Inspired by the Arts: Meet A.C.T. Prospero Society Member Anthony Alfidi

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By A.C.T. Publications Staff

A.C.T. Prospero Society Member Anthony Alfidi in uniform. Photo courtesy Anthony Alfidi.

A call to action, to most magazine readers and television watchers, is a familiar sales technique—inspiring people to take the next step toward supporting a cause or campaign. But for 45-year-old US Army Reserve officer Anthony Alfidi, the call to action was literal.

It came in early 2009, when Alfidi was called up by the US Army for action in Iraq. Before being mobilized for nine months in the Middle East in a military logistics unit, the army officer put his affairs in order. The process prompted him to consider the organizations he valued most, including A.C.T.

Alfidi wrote A.C.T. into his will, becoming a member of the Prospero Society—a special group of theater-lovers whose members have committed to support A.C.T. either through a bequest or a living trust. “I’d like my estate to benefit as many people as possible,” he says.

For arts lover Alfidi, adding A.C.T. to his planning was natural. Born and raised in Sacramento, he was inspired by the performing arts he experienced on public television as a child, including the Boston Pops orchestra. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame on a US Army scholarship, he served tours in South Korea, Kuwait, and Germany during the 1990s.

The following decade, he returned to the US, moved to San Francisco for its cultural scene, and became an A.C.T. subscriber and a Geary regular. “Tom Stoppard’s Travesties was a particular highlight,” he says. “A very interesting take on the Dada era with a really creative set design.”

Today, Alfidi is a self-employed financial analyst, enjoying frequent trips to the ballet, opera, and symphony in San Francisco, as well as to A.C.T. He knows, however, that whenever Uncle Sam’s call next comes, he will continue to answer. Last year, he completed an 11-month stint in Afghanistan, where he was an intelligence officer. “I believe in the American constitution as the greatest product of the Enlightenment era,” he says. “It is worth my life.”

For more information about membership benefits and how to plan your legacy gift to A.C.T., visit act-sf.org/prospero or contact Hillary Bray at 415.439.2353 or hbray@act-sf.org.

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