classic plays including Oedipus Rex, Love's Labour's Lost, She Stoops to Conquer, and A Streetcar Named Desire. After Langham left in 1977, the Guthrie crossed a milestone of sorts when for the first time it selected an artistic director that was not a respected collaborator or friend of Tyrone Guthrie. That year Alvin Epstein was selected as artistic director and was the first American to fill that role. In 1980 Liviu Ciulei replaced Epstein. Ciulei was the former artistic director of Teatrul Bulandra in Romania and had a profound influence on the Guthrie. He challenged audiences with his bold theatrical interpretations and his highly contemporary and international style. Ciulei's interest in theater didn't stop at the productions themselves, he was a designer and architect and one of the first things he did was to redesign the theater itself. His changes allowed more structural flexibility in the stage to allow each production a unique physical presentation. While Ciulei was not able to attain all the goals he had envisioned, he was able to maintain and advance the Guthrie's national and international reputation as a first-rate example of American theater and drew critical success with productions of classics such as Peer Gynt, The Marriage of Figaro, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Seagull, and Tartuffe. He also was able to reestablish the Guthrie’s commitment to acting ensembles by gathering together a rotating repertory in his last season as Artistic Director in 1985. In 1982 the theater won the Regional Theatre Tony Award. That year the Guthrie turned to Garland Wright, who had spent some time as Liviu Ciulei’s associate artistic director in the early 1980s as Ciulei's replacement. Wright had shared a vision with Ciulei that included the desire to have a second, smaller stage that could act as a lab to enable the exploration of new work and performance techniques. Born out of this vision was the Guthrie Laboratory (also known as the Guthrie Lab) located in the Minneapolis Warehouse District. Wright also shared a desire to keep the concept of a resident acting company alive and used his ensembles to great effect. He was able to combine critical and popular success with a series of productions that helped reestablish a large, enthusiastic and loyal audience base. Productions from this period include The Misanthrope, Richard III, The Screens, and a trilogy of Richard II, Henry IV (Parts I and II) and Henry