A.R.T. Announces ALL THE WAY to Open 2013-14 Season

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University is pleased to announce award-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan's new play All The Way will open the A.R.T.'s 2013-14 Season at the Loeb Drama Center and begin performances on September 13, 2013. The production will be directed by Bill Rauch, Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF).

All the Way was recently awarded the inaugural Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History, established in honor of the late Senator Kennedy, honoring new play or musical exploring US history and issues of the day. It was commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle and premiered at OSF in 2012.

1963. An assassin's bullet catapults Lyndon Baines Johnson into the presidency. A Shakespearean figure of towering ambition and appetite, the charismatic, conflicted Texan hurls himself into Civil Rights legislation, throwing the country into turmoil. Alternately bullying and beguiling, he enacts major social programs, faces down opponents and wins the 1964 election in a landslide. But in faraway Vietnam, a troublesome conflict looms. In the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright's vivid dramatization of LBJ's first year in office, means versus ends plays out on a broad stage canvas as politicians and civil rights leaders plot strategy and wage war.

Robert Schenkkan is the author of twelve plays, two musicals and a collection of short plays, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Kentucky Cycle, which was performed to great acclaim at the Intiman Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum, The Kennedy Center, and on Broadway. It also won the LA Drama Critics Award, and was nominated for the Tony, the Drama Desk, and the Outer Critics' Circle Awards. His other plays include Lewis and Clark Reach the Euphrates, By the Rivers of Babylon, Handler, Heaven on Earth, Final Passage, and 1992, and the film The Quiet American. For television he wrote the Emmy nominated HBO miniseries The Pacific, produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg; the miniseries The Promised Land, The Andromeda Strain, Crazy Horse, and Spartacus. He also wrote two plays for children, The Devil and Daniel Webster and The Dream Thief.

Bill Rauch is the Artistic Director of Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Having s
spent eleven seasons as director, he has directed three world premieres: Mr. Schenkkan's All the Way and By the Waters of Babylon, and Bill Cain's Equivocation; and thirteen other plays including Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella, Measure for Measure, The Pirates of Penzance, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, The Music Man, Romeo and Juliet, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors, Hedda Gabler, and Handler. Among his initiatives at OSF, Mr. Rauch committed to commissioning up to 37 new plays to dramatize moments of change in American history. American Revolutions: the U.S. History Cycle is now in its fourth year of productions. Mr. Rauch is also cofounder of Cornerstone Theater Company, where he directed more than 40 productions and served as its artistic director from 1986 to 2006. He has directed a number of world premieres, including The Clean House at Yale Repertory Theatre; Living Out and For Here or To Go? at the Mark Taper Forum; and My Wandering Boy and The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler at South Coast Repertory. He also directed the New York premiere of The Clean House at the Lincoln Center. Work elsewhere includes productions at South Coast Repertory, Guthrie Theater, Arena Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, Great Lakes Theater Festival and En Garde Arts. He is the recipient of numerous awards, and is a graduate of Harvard College.

Tickets to All The Way will be available with subscription purchases in May. Single tickets will be available in July.

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University is dedicated to expanding the boundaries of theater. Winner of the 2012 Tony Award for Best Musical Revival for its production of The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, the A.R.T. 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 he was succeeded by RoBert Woodruff. In 2008, Diane Paulus became the A.R.T.'s Artistic Director. The A.R.T. is the recipient of numerous other awards including the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater, the Pulitzer Prize, and many Elliot Norton and I.R.N.E. Awards. Its recent premiere production of Death and The Powers: The Robots' Opera was a 2012 Pulitzer Prize finalist.

During its 32-year history, the A.R.T. has welcomed many major American and international theater artists, presenting a diverse repertoire that includes premieres of American plays, bold reinterpretations of classical texts and provocative new music Theater Productions. The A.R.T. has performed throughout the U.S. and worldwide in 21 cities in 16 countries on four continents. The A.R.T. is also a training ground for young artists. The Theater's artistic staff teaches undergraduate classes in acting, directing, dramatic literature, dramaturgy, voice, and design at Harvard University. In 1987, the A.R.T. founded the Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University. A two-year, five-semester M.F.A. graduate program that operates in conjunction with the Moscow Art Theater School, the Institute provides world-class professional training in acting, dramaturgy and voice.

Since becoming Artistic Director, Diane Paulus has enhanced the A.R.T.'s core mission to expand the boundaries of theater by continuing to transform the ways in which work is developed, programmed, produced and contextualized, always including the audience as a partner. Productions such as Sleep No More, The Donkey Show, Gatz, The Blue Flower, Prometheus Bound, The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, and Pippin have engaged audiences in unique theatrical experiences. The A.R.T.'s club theater, OBERON, which Paulus calls a Second Stage for the 21st century, has become an incubator for local and emerging artists, and has also attracted national attention for its innovative programming model.

The Loeb Drama Center, located at 64 Brattle Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge, is fully accessible. ASL interpreted and audio described performances are available at select productions. Visit americanrepertorytheater.org/access for more information.

For further information call 617-547-8300 or visit americanrepertorytheater.org

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