Steel

Robert Scanlan is Associate of the Department of English Department at Harvard University. He was for many years the Literary Director of the American Repertory Theater, where he headed the Dramaturgy Program for the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University. He directs frequently in America and abroad, winning in 1995 the Boston Theatre Award for Outstanding Director. Directing credits include Julius Caesar for the Actors’ Shakespeare Project (Boston); Samson Agonistes, with Claire Bloom and John Neville at the 92nd Street Y in New York; his own stage adaptation of The Inferno of Dante in Robert Pinsky’s translation; an Evening of Beckett and Beckett Trio in the A.R.T. Fall Festival; Oleanna at the Wellfleet Harbor Actor’s Theatre; the Polish language premiere of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow at the Stary Theatre in Cracow; the world premiere of Marie Jones’ The Hamster Wheel in Belfast, Northern Ireland; and the Chinese language premiere of Beth Henley’s Crimes of the Heart in the People’s Republic of China. Dr. Scanlan premiered Carol Mack’s In Her Sight at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, Kentucky, and co-directed (with the author) the world premiere of Derek Walcott’s musical, Steel, at the A.R.T. Professor Scanlan writes and lectures frequently about the staging of Beckett’s work and about contemporary American playwriting. He is a past president of the Poet’s Theatre and a member of its board of directors. With the Poets’ Theatre, he has directed many staged readings, including a periodic “Muster of Poets” and the world premiere presentation of Samuel Beckett’s Stirrings Still (with David Warrilow). From 1978 to 1989 Professor Scanlan was Director of the Drama Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Catherine Zuber has created the costumes for Richard II, The Doctor's Dilemma, and over forty other A.R.T. productions including Three Farces and a Funeral, Antigone, Loot, The Idiots Karamazov, Ivanov, Phaedra, The Merchant of Venice, Valparaiso, The Imaginary Invalid, The Taming of the Shrew, Peter Pan and Wendy, The Bacchae, Man and Superman, The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Woyzeck, The Wild Duck, The Naked Eye, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Tartuffe, Ubu Rock, Waiting for Godot, The Oresteia, Shlemiel the First, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, A Touch of the Poet, What the Butler Saw, The Cherry Orchard, and Orphée. Ms. Zuber's credits include work at Lincoln Center, The Joseph Papp Public Theater, Goodman Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Houston Grand Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera, among others. Her Broadway credits include The Triumph of Love (Connecticut Critics Circle Award and Drama Desk nomination), Ivanov (Drama Desk nomination), The Sound of Music, Twelfth Night, The Red Shoes, London Assurance, The Rose Tattoo, and Philadelphia Here I Come. Ms. Zuber was the recipient of the 1997 Obie Award for sustained achievement in design. She is the costume designer for La Fête des Vignerons de 1999, the massive Festival of the Winegrowers in Vevey, Switzerland.

Lysistrata composer Galt MacDermot previously composed the music for the A.R.T. New Stages production of Steel, written by Nobel prize-winning author and poet Derek Walcott. He is best known for the music he wrote for HAIR, and his Tony Award-winning score for Two Gentlemen of Verona. MacDermot's work spans the gamut of performing arts; musicals (HAIR, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Human Comedy), ballet scores (La Novela, Salome), film scores (Cotton Comes to Harlem, Fortune and Men's Eyes, Mistress), chamber music (Wind Quintet), the Anglican Liturgy(The Mass In F ), poetry (The Thomas Hardy Songs), drama accompaniments (The Sun Always Shines for the Cool, The Shooting of Dan McGrew), and band repertory. He draws inspiration from a wealth of musical scores, crossing the boundaries of jazz, folk, gospel, reggae, and classical styles.

Mr. MacDermot was born and raised in Montreal. After attending Bishop's University, he received a more extensive musical education at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and then moved to New York in 1964. Three years later, MacDermot wrote the music for the landmark Broadway production of HAIR which he later adapted for the screen. MacDermot formed the New Pulse Jazz Band in 1979, which features his original music. The New Pulse Jazz Band combines the lyricism of the best musical theater with the rhythms of classic jazz and soul to create a uniquely captivating sound. Galt MacDermot's music has also found a new venue of late with young rap artists who find his rhythms perfect for setting their lyrics, as in Run DMC's Grammy award-winning Down With The King, and Billboard's top chart-buster, Woo-Hah!! Got You All In Check by Busta Rhymes derived from MacDermot's Martine's Movie/Woman Is Sweeter. Mr. MacDermot performs each December at Weill Hall, Carnegie Hall, to sold-out crowds, and his latest releases are now available on CD.