About GET

Lifetime Achievement Award

Georgia Ensemble Theatre proudly congratulates Artistic Director Robert J. Farley for being named the 2008 Gilmor Brown Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient by the Pasadena Playhouse Alumni & Associates. The Award is granted for outstanding creative achievement that has made a significant contribution to the enrichment of the American Theatre.


CONGRATULATIONS on your distinguished recognition as the 2008 Gilmor Brown Award Recipient! Wow, to be recognized by one's alma mater in such a highly competitive field is indeed an honor! I'm proud to work with such an outstanding professional...and genuinely caring & arts passionate individual.
  -  Joe Vella, Community Affairs, Macy's

Bob Farley, Artistic Director

Robert Farley (Artistic Director)

Robert J. Farley is the co-founder and has been the Artistic Director of the Georgia Ensemble Theatre & Conservatory since its inception in 1992. Bob began his career in the late 1960's on Broadway with the APA-Phoenix Repertory Company. His first directing opportunity was staging five productions of the American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, Hair, now in the midst of a major revival on Broadway for a whole new generation of theatregoers. He has been a vital part of the Atlanta theatre scene for a quarter century, beginning in the late 80s as Artistic Director of the Tony Award-winning Alliance Theatre at the Woodruff Arts Center. While at the Alliance, he directed the area premiere of Driving Miss Daisy which went on to become the biggest hit in the history of theatre in the Southeast. He has directed many shows here at GET including recent productions of Inherit the Wind, Arsenic and Old Lace and Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story. He is directing Panhandle Slim and the Oklahoma Kid and Ring of Fire (The Johnny Cash Musical Show) at Georgia Ensemble Theatre during its 2011-12 Season.

In recent years Bob's work has been seen elsewhere including the Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota and here in Atlanta at Theatrical Outfit and Theatre in The Square where he staged the award-winning production of A Man for All Seasons in 2009. Later this season he will direct John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath for Gainesville Theatre Alliance opening in February 2012, and in March will stage a major revival of Driving Miss Daisy in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Bob has had the humble good fortune to be the recipient of several awards and honors in recent years. These include a Lifetime Achievement Award for his significant contributions to the American Theatre over the past 40 years from the Pasadena Playhouse (the State Theatre of California), and with co-founder Anita Allen-Farley Public Broadcasting Atlanta’s Lexus Leaders of the Arts and the Leitalift Foundation’s Visionary Leaders Award. Most recently he as awarded Best Director and won Best Production of the 2010-2011 Season at Stage Door Players for his revival of the 2008 GET hit Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks. This September Mr. Farley is being honored as a significant Arts Leader for his body of work in the metropolitan Atlanta community by Kennesaw State University with the 2011 Flourish Award during a ceremony at the Cobb Energy Center.