Inside A.C.T.

Posted by Jonathan Moscone, artistic director of California Shakespeare Theater Yesterday marked the graduation of the A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program class of 2012. The eight graduates were honored at a ceremony at the American Conservatory Theater and saluted with speeches from Artistic Director Carey Perloff, Conservatory Director Melissa Smith, Executive Director Ellen Richard, elected student speakers, and the distinguished recipients of this year's honorary Master of Fine Arts in Acting degrees. Mary Birdsong, the virtuosic and versatile performer who led the cast of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City last summer, was one recipient. The other was Jonathan Moscone, a longtime Bay Area theater artist who has directed for the A.C.T. mainstage and taught in and directed Conservatory productions and currently serves as artistic director at California Shakespeare Theater. Below is a transcript of Moscone's speech to the graduating class of 2012.

Posted by Anthony Fusco, A.C.T. core acting company member and cast member of Play A.C.T. core acting company member Anthony Fusco is featured in Samuel Beckett's brief and rarely seen one-act Play , currently performing together with Beckett's iconic drama Endgame on the A.C.T. mainstage through June 3. Fusco shares what it feels like to perform Beckett's tongue-twisting text—while encased in an urn.

Posted by Stephen Buescher, Head of Movement and Physical Theater in the A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program Stephen Buescher teaches movement and physical theater in the A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program but has never performed in an A.C.T. production. Now, for the final M.F.A. Program production of the season—featuring the outgoing class of 2012, whom he has spent the past three years training—he takes to the stage alongside his students, playing Puck in a wildly romantic take on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream at The Costume Shop, A.C.T's intimate new performance space. Stephen Buescher in rehearsal for A Midsummer Night's Dream with Master of Fine Arts Program student Rebekah Brockman. Photo courtesy Rebekah Brockman.