A rich stage for exits and entrances

A year of notable exits and entrances ended with news of one of the biggest: American Repertory Theatre artistic director Robert Woodruff will leave the ART when his contract expires at the end of this season.

Under Woodruff, the ART expanded the scope of its collaborations with other companies, both here and abroad. That focus led to two of the theater's strongest 2006 productions, the "Orpheus X" that Woodruff created with Rinde Eckert and the "Wings of Desire" adaptation developed with Toneelgroep Amsterdam.

Meanwhile, the Huntington Theatre Company also announced that its artistic director will depart, though not until 2008. Like Woodruff, the Huntington's Nicholas Martin plans to return to New York to direct.

It's too early to know how either theater will evolve under new leadership, but it's clear that both Woodruff and Martin have left a mark on the local theater scene -- Woodruff with often dark, cerebral productions of challenging work and Martin with a mix of offerings from both established and new artists.

Two 2006 productions typify the Huntington's range under Martin: a sharp new drama by Theresa Rebeck, "Mauritius," that played like Mamet with more heart, and the final work in the late August Wilson's magisterial 10-play cycle, "Radio Golf." The Huntington graciously turned that opening into a tribute both to Wilson and to his longtime champion, the director Lloyd Richards, who died in June. But the Huntington itself deserves kudos for its longstanding commitment to Wilson.

Under Martin and managing director Michael Maso, the Huntington has also enriched the theater scene with the revitalized Boston Center for the Arts. To name just a few of the strong productions there in 2006 by smaller companies: a devastating "Othello" by Boston Theatre Works, a heartfelt and heartbreaking rendition of Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori's "Caroline, or Change" by SpeakEasy Stage Company, Company One's sharp "After Ashley" by Gina Gionfriddo, Beau Jest Moving Theater's brilliant "Samurai 7.0: Under Construction," and Robin Soans's riveting "Talking to Terrorists" by the Sugan Theatre Company. (Sugan's current dormancy, by the way, counts as one of the scene's biggest losses.)

Special thanks go to SpeakEasy for presenting two terrific productions by one of Boston's finest directors, Scott Edmiston: this fall's smart and stylish revival of Clare Boothe Luce's "The Women" and last spring's elegiac, resonant collection of rare Tennessee Williams, "Five by Tenn." Edmiston stayed busy elsewhere, too, with a confectionery staging of Emmanuel Chabrier's "L'Etoile" for Opera Boston and a starkly faithful version of Beckett's "Happy Days" at Gloucester Stage.

That was a highlight of Gloucester's season, which was founding artistic director Israel Horovitz's last. Horovitz leaves a remarkable legacy of support for local work (including, reasonably enough, his own) and thoughtful programming. And, with Eric C. Engel moving up from his current role as producing director and associate artistic director, Gloucester Stage remains in good hands.

A third big personnel shift came in Providence, where Curt Columbus became artistic director of the Trinity Repertory Company. His own lively translation of Chekhov's "Cherry Orchard" was a delightful -- and promising -- debut.

At other regional theaters, the people stayed the same but the venues changed. Julianne Boyd moved the Barrington Stage Company into a handsomely renovated theater in Pittsfield -- and also managed to launch an important incubator for new works, a musical lab under the direction of William Finn. If "The Burnt Part Boys" (music, Chris Miller; lyrics, Nathan Tysen; book, Mariana Elder) was the only fully realized product of that project, it's still a sign of great hope for the future.

In Wellfleet, meanwhile, Jeff Zinn's Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater broke ground on its new digs, near the post office. WHAT continues to produce some of the best summer theater around; this year's standouts included Rolin Jones's "The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow," David Johnston's "Candy and Dorothy," and a delightful reprise of Rebekah Maggor's one-woman gem, "Shakespeare's Actresses in America."

It was a fine year, in fact, for solo acts: Thomas Derrah in "I Am My Own Wife" for Boston Theatre Works, Stan Strickland's buoyant "Coming Up for Air: An AutoJAZZography" at the BCA, and Diego Arciniegas's bracingly dark turn in "Thom Pain: Based on Nothing," which opened the new black box in Watertown, Downstage @ New Rep. And then there was Lanna Joffrey's indelible evocation of nine Iraqi women in Heather Raffo's "9 Parts of Desire," sensitively directed by Carmel O'Reilly for the Lyric Stage Company.

"9 Parts" was a powerful theatrical response to the war. So was David Hare's "Stuff Happens," simply but strongly presented by David Miller at Zeitgeist Stage Company. Trinity weighed in with a thoughtful, balanced documentary about the war's effect on the people waging it and their families, "Boots on the Ground," collaboratively developed from interviews with Rhode Islanders. Less directly but no less forcefully, Shakespeare & Company commented on leadership run amok with "Martha Mitchell Calling."

Elsewhere in the Berkshires, the summer brought some unforeseen pleasures -- notably Jonathan Epstein's commanding performance in "Amadeus" at Berkshire Theatre Festival and a "Sweet Bird of Youth" at the Williamstown Theatre Festival that recast Tennessee Williams's "monsters" in achingly human form. Also on the list of surprisingly rewarding revivals was the heady wordplay of "La Bete," at Pawtucket's small but gifted Gamm Theatre, and an unexpectedly powerful "1776" at Lyric Stage.

The Lyric's producing artistic director, Spiro Veloudos, also delivered a stellar production of Edward Albee's "The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?" Meanwhile, New Repertory Theatre continued to grow happily in its new home at Watertown's Arsenal Center for the Arts, with particularly strong productions of "The Pillowman" and "Ragtime" and a worthy commitment to new work.

As for the downtown theaters, both "Monty Python's Spamalot" and "Wicked" came to town, but for my money the Wilbur's "25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" beat them both. And any high hopes for "High Fidelity" quickly faded when it closed rapidly after transferring to New York.

Another small but telling change came downtown: We still have the Wang Theatre, but the Wang Center is no more. It's now the Citi Performing Arts Center. Here's hoping the new name brings some exciting new programming, too, and that the theater at the new ICA will find room for many plays in addition to the dance it's already announced.

Finally, two changes in local personnel hit close to home for me. After a lively and distinguished tenure as the Boston Herald's theater critic, Terry Byrne leaves that paper today. I'll miss reading her there. And, of course, grateful and honored as I am to be following in his footsteps, I still miss reading Ed Siegel right here.

I'm glad, though, that we can hear Ed on WBUR and see Terry on WGBH. The theater needs its critics (though it may not always want them), and we work best when there are a lot of us, trading views and bickering and applauding and contributing to the public conversation that is one of the joys of a truly vibrant theater scene.

Louise Kennedy can be reached at kennedy@globe.com.