New Venues Herald Bright Future for Theater at Harvard
“Theater is, of course, a reflection of life,” noted playwright William Inge. “Maybe we have to improve life before we can hope to improve theater.” That may be true, but at Harvard the life of theater is improving and expanding with each academic year—and 2004-2005 was exceptional. The American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) opened the Zero Arrow Theatre, a brand new space for its “New Stages” and other productions. Plans were finalized for the extensive renovation of the Hasty Pudding Theatre, which will serve as a venue for undergraduate productions when it re-opens in two years. And the College’s Committee on Dramatics continues to investigate the possibility of a concentration that will award degrees to the future’s best and brightest actors, directors, and playwrights.
Whether tragedy or comedy, musical or straight drama, theater continues to be one of the most active and popular of the performing arts for Harvard undergraduates: 18 registered college theater groups produce one or more productions a year in over a dozen venues, augmented by several independently produced shows. In tandem with the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC) and the A.R.T., the Office for the Arts supported theater activity with several programs and services during the past year.
Agassiz Theatre
This year there were eight undergraduate productions and one senior recital in Agassiz Theatre, the 334-seat venue located in Radcliffe Yard and managed by the OFA. Over 600 undergraduates participated in performances attended by approximately 9,000 audience members. All of this activity took place under the supervision of Alan Symonds ‘69, Technical Director and Adviser for College Theatre.
The Harvard Early Music Society used the production facilities of Agassiz and the adjacent Horner Room as a venue to stage L’Orfeo with great success. Such annual traditions as the Freshmen Musical, two Gilbert and Sullivan productions, The Vagina Monologues, and the South Asian arts festival Ghungroo continued, as well as presentations of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Plautus’ Mostellaria—two very different renderings of a similar plot. Anthony Phelps joined the OFA staff this year as Assistant Technical Director at Agassiz and also as Stage Supervisor for the OFA Dance Program’s Rieman Center for the Performing Arts, bringing his talent for both set and lighting design to many undergraduate productions.
House Theater
Alan Symonds also advised dozens of productions in the student houses, and the OFA underwrote part of the costs of these productions with grant support. Mozart’s Don Giovanni, produced by the Lowell House Opera Society, and Bernstein’s Candide at Dunster House both staged
elaborate productions that drew large and appreciative audiences. The work of improving technical facilities continues, with a new portable lighting system to be installed in Cabot House and a complete electrical overhaul of the popular Adams House Pool Theatre.
Learning From Performers
Throughout 2004-2005, the OFA’s visiting-artist program presented several theater artists. Playwright/actor Betty Shamieh ’96 conducted a workshop on solo theater; playwright/actor Charles Busch (The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, Psycho Beach Party) lectured on his career and creative process and taught a scene-study workshop for student actors; Tony Award-winning actor/vocalist Faith Prince (Guys and Dolls, Bells Are Ringing, The King and I) participated in a “musical conversation” that included performances by six student singers; actor Haruhisa Kawamura, one of Japan’s leading practitioners of the ancient art of Noh theater, presented a lecture-demonstration; and playwright Tony Kushner (Angels in America, Homebody/Kabul, Caroline or Change), took part in an informal discussion moderated by A.R.T. Associate Artistic Director Gideon Lester. The year also featured a
one-week residency of Philadelphia-based Pig Iron Theatre Company, which performed its Obie Award-winning work Hell Meets Henry Halfway in the Loeb Drama Center’s Experimental Theatre. In addition, Pig Iron Company actors taught three workshops on Lecoq technique for
undergraduates.
Financial Support
The OFA Grants Program provides financial support for artistically innovative, undergraduate-focused projects (see page 9 for more information). Twenty theater productions were awarded grants in 2004-05; among them were student-written productions Genie and The Life and Many Deaths of Mr. Plumb, Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Hamlet, Camus’ Caligula, Nenna Nwazota’s The Meeting, and the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
Hasty Pudding Renovation
The historic Hasty Pudding Theatre closed in May for a two-year renovation. Plans for the new undergraduate drama facility, the result of a three-year study conducted by Alan Symonds and consultant Joe Mobilia ’76 of Fisher Dachs Associates, feature full flying facilities, an accessible orchestra pit, and complete audience amenities. The greatly improved venue will build on the tremendous enthusiasm of undergraduates for drama, raising production values to support ever-higher quality theater and learning.
With so much talent and activity, the resources of the Office for the Arts and the American Repertory Theatre, and the anticipated opening of a new college theater in two years, the picture for undergraduate drama has never been brighter.
