Inside A.C.T.

By Claire L. Wong and Alejandra Maria Rivas Dinah Berkeley (she/they) grew up in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb outside of Chicago. After graduating from Ohio University, Berkeley studied in a professional training program at Actors Theatre of Louisville, then moved to New York for a few years. There she became involved with mime, physical theater, and clown, and joined the Broken Box Mime Theater troupe. Berkeley’s focus narrowed to sharpening her acting skills, and after auditioning for graduate programs, she came to A.C.T. Dinah Berkeley. Photo by Deborah Lopez. Can you describe your experience being in the MFA Program? It’s challenged me about what kind of artist I want to be, how I want to present myself. What kind of work I want. I’ve had to be open to things that I might feel resistance to and trust that if I do the work and if it’s not serving me, I can put it aside. But I won’t know that answer until I commit to fully trying. What’s your favorite part of the Progra...

By Claire L. Wong Audiences stepping into the Geary Theater for  Wakey, Wakey  will also experience the never-before-seen play  The Substitution  preceding it. Pulitzer Prize–nominated playwright Will Eno wrote this short play specifically for A.C.T.’s MFA Program students. When thinking about the content of  The Substitution  with Eno, director Anne Kauffman says, “One thing that we were interested in was the woman who appears for a brief moment of time in  Wakey, Wakey . She appears at an important place in the piece, and so it felt important that we meet her in a different context. From there, we developed this idea into the first part of the show.” MFA Program actors in the class of 2020 were in the room with Eno and Kauffman as they rehearsed  The Substitution  for the first time. “It was incredibly fun and helpful to get together with Anne and Kathryn [Smith-McGlynn] and the MFA students,” says Eno. “It’s a really important part ...

By Annie Sears A.C.T.'s M.F.A. Program class of 2020 perform the Creative Movement project in A.C.T.'s Costume Shop Theater in the fall of 2017. Students will return to the same performance space next week for Fascinating Rhythms: Jazz and Blues on Broadway . “Music is living in extended time,” says Milissa Carey, who teaches singing in our M.F.A. Program. Music slows us down, demanding that we move at its pace and no faster. It cycles through choruses, asking us to reflect on repeated words and phrases. It activates our emotions in ways that spoken words can’t, and it unites us as we slow down and reflect together. Our second-year M.F.A. students are immersed in this hyper-emotive world, preparing a musical revue entitled Fascinating Rhythms: Jazz and Blues on Broadway . Directed by acting instructor Darryl V. Jones, this revue explores how early-20th-century African American music changed the name of the game for musical theater at large. Jones has selected pieces ...