Inside A.C.T.

Posted by Selena Chau, A.C.T. Web Development Fellow Every season there are special upgrades and enhancements made to the familiar Christmas Carol props to keep the show fresh and new. While the actors rehearsed lines, staging, carols, and dances in the William Ball Rehearsal Studio (on the 8th floor of A.C.T.’s 30 Grant Avenue complex), the A.C.T. production staff worked their backstage magic in the A.C.T. Prop and Scene Shop, a 20,000-square-foot warehouse that has been located in the Mission district since A.C.T.’s move out west from Pittsburgh in 1967. Over the years, the shop has built and stored props and scenery from productions that have played at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater and other stages. From the outside, the building is indistinguishable from neighboring warehouses on the block, but stepping inside reveals fantastic and unexpected tools, machinery, and props. As you enter, you see the replica of the Tosca Cafe bar sign (a keepsake from our 2010 dance-theater prod...

posted by Domenique Lozano A.C.T. Associate Artist Domenique Lozano is creating a brand-new translation of Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle with special permission from the Brecht estate. She writes about the process of facing this daunting task. The experience of translating this beautiful play has been wonderful overall, but I sure am glad I didn’t know what I was getting into. By that I mean, I began the process by just taking one step at a time. I would do this one thing, and then the next, and I didn’t really think about the pressure of getting the script done. I didn’t dwell on the deadline, or the expectation of creating something that would have enough meat on it to feed the cast, stimulate the director, and keep the audience engaged. I would just think, “Well today, I’ve got to sort out the Simon/Grusche scenes.” No one at A.C.T. ever pressured me; there was only support from Carey, Michael, and from John Doyle. As if I’d done this before, as if they had absol...