Inside A.C.T.

By Claire L. Wong  “Theater is really about connection,” says A.C.T. Community Programs Manager Stephanie Wilborn. “We can’t do it alone.” For over a decade, Wilborn has been working with community arts organizations, using theater and social justice as a platform to give voice to those who are often overlooked or underrepresented onstage. Wilborn’s work with Larkin Street Youth Services is just one of the partnerships A.C.T. is building with nonprofits throughout the Bay Area, not just this holiday season but throughout the year.  A.C.T. teaching artist Radhika Rao and A.C.T. Community Programs Manager Stephanie Wilborn speaking at Larkin Street Youth Services' 2019 Performing Arts Night. Photo by Dace James. Larkin Street Youth Services is the largest provider of housing, healthcare, employment, and education services to young people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco. This summer and fall, Wilborn and teaching artist Radhika Rao (who has worked as a teach...

By Annie Sears Who are we? What do we believe in? And how will we stand up for those beliefs? These are big questions best explored through a big medium—a medium like theater. Our 2018–19 Fellows' cohort believes that theater is powerful because it’s not passive. Theater engages the full person: physical, emotional, intellectual, and relational. Theater is entertainment, and it's also immersive education, which is why we partnered with Bay Area nonprofit 826 Valencia to explore these big questions through theater. A student from 826 Valencia performs his written work at the 826 Valencia Tenderloin Center. Photo by Bill Poole. 826 Valencia is dedicated to supporting under-resourced students with their creative and expository writing skills through individualized attention. They kindly invited us to lead two workshops on writing and self-advocacy for 24 of their sixth-grade students, working on becoming actors and activists. Students first identified their core value...

Posted by Selena Chau, Web Development Fellow Joseph Givens graduates from Downtown High School at the end of May. Since the fall of 2011, as part of its ACTsmart arts education programs, A.C.T. has hosted an intensive  Downtown Continuation High School  (DHS), a project-based learning school that serves San Francisco youth who have not experienced success in conventional public schools. Participants in DHS’s  Acting for Critical Thought  project attend weekly acting classes in A.C.T.’s studios, are encouraged to attend all A.C.T. mainstage and conservatory productions, and write their own original monologues and short plays, which they perform in exhibitions for their school and families in A.C.T.’s Hastings Studio Theater each December and May. (This spring’s exhibition—entitled  Borderline Freedom —will take place on Thursday, May 23.) The Mission-based  826 Valencia  literacy initiative provides tutors to guide students in their writing an...