The A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University
The A.R.T. Institute was established in 1987 by the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) as a training ground for the professional American theater. It is a two-year training program for young theater professionals, operating in association with the Moscow Art Theater School MXAT). The wide range of courses (given by the international faculty offers students unique preparation for the multi-faceted demands of the professional theater.
Each year, approximately twenty-three carefully selected students are admitted for a full-time, two-year, five-term program of study in acting, dramaturgy, or voice pedagogy. The Institute accepts inquisitive student artists, whose talent, enthusiasm, intelligence, and cultural curiosity can pioneer and lead the theater of the future.
American Repertory Theater and Harvard University
Central to the A.R.T.’s education initiatives is the Theater’s relationship with Harvard University. Last year, Harvard’s Task Force on the Arts made a clear case for the importance of the arts in the intellectual life of the University. In President Drew Faust’s own words: “Especially in difficult times, when ways of thinking and doing that we have taken for granted are challenged on a daily and weekly basis, we must encourage our students to ask fundamental questions and to solve problems in the inventive and collaborative ways exemplified by the making of art. Art produces experiences and objects that are carefully constructed and intricate reflections of the world. Empathy, imagination, and creativity are forms of knowledge that a university must foster in its students…Now is the time to embrace, not retreat from the arts.”
As a world-renowned professional theater, the A.R.T. is committed to playing a central role in the cognitive life of the University. Through dynamic collaborations with professors, student organizations, and cultural institutions around Harvard, the A.R.T. welcomes students and teachers to observe and participate in the creation of its work.
The A.R.T. devotes a significant amount of support and resources to Harvard undergraduates. Currently, A.R.T. artists and administrators, including the artistic and executive directors, teach courses each year in the College in acting, directing, dramaturgy, playwriting, design, and dramatic literature; advise a number of undergraduate special concentrators in Dramatic Arts; and give guest lectures for undergraduate courses in other departments.
As well offering theater courses, the A.R.T. also provides support and advising for Harvard-Radcliffe Drama Club (H.R.D.C.) productions. A.R.T. staff members provide mentorship and advice for productions in the Loeb and beyond, as well as host training workshops in all areas of performance and production. Students also have the opportunity to participate in formal observerships of mainstage productions, internships in administrative offices, and employment through Federal Work Study.
Undergraduates are also encouraged to attend the theater with deeply discounted tickets to A.R.T. productions through free College Night performances and through the Student Pass program, which allows them to attend any five A.R.T. performances for $60, and the Student Rush program which allows students to purchase tickets for $15 on the day of a performance.
Educational Outreach at the A.R.T.
The A.R.T. is committed to offering the highest quality productions of classic plays, rarely produced texts, and new American plays as an affordable and accessible resource for audiences throughout greater Boston and New England each year. The experience of live theater is enhanced and broadened through the A.R.T.’s ongoing educational and outreach programs that help build and encourage a new generation of theatergoers.
Programs include free and discounted tickets, educational components, and classes led by A.R.T. dramaturgs at local high schools and colleges.
