Rob Orchard

Advisory Council member | USA
Rob Orchard

In October 2009, theatre producer and educator Rob Orchard became Emerson College’s first Executive Director for the Arts and Stephen G. Langley Chair in Theater Management and Production. In 2010 he opened ArtsEmerson, the World on Stage for which he now serves as Founder and Creative Consultant. Orchard was Managing Director of the Yale Repertory Theatre and School of Drama, where he also served as associate professor and co-chair of the MFA Theatre Administration Program.

Following his time at Yale, Orchard was the Founding Managing Director of the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) and subsequently Executive Director, and was the architect for the A.R.T. training Institute and its relationship with the Moscow Art Theatre School, as well as Director of the Loeb Drama Center at Harvard. Over a 30 year tenure at the A.R.T. he produced more than 200 works (the vast majority of which were premieres), and worked with many of the world’s most respected directors, playwrights and composers. Orchard has served as chairman of both the Theatre and the Opera/Musical Theatre Panels at the National Endowment for the Arts as well as on numerous other national and local Boards.

In 2000, Orchard received the Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence. Most recently he received the Moscow Art Theatre’s highest award for Distinguished Service: The Morozov Diamond Award.