Videos

Chaos And Order - Making American Theater

68 minutes

Produced by Mary Cardaras in 2005, distributed by Films Media Group.

CHAOS AND ORDER explores the founding and history of the American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.), one of the most respected arts institutions in the United States. A.R.T. is associated with Harvard University and maintains a resident acting company. It continues to develop exciting and innovative theatre to this day. This documentary incorporates historical information about the institution, footage of current rehearsals and interviews with major theatre artists who have been associated with A.R.T. including F. MurrayAbraham, Andrei Serban, Anne Bogart, Robert Woodruff (A.R.T. Artistic Director) and Robert Brustein (A.R.T. Founding Director).

The video is divided into various sections, each focusing upon a different topic related to the A.R.T. The section on "The Director," for example, highlights Andre Serban's direction of Pericles at A.R.T. Serban is known as one of the premiere re-interpreters of Shakespeare's texts for contemporary audiences, and he is a frequent director at A.R.T. Another section, "Theatre, Politics and Religion," gives a brief history of the anti-theatrical bias that was prevalent in Boston in the late 1600s, and the Puritan and political influences that have shaped the struggle to create art and theatre through to the present day.

Other sections cover such topics as: "The A.R.T. and Harvard," "Artists Behind the Scenes," and "The Future." The documentary maintains a good balance of historical information, interviews and actual scenes of artists working on the production.

The documentary also offers an excellent discussion of the practical aspects and economic challenges facing the contemporary theatre and provides a great deal of philosophical reflection on the purpose and value of art. These are perhaps its strongest assets. This video would be most useful to those who already have an interest in theatre.

This review was taken from Educational Media Reviews Online.