A.R.T. Institute: Benny is Back!

The A.R.T. Institute second year students just started rehearsal for its first production of the season, Oni Faida Lampley’s intense drama Tough Titty.  This incredibly personal look at life with breast cancer– the playwright herself, following a 13-year battle with breast cancer, died in 2009– is directed by Benny Sato Ambush.

It is great to have Benny back in Harvard Square.  He was Associate Artistic Director of Anna Deavere Smith’s Institute on the Arts & Civic Dialogue at Harvard University back in the summer of 2000.  In addition, Ambush served on numerous regional and national boards, including Theatre Communications Group (TCG), has been a panelist and site evaluator for the National Endowment for the Arts as well as numerous state arts councils.  He is also active nationally in the advocacy of cultural equity, non-traditional casting and pluralism in the American theater.  And, of course, he is the celebrated director of countless productions all over America and the world.

I should mention, as a matter of cosmic convergence, that he directed the 2005 incarnation of America’s oldest and longest running outdoor drama, The Lost Colony, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina– A.R.T. Institute alum Jacob Martin (’10) is a former member of The Lost Colony ensemble, as is Steve Kazee (currently in the Off-Broadway production of Once, which had a workshop last year at OBERON).  The Lost Colony may be the Kevin Bacon of the theater world.

Tough Titty opens October 20th at Zero Church Street, Harvard Square.

The A.R.T. Institute second year students are prepared for their first production of the season, Oni Faida Lampley’s intense drama Tough Titty.  This incredibly personal look at life with breast cancer– the playwright herself, following a 13-year battle with breast cancer, died in 2009– is directed by Benny Sato Ambush.