March 16, 2006
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417
AMHERST, Mass.—Drama critic, essayist and director Robert Brustein will speak on “Territorial Art: The Politics of Adaptation” at 4 p.m. on Friday, March 31, in Holden Theater at Amherst College. Sponsored by the Victor S. Johnson 1882-1943 Lectureship Fund, Brustein’s talk is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.
A 1947 graduate of Amherst College, Brustein has been a professor of English at Harvard University, where he is now a senior research fellow, the drama critic for The New Republic and a former dean of the Yale Drama School. He was the founding director of the Yale Repertory Theatre and the American Repertory Theatre and served for 20 years as director of the Loeb Drama Center.
The author of 14 books, Brustein is a critic of stage and society. His books include The Theatre of Revolt (1964), Revolution as Theatre (1965), The Third Theatre (1969), Making Scenes (1981), Reimagining American Theatre (1991), Who Needs Theatre (1997), Dumbocracy in America (1994), Cultural Calisthenics (1998), The Siege of the Arts (2001) and Letters to a Young Actor (2005).
As a director, Brustein has supervised more than 200 productions, acting in eight and directing 12, 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. He has written 11 adaptations for the American Repertory Theatre, most recently Schlemiel the First, The Wild Duck, The Master Builder, Three Farces and a Funeral, Enrico IV and his final production for the ART, Lysistrata. His full-length plays include Demons, Nobody Dies on Friday, The Face Lift, Spring Forward, Fall Back and The English Channel.
The recipient of many fellowships and awards, Brustein has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.
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