Krystian Lupa’s Three Sisters in 2006, and Robert Woodruff’s Orpheus X in 2007. In February, 2008, Orpheus X will perform at the Hong Kong International Festival of the Arts.

FROM THE PRESS

One of the top three theatres in the country – Time Magazine, 2003

“…an unfailing source of new dramatic ideas.” – New York Times

“… the nation’s most prestigious resident theatre.” – Time Magazine

“the most successful, cosmopolitan, and ambitious repertory theatre in present-day America. “ – London Observer

“… the most important repertory theatre in the United States.” – La Nuova Venezia

“One of the most vital influences on the U.S. stage in the last twenty years.” – International Herald Tribune

“Stretching the limits of artistic possibility with an imaginative daring the has few parallels on the contemporary scene.” – Washington Post

“More ideas, wit, and originality than one stage can easily hold… Wonderful and extraordinarily interesting…the most audacious season of any theatre in the country.” – Newsweek

“… more concentrated, provocative quality than New York City has delivered all year.”– USA Today

“When we walk into the American Repertory Theatre it’s most often like entering a parallel universe. We’re not exactly sure where we are. The ground, or most recently, the gravel beneath our feet, is always threatening to give away. This, of course, is often the mark of great theatre in general. It creates a different world while reminding us of our own.”
– Elliot Norton Award introduction by Ed Siegel, May 2006

Past Productions' Web Pages:

For a complete list of productions since 1980, see Production History

A.R.T. Media Guide

This page updated May 4, 2008
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