Inside A.C.T.

By Claire L. Wong  As the world premiere of Testmatch heads into opening night on Wednesday, the buzz about the show keeps growing. Kate Attwell’s new play is already lined up for a run at Yale Repertory Theatre in 2020, and while it’s attracting a lot of attention from East Coast theater-lovers, Bay Area audiences are loving the production. “The play was super funny, insightful, and thought-provoking,” says one audience member. India 2 (Lipica Shah) and England 3 (Millie Brooks) discuss which is the better team in Kate Attwell’s Testmatch .  Photo by Kevin Berne. “I loved it!” says another theater-goer. “I loved that it was an all-female cast and that it featured women of Indian descent in substantial roles, which we almost never see. I loved it that it was written by a woman and directed by a woman—yay Pam! And I loved the production’s sophisticated theatricality and the complicated and nuanced experience it presented. Brava!” To hear from audiences direct...

By A.C.T. Publications Team  Only two more days before we go into the woods! To get you prepared for the journey, here are five fun facts about the musical. A.C.T.'s Young Conservatory Production of Into the Woods . 1. Book writer James Lapine wrote a script that interwove several fairy tales—Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood—and sent it to composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, saying “You'll never be able to musicalize this.” Sondheim accepted his challenge. 2. An early draft of the musical featured Rumpelstiltskin and the Three Pigs. In the 2002 revival, the pigs were put back in. 3. Sondheim doesn't like actors to make lyric suggestions, but when original Baker's Wife Joanna Gleason said that she felt like her character was in the wrong story when she meets Cinderella's Prince in Act Two, he made an exception. 4. The musical was (intentionally or unintentionally) quoted by President Barack Obama in an address on the tenth anniversary of...

By Annie Sears A culture has many defining characteristics: language, social structure, traditions, values. These elements draw people together, helping us understand our own humanity by understanding the group we belong to. One element of a culture is especially human—food. No matter who you are or where you come from, you need to eat. And when you share a meal with others, you slow down, sit together, and converse. Food quickly becomes more than food. “In Nigeria,” says Dr. Awam Amkpa, a theater professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, “food is a peacemaker at the core of inventing community—not just the communities we have, but as a way of producing community. When even total strangers come to your home, we use food as the foundation for that relationship.” In Her Portmanteau , playing at The Strand through March 31, characters share two traditional Nigerian foods onstage: afang soup and fufu. On February 24 and March 3, Eko Kitchen —a Nigerian pop-up kitch...

By Annie Sears Meet Oliver Sutton: US Navy veteran, published poet, competitive power-lifter, hat collector, father to three, and A.C.T.’s head of security at The Geary Theater. You can’t miss Oliver. For 20 years, he’s been at the front door, sporting a smile and sometimes a top hat. If you say hello, you’re sure to hear a story, complete with bubbling chuckles and impersonations of each character involved. We recently sat down with Oliver to enjoy some of those stories. Oliver Sutton outside The Strand. Photo by Annie Sears. When did you first start working security? When I was 16, I worked security for a music club in Annapolis. I was running around and James Brown said, “Kid, what exactly is your job?” I said, “Well, Mr. Brown, the owner says I’m a gopher. He means that I go for this, and I go for that! [ Laughs ] Then James Brown said, “Stop right here, son. Go back and tell the owner that James Brown said you are no longer a gopher. From now on, tell him Mr. B says yo...

By Taylor Steinbeck Last weekend's third-annual New Strands Festival was four full days of exciting new works read aloud for the first time, festivalgoers mingling and moving to the sounds of female DJs, and audiences rising to their feet. The Strand Theater was packed with San Franciscans and theater-lovers ready to be wowed, and the artists behind the new plays rose to the challenge. From emotional coming-out stories such as Thao Nguyen's Bend with Me  and Dipika Guha and Jeremy Cohen's Malicious Animal Magnetism to larger-than-life epics such as Ngozi Anyanwu's Nike, Or We Don't Need Another Hero , this year's festival was one to remember. Here are some of the highlights: Justin Genna and Clinton Roane in rehearsal for Dipika Guha and Jeremy Cohen's Malicious Animal Magnetism .  Photo by Taylor Steinbeck. Festivalgoer @xle responds on Instagram. Photo courtesy @xle on Instagram. Ngozi Anyanwu ( Nike, Or We Don't Need Another Hero p...

By Taylor Steinbeck The Strand Theater is ready to rock. Next week brings the third annual New Strands Festival and with it comes pop music, Afrofuturist titans, and staged readings of fierce new plays. “The 2018 artists are new American voices with global visions and global appetites,” says A.C.T. Associate Artistic Director Andy Donald. “The festival is still going to be about San Francisco, but this year, it’ll be about bringing the world to our city.” Tegan and Sara playing at the 2008 Treasure Island Music Festival. Photo by Tyler Love. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. This year, A.C.T. is partnering with SPACE on Ryder Farm to develop presentations of two new works for the 2018 New Strands Residency. Located on a working farm in Brewster, New York, SPACE is a nonprofit artist residency program that has become “one of the leading curators of the next generation of new work,” says Donald. Representing SPACE is book writer Emily Kaczmarek, who will be bringing the Untitled Tegan...

By Taylor Steinbeck  Homefront , the Young Conservatory show opening at The Strand Theater next week, centers on three young people seeking refuge from war in a land that is unfamiliar and unwelcoming: the United States of America. Though the parallels are obvious, the year is not 2017 and the characters are not Syrian—this is World War I and these are German refugees. “We are living in a populist age where the forces of xenophobia and nationalism are rising,” says director Domenique Lozano. “This work speaks directly to that.”  Artwork for the 2017 Young Conservatory production of Homefront . Originally commissioned for the YC, Homefront is a moving musical written by Craig Slaight with music and lyrics from Creighton Irons, which tackles the consequences of the hate war breeds. The story follows Emma Kolemeier and her two siblings who flee from a war-torn Germany to find relief in rural Illinois. Respite proves to be only temporary though when t...

By A.C.T. Publications Staff Following their sold-out run this past holiday season with Holiday Roadkill , the Skivvies are bringing their unique brand of sexy and satirical musical performance back to A.C.T.'s Strand Theater for two performances on June 23 and 24.  The Skivvies—Broadway stars Lauren Molina and Nick Cearley—are an award-winning comedy-pop duo who perform musical mash-ups of all your favorite songs on the ukulele, cello, and an array of quirky instruments . . . while stripped down to their underwear. For Bay Area audiences looking out for the next generation of musical theater stars, check out the guests who'll be joining the Skivvies on the Strand stage: Broadway up-and-comer Matt Doyle ( The Book of Mormon , Spring Awakening ), Ray of Light Theatre's Courtney Merrell ( The Rocky Horror Show ), Marissa Joy Ganz (national tour of High School Musical ), and A.C.T. favorite Lauren Hart ( The Unfortunates , A Christmas Carol ). “We are thrilled to re...

By Elspeth Sweatman  At last year’s New Strands Festival, six performers walked onto an empty stage in The Rueff Theater. The only sounds were the noises of a funfair, the only prop a tiny mannequin of a child. Suddenly, the child transformed into a gigantic, besuited wooden figure—the symbol of a father. Before it the other actors capered and cringed, by turns entranced or recoiling. Over the course of the performance, the actors shifted fluidly between playing boys and men, exploring the freedom and fear of each role. By the time the cast took their bows, most of the audience was in tears. The cast of Fatherville . A.C.T.'s New Strands Festival 2016. Photo by Stefan Cohen. Fatherville , an elegiac, comic, and poignant ode to fatherhood, returns in a more developed state at this year’s New Strands Festival, May 17–21 at The Strand Theater. “What was organic last year,” says A.C.T. Assistant Producer Ken Savage, “we are now giving more structure.” All the collaborators wh...

By Elspeth Sweatman “Part of what’s so fun is that we don’t know what these artists are going to do,” says A.C.T. Associate Artistic Director Andy Donald about two of the works-in-progress featured in this year’s New Strands Festival. “That’s exciting because it means that they are actually creating the work in the space that will eventually house it.” Both of the musicals included in this year’s festival— Port City and Revival —were commissioned by A.C.T. specifically for The Strand Theater. But these playwrights are not only using the 283-seat mainstage as their template, but the whole of The Strand. “We wanted to create more experiential, immersive works where the audiences are not just passive consumers of art, but active, engaged participants in the physical journey of the piece,” says Assistant Producer Ken Savage. Composer Byron Au Yong. Photo by Joe Freeman. Port City , written by Christopher Chen and The Orphan of Zhao composer Byron Au Yong, is a musical fable th...

By Elspeth Sweatman In A.C.T.’s Conservatory, the end of the year is fast approaching. But before the first-, second-, and third-year M.F.A. Program actors scatter to summer festivals, workshops, and seminars, they are joining forces to put on three spectacular productions, collectively known as the Spring Reps. This year’s productions are: promiscuous/cities by Lachlan Philpott, The Good Woman of Setzuan by Bertolt Brecht, and Las Meninas by Lynn Nottage. Artwork for A.C.T.'s M.F.A. Program 2017 Spring Performances. “Spring Reps is one of my favorite times of year,” says second-year actor Peter Fanone. “It is so fulfilling to have the opportunity to see and work with fellow students from all three years. My fellow students always surprise me with aspects of themselves I had not seen or appreciated before, despite the fact that we are in class together 12 hours a day, 6 days a week.” First-year actor Jerrie Johnson agrees. “Spring Reps are special because it’s the on...

By Elspeth Sweatman At this year’s New Strands Festival—a week-long presentation of new theatrical pieces, works in progress, readings, and experimental works by innovative, multi-disciplinary artists—East Coast meets West Coast. A.C.T. is partnering with New York’s Ma-Yi Theater Company to present three new works by Asian American playwrights. Ma-Yi is one of the country’s leading incubators of new work shaping the national discourse about what it means to be Asian American today. Artwork for A.C.T.'s 2017 New Strands Festival. The three Ma-Yi plays that are part of A.C.T.’s inaugural New Strands Residency Program are: The Great Leap by Lauren Yee, The Man from Saigon by Don Nguyen, and Snowflakes, Or Rare White People by Dustin Chinn. Inspired by events in her father’s life, The Great Leap by Lauren Yee centers on an American college basketball team as they travel to Beijing for a “friendship” game in the post-Cultural Revolution 1980s. Cultures clash as both countr...

By Elspeth Sweatman Imagine having your first lead role come your way at the age of 68. That is what happened to Georgia Engel ( The Mary Tyler Moore Show ) after she played a small role in an adaptation of Uncle Vanya by contemporary American playwright Annie Baker. Georgia Engel (Mertis) in A.C.T.'s 2017 production of John . Photo by Kevin Berne. “On closing night, she came up to me and whispered in my ear, ‘I’m gonna write a play for you,’” said Engel in an interview with the San Francisco Examiner. That play is John , which is currently running at The Strand Theater through April 23. In John , Engel plays Mertis, the eccentric proprietor of a Gettysburg bed and breakfast who can best be described as a “cross between Betty White and Yoda.” Behind her sugary voice and love of tchotchkes lies an incredible intellectual curiosity. She loves H. P. Lovecraft and romantic comedies equally. She has memorized dozens of collective nouns for birds: a flock of ducks, a murder ...

By Nathan Correll and Elspeth Sweatman “I relate to Horace, Jr. more than any other character I’ve had the privilege of playing,” says Young Conservatory actor Nathan Correll about Horton Foote’s The Actor , one of two short plays that make up Tomorrow , which runs April 18–22 at A.C.T.’s Strand Theater. “First, I was born in Houston, Texas, and lived around the same area as this character. Second, I grew up around a family that wasn’t exactly used to the idea of having an actor in the family, though they believed in me a lot earlier than Horace’s parents do.” YC actor Nathan Correll in Punk Rock , 2016. Photo by Jay Yamada. The Actor , commissioned by the YC, is an autobiographical play that tells the story of Foote’s own reckoning as a teenager. Growing up in Depression-era Texas with the dream of becoming an actor, Horace must stick to his convictions amidst ridicule from his peers and fear of failure from his parents. Paired with The Actor is another of Foote’s short p...

By Elspeth Sweatman  "I find John terrifying, but find it impossible to pinpoint why," says director Ken Rus Schmoll. "That's what attracts me to it. It's like driving down a road in the fog. You can only see a few yards ahead of you, and you never seem to arrive at your destination." As the New York–based director prepared to direct the haunting John —running through April 23 at The Strand Theater—we caught up with him to chat about bed-and-breakfasts, playwright Annie Baker, and presenting reality onstage. Director Ken Rus Schmoll. Photo by Zack DeZon. What is your favorite thing about John ?  I love the characters. Each of them is deeply knowable and deeply mysterious. One of the play's preoccupations is how different generations relate to one another. In addition to the young couple, there are two roles for actresses in their seventies that are complex, far from the stereotypical "old ladies" that permeate popular culture. Old age...

By Elspeth Sweatman In Annie Baker’s John , running through April 23 at The Strand Theater, the word “watch”—in all its derivations—is used 37 times: 22 in the dialogue, and 15 in the stage directions. But what does it mean to watch and be watched? What does it feel like? A doll. Photo by Em Cecile, 2011. Courtesy of Flickr. You walk into an art gallery. As you move from painting to painting, you feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. You become hyperaware of those around you. You react to every movement, every sound. Your brain is sensing a threat, but from where? Then, you realize: the eyes in the paintings are following you. You are being watched. The reason some people feel this way in an art gallery is because the human brain is “designed to read faces for important information about intentions, emotions, and potential threats,” says Smithsonian.com journalist Linda Rodriguez McRobbie. As human beings, we look to the eyes for important social cues and informa...

By Elspeth Sweatman During A.C.T.’s 50th-anniversary season, strong women are navigating their way through traditionally male-oriented spaces. In John , running through April 23 at The Strand Theater, two characters command center stage: Mertis and Genevieve, not just women but older women.    Genevieve (Ann McDonough) and Mertis (Georgia Engel) in A.C.T.'s 2017 production of John . Photo by Kevin Berne. At first glance, 72-year-old Mertis—played by Georgia Engel—is a woman who is fulfilling a role we associate with older women; as the owner of a bed-and-breakfast, she has taken on a nurturing, mothering role. She cooks breakfast for her guests and has tea and treats always on hand. Together with her friend Genevieve (aged 85), Mertis provides advice to Jenny and Elias, two twentysomethings who are staying at the b and b. But we quickly realize that there is much more to Mertis. She has incredible intellectual curiosity. She has read H. P. Lovecraft and Neoplaton...

By Michael Paller Here is Part Two of our interview with Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Annie Baker, whose play John is currently running at The Strand Theater through April 23. Elias (Joe Paulik) and Jenny (Stacey Yen) in A.C.T.'s 2017 production of John . Photo by Kevin Berne. Can you say something about how John came about? I read that you got interested in reading “uncanny texts like Hoffmann and Bruno Schulz and German Expressionist films.” Does what you’re reading often find its way into what you’re writing? And where else did this play come from, if you can say? John came out of years of reading and thinking, and yes, what I’m reading always finds its way into my work. Reading is part of writing for me. One book that was a huge influence on John was Victoria Nelson’s The Secret Life of Puppets , which then led me to all these other texts by Bruno Schulz and E. T. A. Hoffmann and Daniel Schreber. Let’s see . . . what else influenced the play? William James’s...