Inside A.C.T.

By A.C.T. Publications Staff

As the applause settled at the final curtain of The Band’s Visit in June 2018, the Broadway audience members started to file out. But for the members of A.C.T.’s New York City tour, the real show was only just beginning. Heading to the front row, A.C.T.’s touring theater lovers spoke with actors from The Band’s Visit, the cast which had swept the board at the Tony Awards the night before. “It was very exciting,” says tour member Milton Mosk, “Those are things you don’t ordinarily get to experience.”

As well as seeing incredible productions, A.C.T.’s theater tours to New York, London, and Ashland, Oregon are packed with unique aspects like this talkback. During the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) tour this past July, guests spoke with Tatiana Wechsler, the lead actor in Oklahoma, as well as OSF Producer Mica Cole. “To have that intense experience,” says longtime A.C.T. subscriber Mary Claugus, “deepens your appreciation as a theatergoer.”

A.C.T. artistic …

By Kayla Minton Kaufman


The cast of Edward Albee’s Seascape slowly filters in to A.C.T.’s William Ball Studio as the morning sun starts to warm the space. Cups of coffee or tea from the green room in hand, their hellos and good mornings fill the room as pages of the script turn for last minute review. All of this is classic rehearsal room sights and sounds—until the elevator dings, and a meow emerges from the lobby.

Enter award-winning playwright Winter Miller, who is shadowing our Seascape rehearsal process from first read to opening night. She rocks a front-wearing, kangaroo-style backpack. Nestled inside is the star of our rehearsal room: her cat, Gato. For a production where tuning into animal instinct is key, having this creature prowling around is surprisingly valuable. “It’s such a collaborative room, it makes sense to draw inspiration from a cat,” says Sarah Nina Hayon, who plays Sarah, a human-sized lizard. “I do watch him during rehearsal sometimes.”

At first sight, the roo…

By Annie Sears

A.C.T. congratulates all the artists recognized in the 76th Golden Globes, particularly Darren Criss, who trained in our Young Conservatory. For his work on FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Criss took home the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television. Many of our alums are working on creative projects all over the world, and several have exciting projects coming up soon.

Onscreen
Disney Channel recently picked up Just Roll With It, starring Tobie Windham (M.F.A. ’10). The show is a hybrid of scripted and improvisational comedy. The four actors begin performing a pre-written scene, but they’ll be interrupted by a ridiculous stunt of the audience’s choosing. Then, the actors will just have to roll with it.

TBS just cast Christina Elmore (M.F.A. ’12) as a co-lead in pilot of their new comedy Twenties. Scheduled to premiere this year, Twenties explores the life of a queer, Black woman …

By A.C.T. Publications Staff

“Sweat was political,” says A.C.T. Artistic Director Pam MacKinnon, “Men on Boats was playful, now we’re going personal with Seascape.” As MacKinnon prepared for her Geary debut, she spoke with cast, creatives, producers, and A.C.T. staff about Edward Albee's Seascape and was both optimistic and reflective.


“The Albee project is very dear to me,” said MacKinnon. The director was a thirtysomething theater-maker in New York when she first spoke with Albee about directing The Play About the Baby at Philadelphia Theatre Company. That production in 2002 was the first of many—Seascape will be her 11th production of an Albee play.

MacKinnon has become the foremost contemporary interpreter of the great American playwright’s work, winning a Tony Award for her direction of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? on Broadway in 2013. Amid the excitement about Seascape, there was also a note of wistfulness in recalling her 20-year collaboration with Albee. “The last…

By Elspeth Sweatman and Annie Sears

Christmas may have passed, but the holiday spirit is still thriving here at A.C.T. Many members of the A Christmas Carol cast and crew have made this performance an integral part of their holiday tradition, including actor Sharon Lockwood, who plays Mrs. Dilber and Mrs. Fezziwig. Lockwood has performed at A.C.T. for nearly 30 years, including 14 seasons of A Christmas Carol. We sat down with Lockwood to hear more about what it’s like to integrate a familiar role into an ever-changing cast.


How does it feel to return to the same role every year? Like getting in touch with an old friend? 
Old friends? Yes! It's so nifty to play two wildly different characters back and forth in the course of a show, even changing make-up in between. Dominique [Lozano], our director, is always coming up with ways to fine-tune and tell the story as if for the first time. With that, the show always feels vital. It's a life-affirming place to be for the holiday seas…