Woodruff Picked To Take Helm at Repertory Theater

Robert Woodruff, a director renowned for his avante garde and often controversial productions, will lead the American Repertory Theater (ART) as Artistic Director when Robert S. Brustein steps down in August of 2002, University President Neil L. Rudenstine said Wednesday.

The announcement came after a year-long international search followed closely by local arts aficionados.

“Woodruff is inordinately respected,” said Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC) president Cary P. McClelland ‘02. “I have enormous respect for the man.”

Woodruff is part of a “new troika” to lead ART—including Gideon Lester as Associate Artistic Director and Dramaturg, and Robert J. Orchard as Executive Director.

Rudenstine announced the appointments to about 150 HRDC members and staff in the Loeb Mainstage before a press conference Wednesday. The ART, a professional theater company, is the main tenant of the Harvard-owned Loeb Drama Center.

Both Rudenstine and Brustein stressed that Woodruff is more of an artist than an administrator or a fundraiser—roles that will instead be filled by Orchard and Lester.

Brustein said that Lester will control the “public image” of the ART, while he will rely on Orchard for his “managerial and aesthetic sense.”

A three-part directorship is not unheard of, Lester said, citing Sir Lawrence Olivier’s company as an example.

“It’s a model of leadership that’s not so new,” Lester said. “We have many years to work out the details and figure out the best formula as we move along.”

Rudenstine said that when he first met Woodruff—whom he eventually selected from around 70 candidates—he was aware that the director would not necessarily be the safest choice.

“I didn’t know how he would behave here,” Rudenstine said. “But in the end, it became gradually clearer and clearer that he should do this.”

“We have someone who won’t let things stay the way they are,” Rudenstine continued.

Woodruff, who is known for wearing sunglasses indoors, wore his long dark hair in a ponytail tied with three rubber bands. He attended the press conference clad entirely in black—black leather jacket, black jeans and boots.

He spoke only briefly, but received a standing ovation from the crowd at the staff meeting.

“I look forward to continuing with this great tradition of collaborating with the community and extended family of Harvard University,” Woodruff said.

Brustein calls Woodruff a “visionary.”

In 1972, Woodruff co-founded San Francisco’s Eureka Theatre. Four years later, he founded the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, where he first worked with the writer Sam Shepard—a collaboration that has continued for years.

More recently, Woodruff has taught directing and acting at Columbia University. He directed Richard II, the controversial production currently on the Loeb Mainstage.

The Shakespeare production, which includes some scantily clad men and scenes of homosexuality, serves as an example of Woodruff’s avante garde approach to theater.

The production garnered powerful mixed reactions.

A brief review on the ART email list quoted audience comments that ranged from “one of the two best Shakespeare productions I have seen at the ART” to “the most offensive piece of theater I have ever seen.”

McClelland described the show as a “dazzlingly daring piece of staging.”

HRDC and the ART

Throughout the year-long search process, students had hoped a new ART director would give the University an opportunity to renegotiate its contract with the company.

Brustein has overseen the Loeb and the ART during a time in which students have alleged they do not have sufficient access to the theater’s Mainstage.

The relationship between the ART and Harvard has been strained in recent years, with students clamoring for more access to the Mainstage and the ART eager to keep its own stage time.

Additionally, students have said that they hoped the change in leadership might result in a stronger relationship between the undergraduates and the company.

At the press conference Wednesday, Orchard said the “troika” would attempt to foster more interaction between the students and professionals.

“We can always do better and we will do better,” Orchard said.

McClelland said Brustein has traditionally delegated interaction with the HRDC board and fielding complaints to Orchard—and he expects that Orchard will continue to be “attentive” to the student population.

“What I expect [Woodruff] is going to be like as a leader in the building is a considerate, deliberate and thoughtful presence,” McClelland said.

“That will trickle, as opposed to a major interaction with the student population,” he added.

Rudenstine also spoke at length about the importance of having a professional theater company as a part of the campus.

He said he would tell his successor to “cherish” the ART.

“Theater, in its best, live form, ought to be a major presence at a University,” Rudenstine said.

According to Rudenstine, money and space have always been the primary concerns with theater at Harvard.

“Theaters always live very close to the edge financially,” he said. “There’s always more talent than there is money.”

Rudenstine also took the opportunity Wednesday to publicly bid Brustein goodbye, although Brustein will remain Artistic Director until next summer.

Rudenstine said he remembers first reading Brustein’s drama criticism in the mid-60s.

Inspired, he said he asked the director to speak at a lecture series he was organizing.

“It’s been a remarkable relationship for me,” Rudenstine said.

While Brustein said he plans to go on sabbatical during the 2002-2003 academic year, he will return to the Loeb afterwards as Founding Director and Creative Consultant.

He said he plans to use the time to write and to spend time with his wife.

“I’m very happy to be turning over the keys of the ART to such extraordinary men,” Brustein said.

—Staff Writer Daniela J. Lamas can be reached at lamas@fas.harvard.edu.