ART Tours Midwest for First Time

Universities and art centers in 10 different states will have a chance to view two of the American Repertory Theater's (ART's) most successful productions, as the troupe tours the Midwest for the first time.

The group embarked last Friday on the four week tour prepared with two shows-- Pirandello's "Six Characters in Search of an Author" and "Sganarelle," an evening of Moliere farces-- both of which they have previously performed.

The 17 performances are scheduled for Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvannia, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ohio.

The company's final production of the 1983/84 season, "Six Characters," staged by Robert Brustein, Director of the ART, was revived this September because of its popularity, ART officials said.

"Sganarelle," originally staged by Andrei Serban, is an ART favorite because of the simplicity in its production, said Jan Geidt, ART Director of Press and Public Relations. "We call Sganarelle the show that never dies on the tour that never ends," she added.

The tour is expected both to create a greater exposure for the play and "to extend the employment of our company," said Jonathan Miller, ART General Manager for Production and Training.

To break even on the project, the company must receive outside subsidies. The tour is funded primarily by the Middle America Arts Alliance, a foundation concerned with promoting arts in the Midwest, said Miller.

Besides the regular salaries and the perdiem allocations for the actors and crew ($50 per day), Miller estimated that the four week tour will cost $30,000 in freight and transportation charges.

"As much as we joke about going to the Provinces," said Miller, the company generally enjoys touring.

"It's not glamorous," said Jeremy Geidt, Senior Actor of the ART. "We always seem to end up in funny little motels in homogenized American villages. But you can always find something interesting."

For example, the company explored the largest Czechosloyakian settlement in America, outside Cedar Rapids, lowa, yesterday before their evening performance in lowa City, Geidt said.

In the first week of the tour, the reception has been "marvelous," Geidt added, "That's what keeps us sane."

Ellis Finger, Director of the Williams Center for the Arts, in Easton, Pennsylvannia, where the shows were Monday and Tuesday nights, remarked especially on the technical production of "Six Characters."

The traditional play is not an easy one to perform because of the heavy text, Finger explained. "Brustein's modernization was superb," he added.

On August 29, British Television aired a video of the company's performance of "Sganarelle" filmed at the end of their European tour during the summer of 1982.