Inside A.C.T.

On October 27, friends of A.C.T. crawled, oozed, flew, materialized, and zombie-walked their way to our first-ever Halloween fundraiser, Revamping The Strand, which raised money for the renovation of The Strand Theater in San Francisco's Central Market neighborhood. A.C.T. purchased The Strand as a second stage, and it is scheduled to open in 2014. The event, underwritten in large part by interior designer Ken Fulk and patrons Jeff and Laurie Ubben, was held in Fulk's SOMA studio and featured a four-course dinner with celebrity chefs, a flash-mob performance of Rocky Horror Picture Show 's "Time Warp," and a concert by Bay Area native Stevie Nicks, who opened her set with a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Rock 'n' Roll." In addition to longtime A.C.T. loyalists, the benefit attracted a number of young social media leaders and philanthropists, many of whom are also going to be calling Central Market home. The costumes ranged from famous Hitchcock ...

Lisa Kitchens (A.C.T. M.F.A. Program class of 2014) in front of Stanislavsky's house in Moscow. The A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program class of 2014 recently returned from Moscow, where they were honored as the only U.S. acting school invited to attend the prestigious Stanislavsky Festival. They performed Federico García Lorca's  The House of Bernarda Alba , were featured on the  evening news , and interacted with students from England, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Poland, France, and Russia. We asked the students to share their photos and reflections from this unforgettable trip. To read more about their experiences, search for hashtag  #ACTinMoscow  on  Facebook  and  Twitter . Lisa Kitchens Our second morning in Moscow, we took a tour of Stanislavsky's home. We were elated to find out that the person giving our tour, Nikita, is actually Stanislavsky's great-great grandson. . .

Titus Tompkins Elektra continues through November 18. Learn more about the production and order tickets . Meet Titus Tompkins, a third-year student in the A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program who plays Pylades in Sophocles’ Elektra . What are your preshow/postshow rituals? Pre: That's a secret! Post: Sleep! What's your favorite thing about San Francisco? The people. Growing up in the south, people always ask, "Who's your kin?" Out here, I get asked, "What's your sign?" I love the energy in the communities here. If you weren't an actor, what would you be? A construction worker. What was your most memorable Halloween costume? A John Deere tractor. What is your favorite moment in Elektra ? The first prayer in Greek . . . What is the most outrageous thing you've done to take revenge on someone? When I was a child, I cut the yarn in my grandmother's crochet project when she was nearly finished with a piece. I learned...

Posted by Cait Robinson, Publications Fellow L to R: Caroline Lagerfelt as Clytemnestra and René Augesen as Elektra in Sophocles' Elektra. Photo by Kevin Berne. Elektra continues through November 18. Learn more about the production and order tickets . To understand the role of women in Elektra , it is valuable to consider the classical concept of feminity. The Greeks viewed women ambiguously: though responsible for bearing children and propogating the human race, they were also descendents of Pandora and therefore members of a separate "race of women," less physically and mentally capable than men. Women were also considered more sexually voracious and predisposed to infidelity, naturally threatening to the order of the household, or oikos , which was their domain. Many texts from antiquity compare women to domesticated dogs—though they serve man and share his household, they forever hover between wild and tamed. Athenians were preoccupied with dividing wom...

A.C.T. Conservatory Director Melissa Smith, right, with A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program students Asher Grodman and Elyse Price. Photo by Philip Estrera. The A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program  class of 2014 recently returned from Moscow, where they were honored as the only U.S. acting school invited to attend the prestigious Stanislavsky Festival. They performed Federico García Lorca's  The House of Bernarda Alba , were featured on the  evening news , and interacted with students from England, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Poland, France, and Russia. We asked the students to share their photos and reflections from this unforgettable trip. To read more about their experiences, search for hashtag #ACTinMoscow on Facebook and Twitter . Asher Grodman We’re back home in San Francisco after a long flight, and I started thinking about how this incredible trip began.

Allegra Rose Edwards Elektra continues through November 18. Learn more about the production and order tickets . Meet Allegra Rose Edwards, a third-year student in the A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program who plays Chrysothemis in Sophocles'  Elektra . What are your preshow/postshow rituals? Pre: Water. Post: Beer. What’s your favorite thing about San Francisco? Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the free bluegrass festival every fall in Golden Gate Park! If you weren’t an actor, what would you be? A weather girl or a ballerina. What was your most memorable Halloween costume? I was a swimming pool in fifth grade. Blue wig, depth markers in puff paint (1–5 feet) all the way up my body, pool rules on my back, and to finish it off, a diving board (roof shingle) stapled to my headband with a Ken doll hot glued to the edge. So theatrical. What is your favorite moment in Elektra ? The Tutor’s speech [delivered by Anthony Fusco as The Tutor] and the beautifu...

The A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program class of 2014 recently returned from Moscow, where they were honored as the only U.S. acting school invited to attend the prestigious Stanislavsky Festival. They performed Federico García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba , were featured on the evening news, and interacted with students from England, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Poland, France, and Russia. We asked the students to share their photos and reflections from this unforgettable trip. To read more about their experiences, search for hashtag #ACTinMoscow on Facebook and Twitter. Philip Estrera: Tuesday, October 16, 2012 Philip Estrera (A.C.T. M.F.A. Program class of 2014) with his $6 pumpkin latte from a Moscow Starbucks. I am dreaming. I must be. I am sitting in an auditorium with students from all over the world looking at a monochromatic stage with a man speaking German sitting next to a woman translating in Russian. The delayed quiet murmur of an English translator is hear...

Posted by Cait Robinson, Publications Fellow Ida B. Wells classroom teacher Jessie Lindquist and A.C.T. Resident Artist Tyrone Davis congratulate students on their performances. Photo by Dan Rubin. San Francisco’s Ida B. Wells High School is a continuation (alternative) public school for students who have not been successful in other academic settings. Many students have faced significant hardship, both academic and personal, and Ida B. Wells offers them a second chance at earning their high school diploma.

Timberlake Wertenbaker Timberlake Wertenbaker—an internationally recognized, multi-award-winning playwright, translator, and adaptor—returns to A.C.T. with her beautiful new translation and adaptation of Sophocles’ Elektra , which runs October 25–November 18 at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater. She is the author of many plays for the stage and radio, notably Our Country’s Good (1988), The Love of the Nightingale (1989), and Three Birds Alighting on a Field (1992). An American-born and –educated European (she was raised in the French Basque country and studied in the United States as well as France) who has lived in London for the past three decades, she has tremendous linguistic dexterity and is a deft translator/adaptor of the great writers of European drama, including Marivaux, Anouilh, Maeterlinck, Pirandello, Euripides, and Racine. Her previous work at A.C.T. includes translations of Sophocles’ Antigone (1993), Euripides’ Hecuba (1995 and 1998), and Jean Racine’s Phèdre (2010). Below ar...

A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program students Aaron Moreland and Nemuna Ceesay in The House of Bernarda Alba . Photo by Alessandra Mello. The A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program   class of 2014 is just a few days away from leaving for Russia to attend the Stanislavsky Festival. The students will be spending a week in Moscow (October 15–21), where they will perform Federico García Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba and interact with acting students from around the world. The A.C.T. M.F.A. Program has been honored as the only U.S. acting school invited to attend this prestigious festival, and they will join students from acting schools in England, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Poland, France, and Russia. The theme of this year’s festival is “Open Class: Stanislavsky Continues” (honoring the 150 th birthday of Konstantin Stanislavsky) and it is sponsored by the Russian Ministry of Culture, the Moscow Art Theatre, and The Moscow Art Theatre School.

Posted by Cait Robinson, Publications Fellow Every season, third-year students in their final year of A.C.T.’s Master of Fine Arts Program put their education into practice when they appear for the first time on The Geary stage. Elektra debuts four talented members of the class of 2013: Nick Steen and Allegra Rose Edwards are taking on major roles as Elektra’s siblings, the vengeful Orestes and the complacent Chrysothemis; Titus Tompkins is playing the less verbal part of Pylades and Rebekah Brockman is understudying the title role after recently appearing in the U.S. premiere of Happy to Stand by Sirkku Peltola at A.C.T.’s Costume Shop last month. The cast of Elektra in rehearsal. L to R: Titus Tompkins, M.F.A. Program class of 2013, René Augesen, Anthony Fusco, Steven Anthony Jones, Nick Steen, M.F.A. Program class of 2013, and Olympia Dukakis. Photo by Dan Rubin.

Five-time Tony Award winner George C. Wolfe directed the 2011 Tony Award–winning Broadway revival of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart in an acclaimed production that went on to play at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.,  before arriving at A.C.T. Best known for his groundbreaking work on Tony Kushner’s Angels in America and the Broadway hits Jelly’s Last Jam , Bring in ’Da Noise, Bring in ’Da Funk , and Caroline, or Change , Wolfe also served as producer of The Public Theater from 1993 to 2005. An award-winning writer, director, producer, and actor, Wolfe was named a “living landmark” by the New York Landmarks Conservancy in 1995 and was recently appointed as one of 25 leaders to serve on the President’s Committee for the Arts and the Humanities. Below is an excerpt of A.C.T. Marketing Writer Amy Krivohlavek’s interview with Wolfe, which took place shortly before rehearsals began at A.C.T. To read the entire interview, order your copy of Words on Plays .