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American Repertory Theatre

Season Begins with Romeo and Juliet

By: - Jun 06, 2024

American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, led by Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director Diane Paulus and Executive Director Kelvin Dinkins, Jr., announced today three of the four productions that will comprise its 2024/25 subscription season as well as an additional world-premiere music-theater production to perform at a location on Harvard’s campus to be announced. Subscription productions will be at the Loeb Drama Center in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA. The 2024/25 Season marks A.R.T.’s 45th at the Loeb Drama Center.

The season will begin in September with A.R.T.’s production of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director Diane Paulus and choreographed by two-time Olivier Award winner Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (Jagged Little Pill; Beyoncé at the 2017 Grammy Awards and APESHIT; Madonna’s Celebration tour). This powerhouse duo reunites for the first time since their Tony Award-winning collaboration Jagged Little Pill, staging a bold new production of Shakespeare’s iconic love story.

 

In December and January, A.R.T. will produce Ayodele Casel’s Diary of a Tap Dancer. The world-premiere production combines dance, narrative, and song both to share the story of Ayodele’s life and to honor the histories and legacies of the extraordinary women tap dancers who came before her. The piece was commissioned by A.R.T. and was developed, in part, during Casel’s time as a Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow (2019/20).

Following Diary of a Tap Dancer, A.R.T. will produce Kate Hamill’s adaptation of The Odyssey. By reimagining Homer’s stories of both Odysseus and his wife, Penelope, this world-premiere production asks how we can learn to embrace healing and forgiveness in order to end cycles of violence and revenge. One of the most produced playwrights in the US from 2017 through 2023, Hamill is renowned for shining a contemporary spotlight on classic works.

A.R.T. will announce one additional title in the coming weeks to complete its subscription season.

 

In addition to the four shows in the subscription season, A.R.T. will produce Night Side Songs by Richard Rodgers Award recipients the Lazours—Daniel Lazour and Patrick Lazour (We Live in Cairo). A genre-breaking theatrical kaleidoscope that fuses story, character songs, and group singing, the communal experience takes the audience on a journey through illness that brings us closer to life. The world premiere of Night Side Songs is produced in association with Philadelphia Theatre Company.

 

“I’m excited our season will invite audiences to experience extraordinary stories—from beloved classics to boundary-breaking new work—that have the power to open our hearts and minds,” says Paulus. “These productions are being created by a roster of visionary artists. I am personally thrilled to be reuniting with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui on Romeo and Juliet. Our partnership on Jagged Little Pill was one of the most exhilarating creative collaborations of my life, and I can’t wait to bring Shakespeare’s iconic play to new life on our stage.”

 

Three and four-play subscriptions are now on sale to A.R.T. supporters and will be available to renewing subscribers and to the general public in June. Tickets to Night Side Songs may be added to subscription packages at the time of purchase. Single tickets to all 2024/25 productions will go on sale to the public at later dates. Visit AmericanRepertoryTheater.org/Subscribe for more information.

 

In addition, throughout 2024/25, A.R.T. will:

  • Continue to develop Essential Questions that will drive artistic exploration and audience engagement opportunities around each production.
  • Continue to partner with Dr. Charmain Jackman and Innopsych to curate audience resources for learning, healing, and understanding around the themes and ideas sparked by our productions.
  • Continue to collaborate with Artists for Humanity, a Boston-based non-profit that provides teens the keys to self-sufficiency through paid employment in art and design, engaging AFH teens to create art inspired by the Essential Questions.

Additional programming will be announced at a later date.

Season support is provided by Harvard University, The Barr Foundation, The Bob and Alison Murchison New Work Development Fund, The Shubert Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Barton & Guestier, and Meyer Sound.

– 2024/25 SEASON PROGRAMMING –

 

  • ROMEO AND JULIET – A bold new staging

By William Shakespeare 

Directed by Diane Paulus 

Choreography and Movement Direction by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui  

August 31 - October 6, 2024 | Loeb Drama Center 

 

A.R.T. Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director and Tony Award-winning director Diane Paulus (Becoming a Man, Jagged Little Pill, Waitress) reunites with two-time Olivier Award winner Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (Jagged Little Pill; Beyoncé at the 2017 Grammy Awards and APESHIT; Madonna’s Celebration tour) to stage a visceral, heart-pounding new production of Shakespeare’s iconic love story.

 

 

  • DIARY OF A TAP DANCER – A.R.T. Commission / World Premiere

By Ayodele Casel

Directed by Torya Beard

December 12, 2024 - January 4, 2025 | Loeb Drama Center

 

“Ayodele Casel has spent her tap-dancing career not just chasing magic but creating it and sharing it.”

– The Boston Globe

 

Trailblazing tap dancer and choreographer Ayodele Casel (Chasing Magic, Funny Girl, Max Roach 100) returns to the A.R.T. in a new production that interweaves dance, narrative, and song to share the story of her own life and honor the histories and legacies of the extraordinary women tap dancers who came before her. Experience the joy, magic, and liberatory power of tap dance in this world-premiere production commissioned by the A.R.T.

Support for the development of Diary of a Tap Dancer was provided by Leslie and Howard Appleby.

 

 

  • THE ODYSSEY – A.R.T. Commission / World Premiere

By Kate Hamill

Directed by Shana Cooper

Adapted from the epic by Homer

February 9 - March 16, 2025 | Loeb Drama Center

 

“A true war story is never moral.” –Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried

 

Acclaimed writer and adaptor Kate Hamill (Sense & Sensibility, Vanity Fair, Dracula) turns a contemporary lens on Homer’s Odyssey in this new play that reimagines the stories of both Odysseus and his wife, Penelope, and asks how we can learn to embrace healing and forgiveness in order to end cycles of violence and revenge.

 

Support for the development of The Odyssey was provided by The Bob and Alison Murchison New Work Development Fund. Additional support is provided by The Robert Brustein Endowment Fund for New Works.

 

  • NIGHT SIDE SONGS – A.R.T. Commission / World Premiere

Words and Lyrics by the Lazours

Directed by Taibi Magar

March 27 - April 13, 2025 | Cambridge-area venue TBA

Produced in association with Philadelphia Theatre Company

 

“Illness is the night side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick.” – Susan Sontag

 

A communal music-theater experience performed for—and with—an intimate audience, Night Side Songs gives voice to doctors, patients, researchers, and caregivers to meld the realms of the well and the sick. This genre-breaking theatrical kaleidoscope by Richard Rodgers Award recipients Daniel Lazour and Patrick Lazour (We Live in Cairo, Flap My Wings) fuses story and song to take us on a journey through illness that brings us closer to life.

 

Support for the development of Night Side Songs was provided by The Bob and Alison Murchison New Work Development Fund.

 

 

  • TBA

May 29 - July 6, 2025 | Loeb Drama Center

 

 

— A.R.T. IN THE WORLD —

 

  • Waitress (A.R.T. world premiere August 2015) will be produced in French in Quebec in Summer 2024 and is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
  • We Live in Cairo (A.R.T. world premiere May 2019) will be produced at New York Theatre Workshop in Fall 2024.
  • Life of Pi (A.R.T. North American premiere December 2022) begins its US tour in December 2024.
  • The immersive phenomenon Sleep No More (A.R.T. production October 2009) continues at The McKinnon Hotel in Shanghai and at The McKittrick Hotel in New York City.
  • Notes from the Field (A.R.T. production August 2016) is currently available on HBO.
  • All the Way (A.R.T. production September 2013) is currently available on HBO.

 

 

— ABOUT THE ARTISTS —

 

DIANE PAULUS (Romeo and Juliet Direction) is the Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University. A.R.T.: Romeo and Juliet (upcoming, with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui), Becoming a Man, 1776, WILD: A Musical Becoming, Gloria: A Life, Jagged Little Pill, ExtraOrdinary, The White Card, In the Body of the World, Waitress (film available via stream, French-language production in Quebec summer 2024), Crossing, Finding Neverland, Witness Uganda, Pippin (Tony Award, Best Revival and Best Director), The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (Tony Award, Best Revival; NAACP Award, Best Direction), Prometheus Bound, Death and the Powers: The Robots’ Opera, Best of Both Worlds, The Donkey Show. Other work includes N/A (upcoming) Cirque du Soleil’s Amaluna, Invisible Thread at Second Stage, and the Public Theater’s Tony Award-winning revival of HAIR on Broadway and London’s West End. As an opera director, her credits include The Monkey King at San Francisco Opera (upcoming), Carmen at Glyndebourne, The Magic Flute, the complete Monteverdi cycle, and the trio of Mozart-Da Ponte operas, as well as the upcoming Carmen (2024 Glydenbourne Festival). Paulus is Professor of the Practice of Theater in Harvard University’s English Department and Department of Theater, Dance & Media. She was selected for Boston magazine’s 2023, 2022, 2020, and 2018 lists of Boston’s most influential people, the 2014 Time 100, Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and as one of Variety’s “Trailblazing Women in Entertainment for 2014.”

 

SIDI LARBI CHERKAOUI (Romeo and Juliet Choreography and Movement Direction) Laurelled with two Olivier Awards, a Fred & Adele Astaire Award for Outstanding Choreographer in a Feature Film in 2013 (Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina), a UK Music Video Award for Best Choreography in 2013 (Sigur Rós’s Valtari), a Jacob's Pillow Dance Award, and nominated for a Tony Award (Diane Paulus's Jagged Little Pill), Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui choreographs for companies and artists including Beyoncé (Grammy Awards 2017, APESHIT), Madonna (The CELEBRATION Tour), Cirque du Soleil (Michael Jackson ONE, Kurios), Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet (Orbo Novo), Pilobolus (Automaton), Benjamin Millepied's L.A. Dance Project (Harbor Me) and Martha Graham Dance Company (Mosaic). He has received ballet commissions from Paris Opera Ballet, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, and The Royal Ballet in London, among others. Cherkaoui is artistic director of the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève and his own company, Eastman, in Antwerp.

 

AYODELE CASEL (Diary of a Tap Dancer Creator) is Drama Desk Nominee and Bessie Award winning “tap dancer and choreographer of extraordinary depth” (The New York Times). She most recently served as Tap Choreographer for the highly anticipated Broadway revival of Funny Girl. Her work has been nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography. She also created and choreographed Ayodele Casel: Chasing Magic, a dance film and concert encapsulating the wonder of collaboration and artistry, which premiered onstage at A.R.T in 2021. Ayodele was also a 2019/20 fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. Born in The Bronx and raised in Puerto Rico, Ayodele began her professional training at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her origins in theater and love for storytelling and tap dance have significantly contributed to the narrative nature of her work, which is rooted in the expression of identity, culture, language, and communication. Casel is Artist in Residence at Little Island, an outdoor performance park on the Hudson, and was on the Artist Council for NY Pops Up!, a New York State-led initiative to jumpstart live performances in New York City during the pandemic. With Torya Beard, she is Resident Director for Dance Lab New York’s inaugural Tap Dance Project. She has been a dance educator for over 20 years and is co-director of Operation Tap, an online tap dance educational platform. Ayodele has the privilege of being a featured tap dancer honoring the art form of tap dancer honoring the art form of tap on a 2021 US Postal Service Forever Stamp. 

 

TORYA BEARD (Diary of a Tap Dancer Director) is a New York-based director, creative consultant/strategist, choreographer, and producer specializing in dance and theater. Her curvy professional path reflects a deep curiosity about and belief in the boundless possibilities at the intersection of creativity, artistic expression, and social justice. She is currently Executive Director at A BroaderWay Foundation, Director of Original Tap House, Artistic Director at Excellence Community Schools, and Co-Founder of the artist-led social enterprise tall poPpy. She serves on the boards of Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance and Raja Feather Kelly’s the feath3r theory. It has been an absolute joy to collaborate with Ayodele Casel on various projects, including Ayodele Casel: Chasing Magic, Ayodele Casel + Arturo O’Farrill, (Creative Director/Assistant Choreographer), The Joyce Theater; Diary of a Tap Dancer V.4 (Director); While I Have the Floor (Producer); Really Rosie (Assistant Choreographer), City Center Encores! Off-Center; Rooted (Creative Director) for the inaugural five-borough tour of New York City Center’s On the Move; Diary of a Tap Dancer V.6: Us (Co-Curator/Co-Director), commissioned by New York City Center. She and Ayodele are Resident Directors of Dance Lab New York’s inaugural Tap Project and Co-Curators of the Little Island Dance Festival. Other projects: Funny Girl (Assistant Director), Broadway 2022; Waitress (Assistant Director), Broadway Reopening 2021; YoungArts (Regional Multidisciplinary Co-Director); The First Noel (Associate Choreographer), Classical Theatre of Harlem; (All-Female) Jesus Christ Superstar – In Concert, She is Risen (Producer); Idina Menzel 2017 World Tour (Creative Director); Harvard University ArtLab (Arts Administration Consultant, Fall 2019). 

 

KATE HAMILL (The Odyssey Adaptation) is an actor & playwright. Kate has been one of the most-produced playwrights nationwide for the last 7 years, from 2017-current season. Wall Street Journal Playwright of the Year, 2017; Einhorn Award, 2023. Plays include Pride & Prejudice - Primary Stages / HVSF (originated role of Lizzy; nominee, Off-Broadway Alliance Award), Sense & Sensibility at Bedlam (originated role of Marianne; winner, Off-Broadway Alliance Award; nominee, Drama League Award); Vanity Fair at the Pearl (originated Becky; nominee, Off-Broadway Alliance Award), Mansfield Park at Northlight, Little Women at Primary Stages & the Jungle, Dracula at Classic Stage Company, Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson, Apt. #2B at KCRep, The Little Fellow at Cygnet Theatre, Emma at the Guthrie. Other plays include Scrooge for Senate; The Piper (O’Neill Finalist, PlayPenn Fellowship), In the Mines (Sundance Finalist); and The Odyssey. Her plays have been produced off-Broadway, at A.R.T., the Guthrie, Seattle Rep, The Alley, Folger, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Trinity Rep, Pittsburgh Public, Dorset Theatre Festival, Shakespeare Theatre of DC, Dallas Theater Center, Kansas City Rep, Long Wharf, A.C.T., Actors Theater of Louisville, Denver Center, & many others. World Premieres in 2024: The Scarlet Letter at Two River, The Light & The Dark at Chautauqua Theater Company and more TBA. www.kate-hamill.com

 

SHANA COOPER (The Odyssey Director) has directing credits that include classics and new work across the country from New York (Julius Caesar at Theatre for a New Audience and the world premiere of Barbara Hammond’s Terra Firma Off-Broadway with The Coop) to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, most recently directing Paula Vogel’s Indecent. Other directing credits include regional productions at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, The Old Globe, American Conservatory Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Court Theatre in Chicago, Studio Theater, Seattle Rep, California Shakespeare Theater, and Playmakers Repertory Company. Ms. Cooper is an assistant professor in Northwestern University’s Directing M.F.A. program where she serves as a faculty lead for The Rehearsal Dinner, NU’s Anti-Racism + DEI Initiative. She served as Associate Artistic Director of Cal Shakes from 2000 through 2004, is a company member at Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C., and Co-Founder of New Theater House (2008 to present). She received a 2014 Leadership U Grant, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by Theatre Communications Group; a 2010 Princess Grace Award; a Julian Milton Kaufman Memorial Prize from Yale School of Drama; and a Drama League Directing Fellowship. Ms. Cooper received her MFA from Yale School of Drama. Upcoming projects include By the Queen by Whitney White at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. www.shanacooper.com 

 

THE LAZOURS (Night Side Songs Creators), Daniel Lazour and Patrick Lazour, are brothers and music theater writers. Their musical We Live in Cairo premiered at the American Repertory Theater in 2019, directed by Taibi Magar, and will be produced at New York Theatre Workshop this fall. Projects in development include a musical adaptation of Ritesh Batra’s film The Lunchbox (Lincoln Center Theater commission). Their movie musical Challenger: An American Dream is being developed with Bruce Cohen Productions. Original songs by the Lazours can be heard on their independently released albums: Freres, Flap My Wings (Songs from We Live in Cairo), Beth’s Homemade Cowboy Breakfast, and Lullabies. They are Jonathan Larson Grant and Richard Rodgers Award recipients, MacDowell and Yaddo Fellows, and New York Theater Workshop Usual Suspects. Patrick holds a B.A. from Boston College and Daniel holds a B.A. from Columbia University.

 

TAIBI MAGAR (Night Side Songs Director) is an Artistic Director of Philadelphia Theatre Company. As a freelance director, her most recent credits are We Live in Cairo (A.R.T. world premiere, upcoming at New York Theatre Workshop), The Half-God of Rainfall (New York Theatre Workshop and A.R.T.), Macbeth in Stride (co-direction with Tyler Dobrowsky), Help (The Shed), and Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (Signature Theatre and A.R.T., Lortel Award Best Revival). Other New York credits include Capsule by Whitney White and Peter Mark Kendall (Under the Radar Festival/The Public Theater, co-directed with Tyler Dobrowsky), Blue Ridge starring Marin Ireland and The Great Leap starring BD Wong (Atlantic Theater Company); Is God Is (Soho Rep, 2018 Obie Award;) Master (The Foundry); and Underground Railroad Game (Ars Nova, Obie Award). Regional: CTG, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre, Alley Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, and Seattle Repertory Theatre, among others. International: Hamburg Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Malthouse Theatre (Melbourne), and Soho Theatre (London). MFA: Brown University.

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