A.R.T. Wins Seven 2015 Elliot Norton Awards

The A.R.T. won seven Elliot Norton Awards given by the Boston Theatre Critics Association honoring Boston's best theatre productions. The annual awards are named for Boston's dean of American drama critics, Elliot Norton, who died in 2003 at the age of 100, and were held last night, May 11 at the Citi Shubert Theatre.

The A.R.T won Outstanding Production for The Shape She Makes, the dance-theater piece from actress/dancer Susan Misner and director Jonathan Bernstein that played at OBERON last spring. Misner also won for Outstanding Choreography, and Finnerty Steeves was awarded the Outstanding Actress prize for her leading role in the production.

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks was honored for Outstanding New Script for her Civil War drama Father Comes Home From the Wars Parts 1, 2 3; which was produced by A.R.T. in March, in association with The Public Theatre in New York. The show also brought a win in the Outstanding Musical Performance category for musician Steven Bargonetti, who performed a song from the show at the ceremony.

The A.R.T.'s production of The Tempest (in association with the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas) garnered Outstanding Director Award to Teller and Aaron Posner, and Outstanding Actor for Tom Nelis as Prospero. The production is headed to the Chicago's Shakespeare Theatre in the fall.

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University is a leading force in the American theater, producing groundbreaking work in Cambridge and beyond. The A.R.T. was founded in 1980 by Robert Brustein, who served as Artistic Director until 2002, when Robert Woodruff succeeded him. Diane Paulus began her tenure as Artistic Director in 2008. Under her leadership, the A.R.T. seeks to expand the boundaries of theater by programming events that immerse audiences in transformative theatrical experiences.

Throughout its history, the A.R.T. has been honored with many distinguished awards, including the Tony Award for Best New Play for All the Way (2014); consecutive Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Musical for Pippin (2013) and The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess (2012), both of which Paulus directed; a Pulitzer Prize for Marsha Norman's 'Night, Mother; a Jujamcyn Prize for outstanding contribution to the development of creative talent; the Tony Award for Best Regional Theater; and numerous Elliot Norton and IRNE Awards.

As the professional theater on the campus of Harvard University, the A.R.T. catalyzes discourse, interdisciplinary collaboration, and creative exchange among a wide range of academic departments, institutions, students, and faculty members, acting as a conduit between its community of artists and the university. A.R.T. artists also teach undergraduate courses in directing, dramatic literature, acting, voice, design, and dramaturgy. The A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theater Training, which is run in partnership with the Moscow Art Theater School, offers graduate-level training in acting, dramaturgy, and voice.

Dedicated to making great theater accessible, the A.R.T. actively engages more than 5,000 community members and local students annually in project-based partnerships, workshops, conversations with artists, and other enrichment activities both at the theater and across the Greater Boston area. The A.R.T.'s club theater, OBERON, has become an incubator for local and emerging artists and has attracted national attention for its innovative programming and business models.

The A.R.T. stages the world premiere of Matthew Aucoin's opera, Crossing, together with Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks' Father Comes Home From The Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) - recent winner of the 2015 Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History) - as centerpieces of its Civil War Project, a multi-year initiative to investigate and commemorate the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. It is part of The National Civil War Project, a multi-year, multi-city collaboration among four universities and five performing arts organizations. Inspired by choreographer Liz Lerman, this collaboration led to the commissioning of original theatrical works as well as creation of new arts-integrated academic programs. The National Civil War partnerships include: Alliance Theatre and Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts at Emory University in Atlanta, GA; the American Repertory Theater and Harvard University in Cambridge, MA; Arena Stage and the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.; and CENTERSTAGE in Baltimore, MD and The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD.

Through all of these initiatives, the A.R.T. is dedicated to producing world-class performances in which the audience is central to the theatrical experience.

For further information, visit AmericanRepertoryTheater.org.