Inside A.C.T.

With Halloween’s ghosts and ghouls just around the corner, A.C.T. is getting ready for Spooked at The Strand, its fabulous, fundraising, costume party in aid of M.F.A. Program scholarships. As A.C.T.’s costume shop swings into action to outfit Spooked attendees and student actors alike with show-stopping outfits, we snuck behind the scenes to talk with Conservatory Director Melissa Smith and find out what surprises guests have in store throughout the evening. What inspired A.C.T. to start this fantastic charity event? In the spring of 2015, the M.F.A. Board of Directors was looking for a new take on our annual fundraiser for the M.F.A. Program. Previously, we had held formal, sit-down luncheons. In a Board Meeting discussion, members talked about how inspiring the new Strand space is and how crucial it would be to the M.F.A. Program. We talked about the desire to attract new people to the M.F.A. Program, how to get the word out about this top-ranked actor training program,...

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 ...