Bill Rauch To Be Presented With Harvard Arts Medal

Bill Rauch ’84, acclaimed theater director and artistic director of the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York (PAC NYC), will be the recipient of the 2026 Harvard Arts Medal. The medal will be awarded by Harvard President Alan M. Garber on Sunday, May 3, 2026, at Farkas Hall in Cambridge, MA. The ceremony is a signature event of the Harvard Arts Festival, the annual celebration of the university’s vibrant arts community, April 30-May 3, 2026.

The Harvard Arts Medal, established in 1975 and presented by the OFA and the Harvard Board of Overseers, honors a distinguished Harvard or Radcliffe graduate or faculty member who has achieved excellence in the arts and made a significant contribution through their work.

“In honoring Bill Rauch, we recognize his immeasurable contributions to American theater and his lifelong commitment to building a more inclusive arts ecosystem,” said Fiona Coffey, Director of the Office for the Arts. “From co-founding the community-centered Cornerstone Theater, to his visionary leadership of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, to his current role as the inaugural artistic director of the Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center in New York, Bill has left an indelible mark on our cultural landscape—first as an undergraduate at Harvard, and ever since as a pioneering artistic leader, tastemaker, and visionary force.”

During the celebratory event, Rauch will be in conversation with distinguished alumni and colleagues including actor, producer and writer Amy Brenneman ’86, MDS ’26, theater director, teacher, and Dean of David Geffen School of Drama at Yale and Artistic Director of Yale Repertory Theatre James Bundy ’81 and director and producer R.J. Cutler ’83. Additionally, undergraduate students will perform select scenes from Rauch’s directing career.

“My years at Harvard completely shaped my life,” said Rauch. “I was able to direct a range of plays in every nook and cranny of the campus. I met so many extraordinary peers who are still among my closest colleagues and friends, as well as my husband of 41 years. Everything that I have undertaken as an artist and as an arts leader can be traced back to my days in Cambridge. I am humbled by this honor, which recognizes everyone who has ever taught me and collaborated with me to create a radically inclusive theater field."

While a senior at Harvard in 1984, Rauch was awarded the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts, recognizing the senior with the most outstanding artistic talent and achievement.

The 2026 Harvard Arts Medal Ceremony will be held from 4-5:30pm, Sunday, May 3, 2026. Farkas Hall 12 Holyoke St, Cambridge, MA 02138. The event is free and open to the public. No ticket is required.

About Bill Rauch

In his four years as an undergraduate, Bill Rauch ’84 directed 26 shows on campus including on the Loeb Mainstage, on the steps of Widener Library and in a basement corner of Adams House. Since then, he has been proud to return to Cambridge to direct three productions at the American Repertory Theater.

Rauch is currently the inaugural Artistic Director of Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC), where he co-directed last season’s “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” which opens on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre this spring. PAC NYC is located at the World Trade Center and presents and produces home-grown and international productions in theater, music, dance, and opera.

Rauch’s work as a theater director has been seen across the nation, in community centers and on Broadway including the Tony Award-winning production of Robert Schenkkan’s “All the Way” and its sequel “The Great Society.” He has also directed shows at many of the country’s largest regional theaters including Lincoln Center Theater, Signature Theatre, Center Theater Group, South Coast Repertory, Yale Repertory Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Arena Stage, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

From 2007 to 2019, Rauch was Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the country’s oldest and largest rotating repertory theater, where he directed seven world premieres and 20 other plays including several by Shakespeare as well as innovative productions of classic musicals including a queer re-envisioning of “Oklahoma!" Among his initiatives at OSF, Rauch launched an initiative to commission 37 new plays to dramatize moments of change in American history. “American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle” resulted in such watershed plays as Lynn Nottage’s “Sweat” (winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize), Paula Vogel’s “Indecent,” the 1491s’ “Between Two Knees,” Lisa Loomer’s “Roe,” Universes’ “Party People,” Culture Clash’s “American Night,” and both of Robert Schenkkan’s plays about Lyndon B. Johnson, among others.

Rauch co-founded Cornerstone Theater Company with Alison Carey ’82, and its founding members include several other Harvard alums. He served as Cornerstone’s artistic director from 1986 to 2006, directing more than 40 productions, most of them in collaboration with diverse rural and urban communities nationwide. Cornerstone’s productions were often staged site-specifically, from a cattle auction barn in Oregon to an abandoned high school in rural Kansas to a Los Angeles shopping mall after hours.

“Cats: The Jellicle Ball” received multiple awards and nominations from the Obies, the New York Drama Critics Circle, the Outer Critics Circle, the Drama League, and the Drama Desk, including for the show’s direction. Rauch has twice won the Independent Reviewers of New England Award. He is also the recipient of the 2018 Ivy Bethune Award from Actors’ Equity Association for his commitment to diversity in casting and producing, a 2015 Ford Fellowship, the 2012 Fichandler Award from the Society of Directors and Choreographers, the 2010 Theatre Communications Group’s Visionary Leadership Award, the 2009 Margo Jones Medal for his commitment to living writers, and the 2008 United States Artists Prudential Award. Other honors include Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for Best Direction of “All the Way,” as well as Helen Hayes, Ovation, and Connecticut Critics’ Circle Awards, and he is the only artist to have won the inaugural “Leadership for a Changing World” award from the Ford Foundation.

Rauch was a Claire Trevor Professor at the University of California, Irvine, and has also taught at the University of Southern California and U.C.L.A. Rauch lives in New York City with his husband Christopher Liam Moore ’86 and their two children, Liam and Xava Rauch-Moore.