New Leadership Poised for Spotlight at Loeb

Last Friday, members of the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC) fired questions at the new mover-and-shaker on the Cambridge theater scene, grilling the incoming director of the American Repertory Theatre (ART) on a wide range of topics.

Robert E. Woodruff, who on Aug. 1 will take over as artistic director of the ART—the professional company housed in Harvard’s Loeb Drama Center—brings a fresh perspective and style to Harvard theater, both professional and student-directed.

Known for unique, modern and sometimes controversial productions, Woodruff may push the ART in a new artistic direction, including increasing the presence of musical theater and productions from foreign countries.

And he brings a leadership style distinct from that of his predecessor Robert S. Brustein, who co-founded the ART in 1966 and is known for leading the company with a strong hand.

“I think I’m a bit more of a consensus-type guy, a collaborator by nature,” Woodruff says.

A change in the leadership structure of the ART may also contribute to a shift in style.

Woodruff will take the helm of the ART as part of a triumvirate with Robert J. Orchard, who co-founded the theatre with Brustein and will be the executive director of the re-organized company, and Gideon Lester, who will be the associate artistic director.

“I like to think of the change in the leadership tone of the ART going from one which was more hierarchical to one which is more porous, that will engage the undergraduates in a different way,” Orchard says.

But when Woodruff—who was appointed a year ago by former University President Neil L. Rudenstine and has been working part-time at Harvard since then—assumes the position of ART director in August, he will also take over many of the same problems that plagued Brustein in recent years.

Students involved in theater and dance often complain that they lack adequate space to practice and perform due to a dearth of theaters and the fact that the Loeb Mainstage is used by professionals for most of the year.

“The problem, of course, with performance space at Harvard is there aren’t enough of them, and it’s a huge logjam,” Orchard says.

Some students also wish there were more opportunities for aspiring actors and directors to work closely with professionals in the field—which some say is the whole reason behind Harvard’s decision to let the ART use the Loeb.

The general consensus is that Woodruff will not be afraid to shake things up in Harvard’s theater community—though it is not yet clear exactly what he has in mind.

Passing the Torch

Though Brustein claims he had a large role in picking his successor, Woodruff is cut from a different artistic cloth than the departing elder statesman of Harvard theater.

“Bob [Brustein] built a reputation doing classics and having great directors,” Woodruff says. “That will continue and maybe expand...out of the Western canon into Asia, Latin America, the rest of the world.”

Orchard says the change in leadership to Woodruff, who was a teenager when Brustein founded the ART, naturally brings a new slant to the company.

“Robert Woodruff is teamed with Gideon Lester, who represents yet another generation,” Orchard says. “So we’re talking about a passing on of leadership to two younger generations and all of the impulses and associations that they come with.”

“[Woodruff] wants to bring more music into the work of the ART, and he wants to reach out to a wider range of cultural influences,” Orchard says.

After the change on Aug. 1, Brustein plans to take a one-year leave, during which time he will write a history of the ART, in part through a fellowship at Columbia University.

Brustein will officially remain at the ART as a creative consultant.

Space Crunch

One of Woodruff’s first challenges on the job will be to deal with what Orchard calls a “dire emergency” for the ART—a severe lack of performance space on campus.

“It’s not about dividing up one small stage into 19 pieces,” Woodruff says. “There’s a space problem; everybody’s cramped.”

The ART generally uses the Hasty Pudding theater space during the spring when the HRDC uses the Mainstage of the Loeb Drama Center—but the Pudding, purchased by Harvard in 2000, will be permanently off-limits to the ART once renovations begin on the building next year.

Harvard is renovating the building to make room for student theater space.

The HRDC currently mounts two productions per semester on the Loeb Mainstage and is allowed year-round access to the Loeb Experimental Theater space, but it is unclear how the ART’s ejection from the Pudding theater will affect future distribution of Loeb production space.

HRDC President Daniel A. Cozzens ’03 says he is not worried that renegotiations will lead to the HRDC losing any slots.

“There will definitely be no steps backwards,” Cozzens says.

Some, including members of Harvard’s dance community, have suggested that a third Mainstage slot be added each semester.

But many at the ART and HRDC think that this would result in increased difficulties because of the complexity of mounting a Mainstage theater production. Thus, if an extra Mainstage slot were added, it would likely be used to stage a dance show.

Producing on the Mainstage, former HRDC president Cary P. McClelland ’02 says, requires a level of technical and artistic expertise that few students have, in part owing to the reduced number of student shows performed in that space.

“The community would have to get better at staging Mainstages to be able to use them,” McClelland says.

Brustein says he believes the Mainstage would be better served if shows had to first perform in other spaces to ensure that their work was of high quality.

“I personally think that the Mainstage should be reserved for works that have already been proven,” he says. “I don’t think anyone will listen to me on this, but I think it would make great sense if the HRDC board would pluck those particular productions each year that have exceptional quality.”

Professional Guidance

Many in the theater community say of the problems with Mainstage productions—and all HRDC shows—revolve around a lack of professional mentorship, which the HRDC has tried to increase in the past two years.

Because Woodruff will bring in more visiting directors, some believe that exposure to theater professionals will increase and help student theater improve.

Next year will also see the addition of four courses taught by ART professionals to course offerings of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ Committee on Dramatics—including a course on directing taught by Woodruff.

McClelland says he thinks Woodruff might push student theater into a more adventurous direction.

“I think Brustein was a wonderful father figure for the building, a parent,” McClelland says. “Watching Woodruff talk, I think he’s going to push us a lot more to question the way we do things here.”

McClelland says he believes Woodruff’s support of student experimentation with unfamiliar genres of theater will require added professional guidance—guidance he hopes Woodruff encourages and students welcome.

“If we’re going to go off into a weird region, we’re going to need a legitimate and critical eye on us at all times, which hopefully Woodruff will also be interested in supporting,” he says. “The community needs to be way more open to letting these people in.”

Cozzens says he hopes visiting artists will “get a little more involved and somehow reach out to the undergraduates here.”

But he expressed concern that an increased number of visiting artists might squeeze out opportunities for the full-time artists in the ART.

“Brustein and Orchard have crafted this company which has really talented people in it, and the strength of the ART is that it can provide support for a group like that to do their work here and not scrabble for work,” Cozzens says.

—Staff writer J. Hale Russell can be reached at jrussell@fas.harvard.edu.