ARTicles vol. 7 i.1: Introduction to 2008-2009

Dear Friends,

It is with the greatest pleasure and joy that I welcome you to our theatre. Some twenty years ago I wandered the halls of the Loeb Drama Center as a Harvard undergraduate, deeply inspired and awed by the artists and work of the American Repertory Theatre. My mind, heart, and soul were opened to the possibilities of what theatre could be. I dreamed of some day joining this family. I could not be happier that my journey in the theatre has led me full circle back to Cambridge as the American Repertory Theatre’s new Artistic Director.

My first season of programming will take place in 2009-2010. I will spend the next year actively planning artistically and institutionally for this exciting new era for the A.R.T. In the meantime, I am delighted to join you as an audience member for this season, a theatre journey planned by our own Gideon Lester, Director of the 2008/2009 season. I look forward to being in the presence of the great artists Gideon is bringing to our theatre, and to beginning my partnership with you – the audience and invaluable supporters of our work.

With great anticipation for the future,
Diane Paulus, Artistic Director
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Dear Friends,

Anna Deavere Smith first performed on the Loeb Stage in 1992 with Fires in the Mirror, her landmark investigation of the Crown Heights riots that brought her instant acclaim as one of this country’s greatest solo performers. She returned to Cambridge to direct the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue, a multi-year program, begun in 1997, that was co-hosted by the A.R.T. and the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard. It’s an honor to welcome her back to the A.R.T. to perform her new play, Let Me Down Easy (a play in evolution). I can’t imagine a more fitting start to the A.R.T.’s 2008/09 season.

Although Let Me Down Easy, like Fires in the Mirror and Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, is based on interviews that Anna conducted with over three hundred extraordinary men and women, this play is quite different, indeed it’s like no piece of theatre I’ve seen. Fires in the Mirror and Twilight explored the circumstances surrounding particular historical events – race riots in Brooklyn and LA – but Let Me Down Easy is a quest of a different kind, more lyrical and personal, that takes us on a powerful journey – emotional and spiritual as well as geographic.

Anna began working on this material ten years ago, with a residency at Yale New Haven Hospital, and continued with visits to Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa, and New Orleans. She first performed the play at Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven earlier this year, when it focused on the resilience and vulnerability of the human body. As Anna continued to develop the play, her interest shifted to an exploration of grace and kindness – of how we treat each other, and view ourselves, in times of stress. She conducted a series of new interviews, from jockeys to spiritual leaders, and almost a third of the material that you’ll see tonight is being performed for the first time. As always with Anna’s work, this evolution will continue when she develops Let Me Down Easy for other theatres in other cities; I hope that you’ll agree that it’s thrilling to witness the Cambridge chapter of this ongoing creative process.

Let Me Down Easy opens a season that puts so many powerful women front and center, including two other playwrights, Anne Washburn and Christine Evans, the magic and illusion of Aurélia Thierrée, Karen MacDonald as Arkadina in The Seagull, and the outstanding work of directors Anne Kauffman and Victoria Chaplain-Thierrée. With Beckett’s Endgame and an irreverent courtroom farce from David Mamet in the mix, it’s a season to suit all tastes and ages. Please join us for the next six wonderful productions.

Gideon Lester, Director, 08-09 Season

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