Inside A.C.T.

By Claire L. Wong  “Your new favorite end-of-week go-to spot” –  The San Francisco Chronicle Looking for a social spin on your theater-going experience? Ramp up your Friday night with a $15 advance ticket/ $20 door ticket for an orchestra seat and a drink included! Burst into the weekend with live music before the show, pop-up food from local vendors, and a lively atmosphere. You can even take photos against a backdrop with props. Audience members in the Sky Bar at A.C.T.'s Geary Theater for  Top Girls . Photo by Miranda Ashland. Audiences loved Drinks + Drama for Top Girls at the Geary and Testmatch at the Strand. Join us for the next Drinks + Drama event at the Geary for Wakey, Wakey on January 24. Check out our dates for upcoming Drinks + Drama events below. Wakey, Wakey Geary Theater January 24, 2020 from 6–8 p.m. Gloria Strand Theater February 14, 2020 from 5:30–7:30 p.m. Toni Stone Geary Theater March 6, 2020 from 6–8...

By Claire L. Wong “Messy, messy women,” says A.C.T. Artistic Director Pam MacKinnon of Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls . As the cast, creative team, and company members gathered at A.C.T. for the first rehearsal, MacKinnon addressed the company. “These are messy, human people. You’re not going to find a hero in this. It’s a messy world.” Director Tamilla Woodard discusses Top Girls . Photo by Claire L. Wong. This muck and mire and mess aptly describes the world of Top Girls . In 1980s England, Marlene’s rise through the corporate ranks is hard-won. As her ambition vaults her to the top, she isn’t concerned with bringing other women along with her. The opening scene in the play features historical and legendary women who gather for a dazzling dinner party to celebrate Marlene’s latest promotion. The production examines the generational inheritance of what women, and particularly women of color, experience in the workplace. Director Tamilla Woodard says, “There are a lot of women her...

By Claire L. Wong Rules are made to be broken—and interrogated, rewritten, and overcome. The 2019–20 season at American Conservatory Theater features stories that examine the established rules of engagement, their violent and tumultuous histories, and the people chafing against these constraints. “Told with decorum, rage, spirit, and a wink,” says A.C.T. Artistic Director Pam MacKinnon, “this season’s offerings continue A.C.T.’s tradition of telling stories that provoke responses and lead to debates, dreams, and even action.” Women are pushing back against the rules of oppression in A.C.T.’s first two productions of the 2019–20 season. Tamilla Woodard ( Men on Boats ) returns to A.C.T. for her Geary Theater debut directing Caryl Churchill’s acclaimed modern classic Top Girls . Audiences may remember returning actors Rosie Hallett, who worked alongside Woodard in Men on Boats (2018), and Michelle Beck, last seen at the Geary in King Charles III (2016). In Margaret Thatcher’s d...

Go behind the scenes of Anne Washburn's post-apocalyptic play with a discussion ranging from nuclear meltdowns to Springfield Follies Amidst apocalyptic chaos, a group of survivors find comfort in recounting a beloved episode of The Simpsons in Anne Washburn’s exhilarating Mr. Burns, a post-electric play . Director and A.C.T. Associate Artistic Director Mark Rucker joins Washburn onstage to discuss the importance of “low-brow” media and why we cling to stories in the face of tragedy. Moderated by A.C.T. dramaturg Michael Paller, this discussion will give you a revealing look at this mind-blowing theatrical homage to our popular culture. For more about Mr. Burns , be sure to read our latest edition of Words on Plays ! Click here to order online. For tickets to Mr. Burns visit act-sf.org/burns .

The Venus in Fur symposium discussion with Race Bannon, Founder of Kink Aware Professionals and author of Learning The Ropes: A Basic Guide to Safe and Fun SM Lovemaking, and Monika Greenleaf, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Stanford University.  Click below to watch the recording. Click here to buy tickets and learn more about  Venus in Fur .

Director Casey Stangl and A.C.T. dramaturg Michael Paller discuss Venus in Fur on March 25, for the InterACT prologue discussion.  Click below to watch the recording. Click here to buy tickets and learn more about  Venus in Fur .

Issue-rich plays like Clybourne Park —which deals with such fraught subjects as gentrification, race, and the flimsiness of liberal sentiment—tend to throw the dramaturgy and publications departments at A.C.T. into a gleeful frenzy of research, fact-finding, and heated debate. For the past two months our offices have been littered with maps of Chicago (where Clybourne Park is set), statistics about the racial makeup of the Bay Area, photos of old Chicago bungalows and high-rise housing projects, and YouTube videos showcasing the race-based humor of Dave Chappelle, Dick Gregory, and Richard Pryor (the play is a comedy, after all). To bring some of that research and debate to our audience, A.C.T. has arranged a new discussion series, Experts Talk Back , during the Clybourne Park run. Five experts in various aspects of urban development will participate in postperformance in-theater conversations about some of the provocative issues raised by the play. This week, A.C.T. Publications...

posted by Linda Lagemann, Ph.D., Wendy Stern, D.M.H., and A.C.T. Group Sales Manager Edward Budworth The fifth season of the wildly successful Theater on the Couch program at A.C.T. started off running after the performance of Brief Encounter on Friday, September 18. Dr. Linda Lagemann and Dr. Wendy Stern of the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis were the panelists. Cast member Joseph Alessi joined in and brought many insights into the characters he portrays. In this production, boundaries were broken. As cast members appeared in the audience and live characters entered movie scenes, the production created in us the feelings that the two protagonists, Laura and Alec, have as they breach boundaries. Fantasy and reality were also blended—aspects of the play were structured like a dream. The visual images projected on the back wall and the music expressed the unconscious feelings of the characters bubbling up. A perfect vehicle for a lively discussion! From a psychoanalyti...

posted by Edward Budworth, A.C.T. Group Sales and Linda Lagemann, Ph.D. “Sweeney Todd has revenge issues.” “Hedda Gabler suffers from an Electra complex.” “Maggie the Cat is in heavy denial.” Since Sigmund is no longer around to comment on the characters in dramatic literature, A.C.T. started a program called Theater on the Couch to explore the inherent neuroses, psychoses, and downright insanity that afflict some of our favorite icons of the stage. The idea for Theater on the Couch came to us when representatives of the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis (then known as the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute & Society) attended a performance of Eve Ensler’s The Good Body at A.C.T. in the spring of 2004. We hit it off immediately and began thinking of ways our two institutions could collaborate. A.C.T. regularly offers audience discussions with actors, playwrights, directors, designers, etc., so why not, we figured, add psychoanalysts to the mix and have a discussi...