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ArtsEmerson
Emerson Paramount Center
AddressArtsEmerson
120 Boylston Street

Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre
219 Tremont Street

Paramount Center
559 Washington Street

Boston, Massachusetts
United States
OwnerEmerson College
CapacityEmerson Cutler Majestic Theatre: 1172

Paramount Center:
Robert J. Orchard Stage: 572
Jackie Leibergott Black Box: 125
Bright Family Screening Room: 170
Years active2010 to present
Website
artsemerson.org

ArtsEmerson is a non-profit, professional theater and film presenting and producing organization in Boston, Massachusetts. Conceived by Emerson College President Jackie Liebergott and founded in 2010 by theatrical producer Robert Orchard, ArtsEmerson is housed as part of the Office for the Arts at Emerson College's Boston campus.[1][2] The organization focuses on contemporary world theater and presents or produces theatrical performances, films, and public dialogues across several Emerson College venues and in locations across Greater Boston.

History

Announced as "ArtsEmerson: The World on Stage,” the organization’s inaugural season in 2010–11 featured 17 theater productions, 92 films, and four concerts.[3]

Leadership

Robert Orchard founded ArtsEmerson and was its first executive director. In 2012, David Dower joined the organization as Director of Artistic Programs. P. Carl joined ArtsEmerson as Creative Director in 2013, having joined the Office of the Arts as Director of HowlRound. In 2015, Robert Orchard shifted to the role of Founder and Creative Consultant and David C. Howse joined as executive director.[4] Also in 2015, David Dower, P. Carl, and David Howse began a "three-legged" leadership period, sharing leadership as two co-Artistic Directors (Dower and Carl) and an executive director (Howse). This partnership which continued until P. Carl's departure in 2017. David Dower departed in 2021. A Black and Indigenous-led organization, ArtsEmerson is currently under the co-leadership of David Howse and Director of Artistic Programming Ronee Penoi (Laguna Pueblo/Cherokee). Penoi joined ArtsEmerson in 2021.[5]

Recognition

ArtsEmerson was named "Boston's Best Theater" by Boston magazine in 2013 and again in 2015.[1] In 2019, WBUR recognized ArtsEmerson as a "A Model For Equity In The Arts", stating, "From its inception, ArtsEmerson has instituted programs at the intersection of civic dialogue and artistic exploration that have expanded its audience and engaged communities that arts organizations have historically ignored."[2]

Theatrical Presentations and Productions

2022–23 Season

2021–22 Season

2020–21 Season

  • State vs. Natasha Banina (Arlekin Players Theatre)
  • Stono (Step Afrika!)
  • Julia (Christiane Jatahy)
  • En Masse (Circa)
  • A Brimful of Asha (Why Not Theatre)
  • chekhovOS /an experimental game/ (Arlekin's Zero Gravity (ZERO-G) Lab & The Cherry Orchard Festival Foundation)

2019–20 Season

2018–19 Season

2017–18 Season

2016–17 Season

2015–16 Season

2014–15 Season

2013–14 Season

  • Columbinus (American Theater Company)
  • Baritones Unbound (Marc Kudisch and Friends)
  • Kiss & Cry (Charleroi Danses)
  • Waiting for Godot (Gare St. Lazare Players and Dublin Theatre Festival)
  • Mies Julie (Farber Foundry)
  • Step Afrika! (Step Afrika!)
  • Sleeping Beauty (Colla Marionette)
  • We Are Proud to Present a Presentation … (Company One)
  • House/Divided (The Builders Association)
  • Red-Eye to Havre de Grace (Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental)
  • No Place To Go (Ethan Lipton & His Orchestra)
  • Man in a Case (Baryshnikov Productions)
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bristol Old Vic)
  • Not By Bread Alone (Nalaga'at Deaf-Blind Acting Ensemble)[17]
  • Lebensraum (Habitat) (Jakop Ahlbom)
  • The Wholehearted (Stein/Holum Projects)
  • Sontag Reborn (The Builders Association)

2012–13 Season

  • Paris Commune (The Civilians)
  • Sequence 8 (Les 7 doigts de la main)
  • Hamlet (Shakespeare's Globe Theatre)
  • Ted Hughes' Tales From Ovid (Whistler in the Dark)
  • The Pianist of Willesden Lane (Hershey Felder)
  • La Belle et la Bete (Lemieux Pilon 4D Art)
  • Family Happiness (Fomenko Theatre)
  • The Servant of Two Masters (Goldoni)
  • Metamorphosis (Vesturport and Lyric Theatre (Hammersmith))
  • Emergency (Daniel Beaty)
  • Neva Guillermo Calderón
  • Trojan Women (SITI Company)
  • An Iliad (Denis O'Hare)
  • An Evening with Maurice Hines
  • The Next Thing (TNT) Festival
  • American Utopias (Mike Daisey)
  • Vision Disturbance (New York City Players)
  • Blood Play (The Debate Society)
  • A (Radically Condensed and Expanded) Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again (After David Foster Wallace) (Daniel Fish)
  • Birth Breath Bride Elizabeth (Sleeping Weasel)
  • Spring Training (Universes)

2011–12 Season

2010–11 Season


Community Engagement

In 2013, ArtsEmerson expanded its focus to include a variety of community engagement activities., including the Play Reading Book Club, Welcome to Boston Cast Parties, Public Dialogues, and Community Curators activities.

Play Reading Book Club

The Play Reading Book Club (PRBC) takes place in locations throughout Greater Boston (Roxbury, Dorchester, Hyde Park, Brookline, and others). Participants read and discuss selected plays from each ArtsEmerson season, facilitated by a teaching artist, over a four-week period. PRBC participants attend the play they have studied, attend a reception and private question and answer session with a creative member of the production, and receive tools and resources to help navigate the experience of attending a theater performance.[27]

Welcome to Boston Cast Parties

Touring artists visiting ArtsEmerson are welcomed to Boston with performances by local poets, vocalists, dancers, and actors. Visiting artists also share a preview of their own work. Inspired by the work of Elma Lewis, the arts leader, Roxbury, Massachusetts native, and Emerson College alumna, these free cast parties are co-hosted by community organizations around Boston, Massachusetts.

Public Dialogues

ArtsEmerson regularly hosts free public discussions aimed at connecting artists, neighborhood partners, and audiences. After selected performances, audience members, artists, and members of the ArtsEmerson staff hold discussions related to performance content. These events range from informal lobby chats to artist interviews, guest moderated talkbacks, and panel discussions.[28]

Community Curators

The Community Curators program is a platform for Boston artists and organizers to produce events in ArtsEmerson's downtown spaces ranging from live music benefits to film screenings, moderated discussions, and fashion shows. Two consistent Community Curators programs are the film-based initiatives Shared Stories and Projecting Connections.

Shared Stories is a monthly film series presented by ArtsEmerson in collaboration with the Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF),[29] CineFest Latino Boston, and the Roxbury Film Festival. ArtsEmerson also presents Projecting Connections: Chinese American Experiences, a film series highlighting the lives of the Chinese in the Greater Boston Area.

Films presented as part of Projecting Connections include:

  • A Chinese American Giant: The Y.C. Hong Story, Rick Quan[29]
  • Vanishing Chinatown: The World of the May's Photo Studio, Emiko Omori[29]
  • Meditations on the Power of Community, Lenora Lee[29]
  • Far East Deep South, Larissa Lam and Baldwin Chiu[29]
  • Within These Walls, Tatsu Aoki
  • Curtain Up! Hui Tong and Kelly Ng
  • Suk Suk, Raymond Yeung
  • Snakehead, Evan Jackson Leong
  • The Six, Arthur Jones
  • Blurring the Color Line, Crystal Kwok
  • American Girl, Feng-I Fiona Roan and Clifford Miu

Artist Residencies

Each season features an artist in residence, showcasing their work and introducing them to Boston-based artists.

ArtsEmerson artists in residence:

  • Rayon McLean, artistic director, Quilt Performing Arts Company
  • Daniel "KOA" Beaty, playwright
  • Travis Alabanza
  • Linda Parris-Bailey & Parris Bailey Arts
  • Donald Byrd, choreographer
  • Lenora Lee, dancer, choreographer, artistic director
  • Moisés Kaufman, artistic director, Tectonic Theater Project[30]
  • Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson, actor and director
  • Keith Hamilton Cobb, performer
  • Eugenie Chan, playwright [3]
  • Thaddeus Phillips, playwright and performer
  • Somi Kakoma, singer, composer
  • Christiane Jatahy, theatre director [4]

Fresh Sound Master Artists in Residence

Venues

ArtsEmerson's public facing offerings are spread across four main spaces: the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre (1,172 seats) and the Emerson Paramount Center, which encompasses the Robert J. Orchard Stage (renamed in honor of founder Robert Orchard)[34] (572 seats), the Jackie Liebergott Black Box (126 variable seats), and the Bright Family Screening Room (primarily for film presentation at 170 seats).

ArtsEmerson also uses the Semel Theatre[33] (216 seats) and The Kermit and Elinore Greene Theater (130 seats), both part of the Tufte Performance Production Center at Emerson College, for artistic residency work and housing. Other activities take place in a variety of public spaces throughout Greater Boston.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Edgers, Geoff (January 1, 2012). "Rob Orchard plays starring roles at ArtsEmerson". The Boston Globe.
  2. ^ "Orchard for Internationalism". American Theatre, Volume 27, Issue 7. September 2010.
  3. ^ "Orchard for Internationalism". American Theatre, Volume 27, Issue 7. September 2010.
  4. ^ Aucoin, Don (September 12, 2014). "A final bow for ArtsEmerson director Final curtain for ArtsEmerson director: Robert Orchard gave theater panache". The Boston Globe, B. 1.
  5. ^ Aucoin, Don (July 22, 2021). "ArtsEmerson's new leader of artistic programming is eager to shape its next era: Ronee Penoi arrives as the organization attempts to map a post-pandemic path forward". The Boston Globe. B.6.
  6. ^ Campbell, Karen (September 11, 2022). "An 18th-century rebellion drives the beat in 'Drumfolk': 'Ever since that moment, Africans began to use their body as the drum,' says Step Afrika! founder C. Brian Williams". The Boston Globe.
  7. ^ Wallenberg, Christopher (January 22, 2023). "A creator of experimental theater steps anxiously into the spotlight with 'Made in China 2.0'". The Boston Globe, N. 7.
  8. ^ Weininger, David (November 12, 2021). "Wayne Shorter long dreamed of making an opera; esperanza spalding helped bring it to life: '… (Iphigenia),' the many-years-in-the-making collaboration between the two virtuosos, receives its world premiere in Boston". The Boston Globe, G. 1.
  9. ^ Aucoin, Don (February 7, 2020). "A young Malcolm X, searching for his identity in Boston". The Boston Globe, G. 1.
  10. ^ Brown, Joel (March 15, 2019). "In 'An Inspector Calls' at ArtsEmerson, the crime of privilege". The Boston Globe.
  11. ^ "Privileged Spectatorship: Theatrical Interventions in White Supremacy". Northwestern University Press. 2020.
  12. ^ Aucoin, Don (May 4, 2017). "New Rankine play to highlight ArtsEmerson season". The Boston Globe, G. 6.
  13. ^ Aucoin, Don (July 15, 2016). "'Cuisine & Confessions' concocts a meal that amazes". The Boston Globe. G 1.
  14. ^ Preston, Carrie J. (2018). "Hissing, Bidding, and Lynching: Participation in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's An Octoroon and the Melodramatics of American Racism". The Drama Review Volume 62, Number 4, Winter 2018 (T240), pp. 64–80.
  15. ^ O'Rourke, Emily (December 2016). "A BECKETT TRILOGY: NOT I / FOOTFALLS / ROCKABY". Theatre Journal, Vol. 68 Issue 4, p652-654.
  16. ^ Wallenberg, Christopher (November 21, 2014). "Cicely Tyson's long trip to 'Bountiful'". The Boston Globe. G 4.
  17. ^ Daniels, Susan (March 28, 2014). "'Not By Bread Alone' offers a literal and figurative feast for the senses". Jewish Advocate. 25.
  18. ^ Collins-Hughes, Laura (September 10, 2011). "Sharing their value of interactive theater: Creative team puts audience in the spotlight". The Boston Globe, G. 4.
  19. ^ Aucoin, Don (September 30, 2011). "Malkovich coolly unspools chilling mind of a killer". The Boston Globe.
  20. ^ Gantz, Jeffrey (February 4, 2012). "Retracing Shackleton's journey: `69 degrees S.' envisions the explorer's trek". The Boston Globe, G.3.
  21. ^ Aucoin, Don (September 28, 2010). "Shepard tragedy, 10 years removed: `Laramie' projects bear witness to crime and denial". The Boston Globe, G.9.
  22. ^ Wallenberg, Christopher (November 7, 2010). "Imagining a puppet `Petrushka' with Twist: Twist wants audience to relate to puppets". The Boston Globe.N. 1.
  23. ^ Byrne, Terry (November 13, 2010). "This `Petrushka' is magic on a string". The Boston Globe. G 6.
  24. ^ "To Do List, Today". The Boston Globe, G.2. January 27, 2011.
  25. ^ Aucoin, Don (March 18, 2011). "Hemingway adaptation rises and falls: Author's `Lost Generation' takes the stage". The Boston Globe. G 4.
  26. ^ Byrne, Terry (May 13, 2011). "Enchanting blend of science and arts becomes child's play". The Boston Globe.
  27. ^ Colby, Celina (October 10, 2019). "Reading plays, creating community". The Boston Banner, 15–16.
  28. ^ Greenstein, Colette (November 19, 2015). "ArtsEmerson hosted acclaimed author Walter Mosley in its Public Dialogue Series". The Boston Banner, 15–17.
  29. ^ a b c d e Kohli, Diti (May 6, 2021). "How to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month". The Boston Globe, 030.
  30. ^ Collins-Hughes, Laura (September 26, 2010). "RECIPE FOR ADVENTURE: Theatrical residencies are key to creativity at ArtsEmerson". The Boston Globe.
  31. ^ Colby, Celina (June 4, 2020). "PARABLE PATH BOSTON: A PANDEMIC-ERA ARTIST RESIDENCY TACKLES SOCIETAL FAULT LINES". The Boston Banner.
  32. ^ Greenstein, Colette (November 19, 2015). "ArtsEmerson hosted acclaimed author Walter Mosley in its Public Dialogue Series". The Boston Banner, 15–17.
  33. ^ a b "Emerson College Hosts Pulitzer Prize-Winning Artist Ayad Akhtar—Senior Artist-in-Residence". Targeted News Service. March 13, 2014.
  34. ^ Byrne, Terry (September 15, 2016). "ArtsEmerson renames Paramount stage to honor founding director Orchard". The Boston Globe.
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