The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) is a professional not-for-profit theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1980 by Robert Brustein, the A.R.T. is known for its commitment to new American plays and music–theater explorations; to neglected works of the past; and to established classical texts reinterpreted in refreshing new ways. Over the past thirty years it has garnered many of the nation's most distinguished awards, including a Pulitzer Prize (1982), a Tony Award (1986), and a Jujamcyn Award (1985). In December 2002, the A.R.T. was the recipient of the National Theatre Conference's Outstanding Achievement Award, and in May 2003 it was named one of the top three theaters in the country by Time Magazine. The A.R.T. is housed in the Loeb Drama Center at Harvard University.
In 2002 Robert Woodruff replaced founder Robert Brustein as the A.R.T.'s Artistic Director. After Woodruff's departure in 2007, Associate Artistic Director Gideon Lester took the reins for 2008-09 season, and in May 2008 Diane Paulus was named the new Artistic Director. Paulus, a Harvard alum, is widely known as a director of theater and opera. Her work includes The Donkey Show, which ran off-Broadway for six years; productions at the Chicago Opera Theatre; and the Public Theater's 2008 production of Hair, which won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.
Read more about American Repertory Theater: Playwrights and Directors, Educational Institution
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“You’re contending with a genius, D.J. is his name, only American alive who could outtalk Cassius Clay, that’s lip.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players, and Tennessee Williams has about 5, and Samuel Beckett one—and maybe a clone of that one. I have 10 or so, and that’s a lot. As you get older, you become more skillful at casting them.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“It is not enough to demand insight and informative images of reality from the theater. Our theater must stimulate a desire for understanding, a delight in changing reality. Our audience must experience not only the ways to free Prometheus, but be schooled in the very desire to free him. Theater must teach all the pleasures and joys of discovery, all the feelings of triumph associated with liberation.”
—Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)