Robert Woodruff (director)

Robert Woodruff (born 1947) is an American theatre director.

His undergraduate education culminated with his graduation Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from University at Buffalo in political science. He has a masters degree in theatre arts from San Francisco State University. He co-founded San Francisco's seminal Eureka Theatre in 1972.

In 1976 Woodruff established the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, a summer forum for the development of new plays that is still flourishing. It was here that Woodruff first worked with the writer Sam Shepard, on a libretto that Shepard had developed for the national bicentennial celebrations, "The Sad Lament of Pecos Bill on the Eve of Killing His Wife". The thirty-three year-old playwright was still better known in London than the States, and his collaborations with Woodruff marked a turning point in both men's careers. For the next five years Woodruff was virtually the sole director of Shepard's work, staging the American premiere of "Curse of the Starving Class" at the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1978, the world premieres of "Buried Child" (1978) and "True West" (1980) at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco and then in New York, and the touring productions of "Tongues" and "Savage/Love", which Shepard co-authored with the performer Joseph Chaikin.

He has directed plays performed at Lincoln Center Theatre, the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, The Mark Taper Forum Los Angeles. Internationally he has created productions at the Habimah National Theatre in Israel and Toneelgroep Amsterdam in the Netherlands. His work has been seen at the Sydney Arts Festival, The Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival, The Edinburgh International Festival, The Hong Kong Festival of the Arts, The Jerusalem Festival and the Spoleto Festival USA. He has taught at the University of California campuses at San Diego and Santa Barbara, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and Columbia University. He is now on the faculty of the Yale School of Drama. In 2002, Woodruff succeeded Robert Brustein as the second Artistic Director in the history of the [American Repertory Theatre. He left this position in 2007. last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = American Repertory Theater History
work =
publisher =
date =
url = http://www.amrep.org/history.html
format = text
doi =
accessdate = 2007-9-25] cite web
last = Rizzo
first = Frank
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = American Rep a.d. departs for New York
work =
publisher = Variety
date = 2006-12-29
url = http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117956385.html?categoryid=15&cs=1
format = text
doi =
accessdate = 2007-9-23]

Robert Woodruff was named a 2007 USA Biller Fellow by United States Artists, an arts advocacy foundation dedicated to the support and promotion of America's top living artists.

External links

* [http://www.amrep.org/people/woodruff.html Robert Woodruff - Artistic Director]
* [http://donshewey.com/theater_articles/robert_woodruff.html Robert Woodruff: A Boot in Two Camps]

References