Inside A.C.T.

By Elspeth Sweatman and Annie Sears The holiday season is a time of traditions: hot chocolate and candy canes; humming the same tunes and baking the same treats; feasting and exchanging gifts with family and friends. For some—such as actor Anthony Fusco—A.C.T.’s Christmas Carol is a large part of the holiday ritual. Fusco is an A.C.T. regular, having appeared in over 35 mainstage productions. He’s been involved with A Christmas Carol for the last 17 years, first playing Bob Cratchit in the Dennis Powers and Laird Williamson adaptation. After A.C.T. transitioned to Paul Walsh and Artistic Director Emerita Carey Perloff’s adaptation, James Carpenter assumed the role of Scrooge and Fusco was his understudy. “That first year, I went on when Jim got sick, having never rehearsed the role onstage!” says Fusco. “That was exciting !” The role is demanding, as Scrooge never leaves the stage. So Fusco and Carpenter now share the part. We recently sat down with Fusco to hear about what it’...

Meet Anthony Fusco, who plays Oliver Denny in Dead Metaphor . Anthony Fusco Dead Metaphor runs through March 24. Learn more about the production and order tickets. What are your preshow/postshow rituals?  Preshow: sinus rinse Postshow: Wine. Or beer. Maybe bourbon. What is your favorite thing about San Francisco? My family! If you weren't an actor, what would you be? Even *more* unsatisfied. What was your most memorable job interview? 45-minute callback with the great director Jose Quintero. Did not get the role, but relished the experience nonetheless. And not getting the role turned out to be the best result. What is your favorite moment in Dead Metaphor ? Seriously? Why would I tell? Which character do you identify with the most? Mine. But pretty soon, Hank! Where do you see yourself in five years?  With any luck at all, right where I am now. But with the same amount of hair.

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.

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 Anthony Fusco, A.C.T. core acting company member  As You Like It , currently running at Zeum Theater, offers a rare opportunity to see A.C.T.’s core acting company members sharing the stage with the students of our M.F.A. program . The veteran professionals in our company have served as teachers and advisors to the students throughout their three years of training at A.C.T., and it is a fitting rite of passage for these master apprentices to share the stage with their mentors in their last A.C.T. production before graduating. The transition from teacher to colleague is always complicated, sometimes explosive, and often humbling. A.C.T. core company member Anthony Fusco reflects on the process below. —The A.C.T. Intern Blog Quadrumvirate So here I am playing Touchstone in As You Like It , with a cast made up mostly of the beautiful and talented members of A.C.T.’s M.F.A. Program class of 2011. Having taught these young actors on and off over the last three years, it’...

The holiday season starts early at A.C.T.; we began rehearsing our annual production of A Christmas Carol at the beginning of November. As a sponsor of the Holiday Ice Rink in Union Square , we’re sharing our anticipatory cheer with the city. Below, Scrooge (A.C.T. Associate Artist Anthony Fusco) announces the opening of the rink on Wednesday, November 10. He’s joined by dignitaries, figure skaters, and . . . Mr. Peanut? —The A.C.T. Intern Blog Quadrumvirate Photos by Randy Taradash

posted by Anthony Fusco, A.C.T. Core Acting Company member One of the challenges for artists working within institutions (no, not those kinds of “institutions”) is to be creative, imaginative, and even occasionally inspired . . . on a schedule. We here at A.C.T. are continually churning out work, from the mainstage to the classroom, and it all has to happen on time and on budget. Sometimes we capture lightning in a bottle; sometimes we get singed. Usually our plays are ripe for an audience at just the right moment, but sometimes we have an opening night because, well, that’s what it says on the calendar. So how do we ensure that we’re always working at our best? How do we foster an atmosphere of continual creativity and invention, so that when those opening nights arrive we will be ready for them? Trying to find new answers to those old questions has been the focus of a lot of our energy lately, and has involved efforts ranging from informal hallway conversations to company-wide m...

posted by Anthony Fusco, A.C.T. Core Acting Company member A little over a week ago at A.C.T., we got together for an internal reading of a few scenes from Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle , newly translated by our own Domenique Lozano. You may know her as the director of A Christmas Carol for the past few years, but “Domie” is also an important part of the M.F.A. program , where she directs and teaches and also helps the graduating land agents and dazzle casting directors by putting together the M.F.A. Showcase —which travels to New York and L.A.—every year. I had the good luck to co-teach a Shakespeare class with her this year, and suffice to say her students are very lucky indeed. With the blessings of the Brecht estate, she is busily preparing Chalk Circle for production next season . It will be directed by John Doyle, and based on what we read, we are off to a fine, fine start. Her translation so far is very actable, very funny, and strikes a perfect balance between natur...

posted by Anthony Fusco, cast member of Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo In Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo , my character, Peter, has a complicated relationship with his penis. In fact, he can hardly utter the word. The same is true of me. Not because of shyness, but because the word itself is so . . . flaccid. Penis. Pee-niss. Go ahead and say it out loud a few times right now. It starts off okay, with that nice firm “p” sound. Lips pressed together, gathering energy behind them until that first sound just erupts. Then—sadly, disappointingly—the rapid decline into “niss.” The poor vowel, short and clipped as it is, rendered even weaker by the intrusive nasality of the “n” as the poor little word dies out in sibilance. A name that sounds like a mild rebuke, a name invented by a disappointed assistant principal or the department of public health. A name too meager for something so important. Important to ME anyway. Not that the other names are much better: dick, cock...