The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) is proud and pleased to announce that its Founding Director Robert Brustein has been awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama today at a ceremony in the White House.
The National Medal of Arts is the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States Government. The National Medal of Arts is awarded by the President of the United States to individuals or groups who "...are deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support and availability of the arts in the United States." During the past 26 years, more than 250 extraordinary patrons and artists in the fields of visual, performing, and literary arts have been honored. With this medal, the President recognizes the wealth and depth of creative expression of America's artists.
Mr. Brustein joins the roster of great American artists that includes Andrew Wyeth, John Updike, Wynton Marsalis, Barbra Streisand, Rita Moreno, Dolly Parton, Ray Bradbury, and Twyla Tharp.
A.R.T. Artistic Director Diane Paulus - who was mentored by Mr. Brustein and spent her four years at Harvard dreaming about running an organization like the A.R.T. - expressed her joy at the award, saying: " I am thrilled to congratulate Bob on this significant honor. As Founding Director of the Yale Repertory Theatre and over three decades at the A.R.T., he has taught thousands of young people and inspired them to follow their dreams; his award-winning criticism, books, and plays have provided the most informed and intelligent insight into the world of theater. It's wonderful that Bob's extraordinary achievements are being recognized with this important award."
Robert Brustein founded the Yale Repertory Theatre during his tenure as the Dean of the Yale School of Drama and the American Repertory Theater in 1980; he served for 20 years as Director of the Loeb Drama Center where he founded the A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard. He retired from the Artistic Directorship in 2002 and now serves as Founding Director.
Mr. Brustein is the author of 16 books on theatre and society including The Theatre of Revolt, Making Scenes (a memoir of his Yale years), Reimagining American Theatre, The Third Theatre, Revolution as Theatre, Who Needs Theatre, Dumbocracy in America, Cultural Calisthenics,The Siege of the Arts, Letters to a Young Actor, Millennial Stages, and his latest, Rants and Raves. He has also written extensively on Shakespeare. His book, The Tainted Muse: Prejudices and Presumptions in Shakespeare and His Age, was published in 2009. He has also written three plays about Shakespeare called The Shakespeare Trilogy. The first, The English Channel, about Shakespeare's affair with the Dark Lady, Emilia Lanier, was produced at the Abingdon Theatre in 2009, where it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His second play, Mortal Terror, about the Gunpowder Plot and the writing of Macbeth, will be produced at Suffolk University's Modern Theatre this spring, and the Boston Playwrights Theatre in September 2011. The Last Will, his third play, about Shakespeare's return to Stratford towards the end of his life, will be produced by the Abingdon in New York in the Fall of 2012.
He has supervised well over 200 productions, acting in eight and directing twelve, including his own adaptations of The Father, Ghosts, The Changeling and the trilogy of Pirandello works: Six Characters in Search of an Author, Right You Are (If You Think You Are) and Tonight We Improvise. His Six Characters in Search of an Author won the Boston Theatre Award for Best Production of 1996. He has written eleven adaptations for the A.R.T. His other full-length plays include Demons; Nobody Dies on Friday; The Face Lift; Spring Forward, Fall Back; and Three Farces and a Funeral: A Play About Chekhov. He is a blogger for the Huffington Post since 2007, and theatre critic for The New Republic since 1959 (presently on leave). He is currently Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Suffolk University and Senior Research Fellow at Harvard University.
