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American Conservatory Theatre (A.C.T.) is a large non-profit theatre company in San Francisco, California that offers both classical and contemporary theatre productions.
A.C.T. founded in 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Playhouse and Carnegie Mellon University by theatre and opera director William Ball. By invitation from San Francisco philanthropists and officials, Ball relocated the company to San Francisco and astonished the theatre world by presenting twenty-seven fully staged productions in rotating repertory, in two different theatres, during the first 40-week season. San Francisco Chronicle critic Paine Knickerbocker acclaimed Ball's opening performance of Molière's Tartuffe as "a screaming, bellowing unbelievable triumph."
A.C.T.'s original twenty-seven member acting company featured René Auberjonois, Peter Donat, Richard Dysart, Michael Learned, Ruth Kobart, Paul Shenar, Charles Siebert, Ken Ruta, and Kitty Winn among many others.
Ball's mid-1970s productions of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, starring Marc Singer, and Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, starring Peter Donat and Marsha Mason were televised by PBS and are available on video.
Since 1992, Carey Perloff has served as A.C.T.'s Artistic Director. In 2007, A.C.T. released a cast album of Perloff's production of the Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill musical Happy End, produced and mixed by Lucas Arts Studios. It includes the full score and is the first English language recording of this musical.
A.C.T.'s founder's vision was for it to be both a theatre company and acting school. The conservatory currently offers a wide range of classes and is accredited to grant Master of Fine Arts degrees for actors. It's MFA program is extremely competitive, admitting only eight students per year among hundreds who audition. It was ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top five actor training programs in the U.S., along with schools like Carnegie Mellon, Juilliard, Yale, and NYU.
In addition to the MFA program, ACT offers training through the Studio A.C.T., the Summer Training Congress, and Young Conservatory programs. Alumni of these programs include Nicolas Cage, Teri Hatcher, Milo Ventimiglia, Winona Ryder, Camryn Manheim, Darren Criss, and Chris Pine.
American Conservatory Theatre nurtures the art of live theatre through dynamic productions, intensive actor training in its conservatory, and ongoing engagement with its community. Under the Artistic Director Carey Perloff and Executive Director Ellen Richard, A.C.T. embraces its responsibility to conserve, renew, and reinvent the rich theatrical traditions.
Today A.C.T. is internationally recognised for its groundbreaking productions of classical works and bold explorations of contemporary playwriting. Since the reopening of the American Conservatory Theater (formerly the Geary) in 1996, A.C.T. has enjoyed a remarkable period of audience expansion and renewed financial stability. The company continues to produce challenging theatre in the rich context of symposia, audience discussions, and community interaction.
THE TEAM
Carey Perloff, Artistic Director
Mark Rucker, Associate Artistic Director
Michael Paller, Dramaturg
Janet Foster, Casting Director & Artistic Associate
Beatrice Basso, Artistic Associate
Jonathan Carpenter, Producing & Artistic Associate
Ariel Craft, Artistic Fellow
405 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
USA
veng@act-sf.org
http://www.act-sf.org/site/PageServer
Here are few videos reflect some of their work.