On Jan. 22, the Brandeis community received an email from Provost Carol Fierke containing the news that Prof. Arthur Holmberg (THA) had passed away at the age of 80. Holmberg was a part of the Brandeis community for 30 years, having joined the Theater Department in 1994 and teaching up until fall 2024. 

Holmberg’s career in academia and the theater arts spanned nearly six decades. He received his Ph.D. in comparative literature from Harvard University, where he would go on to teach classes in English, French, comparative literature and drama. Holmberg wrote three books: The Theater of Robert Wilson, David Mamet and American Macho and David Mamet and Male Friendship. He was the U.S. editor of The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theater and wrote several articles and essays, many of which have been published by the New York Times, the Washington Post and several other publications. He also served as the Literary Director and Dramaturg at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard.

As an associate professor at Brandeis, Holmberg was the Laurie Professor of Theater Arts. He headed Brandeis’ graduate program in playwriting for several years and taught classes based on his extensive background in scholarship, theater criticism and professional dramaturgy. Among students, he was known as a captivating and knowledgeable professor whose courses were a must-take before graduating. 

In a Jan. 29 interview with The Justice, Professor Dmitry Troyanovsky (THA) spoke on his thirty-year-long relationship with Holmberg. The two met in 1995 when Troyanovsky was pursuing his undergraduate at Brandeis. As a graduate student, he took classes with Holmberg in the American Repertory Theater program. The two eventually became colleagues at Brandeis as associate professors of theater.

“[Holmberg] was a tremendous influence,” Troyanovsky described. “The first class I ever took with him changed my direction in life … it expanded my idea of what theater is capable of.” It was Holmberg who encouraged Troyanovsky to pursue his first directing project. “Arthur suggested that I work on short plays by Italian Futurist playwrights and visual artists,” he remembered. “It went well, and after that, Arthur kept encouraging me to direct more and more.”

Throughout the interview, Troyanovsky highlighted Holmberg’s pedagogy. Holmberg took his students’ intellectual pursuits seriously and would often spend time outside of class considering their thoughts and opinions. “His pedagogy made us, his students, believe that we are capable of great ideas and brilliant theatrical choices. He made us believe in our own creative strengths,” Troyanvosky stated. “He made us feel heard and important.” Holmberg would engage in authentic, rigorous discussion with his students — without “kid gloves,” as Troyanovsky put it. 

Troyanovasky’s sentiments were echoed by LaRue Vigil ’26, who took Holmberg’s classes nearly 30 years after Troyanovasky. In a Jan. 28 email to The Justice, she described Holmberg as “always open and excited to learn from his students,” “always valued a good discussion” and as someone who “made every student feel seen.” Vigil had taken nearly every course Holmberg had to offer at Brandeis, and her comments speak to Holmberg’s continued excellence in teaching. 

James Montaño, another mentee and close colleague of Holmberg's, also spoke on his relationship with Holmberg in a Jan. 30 interview with The Justice. Like Troyanovsky, Montaño first met Holmberg as a graduate student at Harvard University’s American Repertory Theater. At ART, he was hired by Holmberg, and they have since had a close professional relationship. In fall 2024, Montaño stepped in to teach Holmberg’s Masculinity in the Media class when he went on medical leave. 

Holmberg was an important mentor and guide to Montaño as he navigated his career as a first-generation college student. “Arthur would always ask me, what do you want to do? … No, no, no, what do you want to do do? And he wanted me to be specific,” Montaño described. “It wasn’t until [Holmberg’s] passing that I realized that I was weirdly modeling my career after his career,” he added. 

Montaño spoke on Holmberg's intellectualism and rich appreciation for various forms of art. “I was taken aback with not just how thorough he was as a writer, but how much he really loved language,” Montaño stated. He recalled a specific exercise from the first class he took with Holmberg, which was aimed at creating the “perfect sentence.” As Montaño explained, “Eventually you realized, what made the perfect sentence was beyond its grammar and beyond its flow … it was also about the conciseness of an idea and the precision of a word.” During these exercises, Holmberg would go so far as to take two synonyms and ask his classes to identify the precise difference between them. As Montaño expressed, he was a writer who knew how to carry a point across with a balance of precision and beauty.  

Holmberg was also a collector of art. According to Montaño, Holmberg was one of the biggest donors of contemporary Cuban art to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and was one of their benefactors. Formerly an anonymous donor, he asked in 2021 that his donations be described as “gifts from Arthur Holmberg in memory of his late partner Antonio Cal.”  

Troyanovsky, Vigil and Montaño’s comments only begin to paint the picture of Holmberg’s impact as a teacher, mentor and artist. All three admired a specific aspect of Holmberg’s character; in Troyanovsky’s words: “He could find something valuable or exciting or precious in practically every artistic endeavor.”

Professor Holmberg’s career has allowed him to inspire generations of students, professors and artists. He will be greatly missed by the Brandeis community.