A theatrical innovator
Several years ago, Cambridge city officials worried that the American Repertory Theater’s (A.R.T.) second stage, Oberon, “didn’t look like a theater.” Diane Paulus, the newly appointed artistic director of the A.R.T., quickly assured them that the hall — more disco than proscenium — had much in common with William Shakespeare’s famous London theatrical home, in particular its “groundlings,” the audience members who stood close to the stage to watch the show. “The mosh pit,” she told them, “is the modern Globe Theatre.” From Shakespeare to vaudeville to artists on the streets of New York City, the history of performance informs Paulus’ dynamic, 21st-century vision for the stage. During a recent lecture, Paulus explained that even the experimental early endings to her reimagined production of “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess” were rooted in the history of the story and its evolution from novel to play to opera. Her musical moved from the A.R.T. to...