American Repertory Theatre

Recommends

hardinghouseinncambrdge

Joined 4 years ago

Named ?one of the top three theatres in the country? by Time magazine.. Named ?one of the top three theatres in the country? by Time magazine, this world-renown drama house has been associated with Harvard for twenty-eight years. Its dramatic works ? which have won the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize ? have featured premieres by luminaries such as Don DeLillo, David Mamet and Robert Wilson. And the resident company includes Oscar-nominated movie stars Marisa Tomei and Debra Winger. A.R.T. features new American plays, updated productions of the classics, and music/theater hybrids like ?The Onion Cellar? with the punk duo, the Dresden Dolls. Their avant-garde plays are also infused with modern technology, marked by video projections, over-the-top music and arresting visuals. New and old clash in their unconventional productions - their interpretation of Samuel Beckett's Endgame angered the author by setting the play in a subway. The artistic staff teaches Harvard undergraduate classes in acting, playwriting and directing. Located at the 556-seat Loeb Drama Center at Brattle Street, A.R.T. also recently opened the Zero Arrow Theatre in Harvard Square for dramas that appeal to a younger audience.

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Contributor

Joined 10 years ago

The A.R.T.--as it's known to locals and theater buffs--takes its reputation for great theater quite seriously.. In Short
Up and running since 1966, the A.R.T. was founded by Robert Brustein and is associated with Harvard University. The list of famous directors and playwrights associated with the theater includes David Mamet and David Wheeler. Touted as "the world's first convertible theater," the A.R.T.'s Loeb Drama Center morphs into three different stages: a standard proscenium stage, an Elizabethan model and a theater-in-the-round.

Doesn't Recommend

nqian

Joined 11 years ago

Uncle Vanya Dismal!. The two female leads overacted throughout the play, exhibiting no variation in tone or inflection, and movement-wise best described as inoffensive. Yelena yelled monotonously through almost every single line. The male actors, especially Uncle Vanya, were better. But the production as a whole projected the bizzare feeling of puritan evangelicism. Aside from the apt portrayal of Uncle Vanya, none of the other characters exhibited any of the repressed stoicism that I had expected from a Checkhov play. The set looks like the inside of a tavern -- right out of Robert Rodriguez's Desperado. In the second half, you began to think that the production would be redeemed by a very clever ending-- ending on a dramatic climax. But, alas, it is not the end. And the audience is forced to sit in confusion through more bad acting.