50 years of Yale Repertory Theatre

“The Rep” – what insiders call the Yale Repertory Theatre – is a unique entity on the American theater scene, a place where graduate students at the Yale Drama School work side-by-side with experts in every aspect of theater. Now celebrating its 50th year, it has been the launching pad for many a fabled career, from Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver to playwright Christopher Durang. Rita Braver looks back at the company’s history with Streep, artistic director James Bundy, and actor James Earl Jones, who appeared with then-Yale grad student Courtney B. Vance in the Yale Rep-produced premiere of August Wilson’s “Fences” in 1985.