Inside A.C.T.

posted by Carey Perloff, A.C.T. Artistic Director Cocreated by Carey Perloff and Val Caniparoli, A.C.T.’s world premiere production of The Tosca Project played to sold-out houses in 2010. Now it’s on its way to a second life at Theatre Calgary in Canada, where it was been renamed Tosca Cafe . Performances begin September 13 at Theatre Calgary , followed by an engagement at Vancouver Playhouse in October. Now busily working with Caniparoli to remount and reimagine the show for its Canadian run, Perloff took a quick break to share her thoughts on the show’s journey. It is a gift to be able to revisit a production a year after its premiere—and amazing the clarity that can emerge after some time away. Val Caniparoli and I have been collaborating on The Tosca Project for over four years. It began as an experiment to see what would happen if we put five ballet dancers and five actors in a room and tried to create something together, and culminated with a world premiere on the A...

posted by Beatrice Basso, Dramaturg and A.C.T. Artistic Consultant Last week at A.C.T. we held a workshop to continue developing The Tosca Project , a theater/dance fusion piece created by A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff and San Francisco Ballet choreographer Val Caniparoli. Featuring a remarkable cast of actors and dancers, The Tosca Project celebrates a century of San Francisco history in North Beach’s famed Tosca Café. Beatrice Basso, who serves as the production’s dramaturg, wrote to us from the workshop studio about the process of shaping—and reshaping—this unique original work. There’s something that often happens after a presentation: everybody involved has someone they know (and trust) in the audience and ends up collecting their observations—what they loved, what they didn’t understand, what they craved. The morning after our presentation, we gathered the audience’s thoughts and our own, and found that many echoed one another. The main point of consensus was the ...

posted by Beatrice Basso, Dramaturg and A.C.T. Artistic Consultant This week at A.C.T. we’re holding a workshop to continue developing The Tosca Project , a theater/dance fusion piece created by A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff and San Francisco Ballet choreographer Val Caniparoli. Featuring a remarkable cast of actors and dancers, The Tosca Project celebrates a century of San Francisco history in Nort h Beach’s famed Tosca Café. Beatrice Basso, who serves as the production’s dramaturg, writes to u s from the workshop room about the process of shaping—and reshaping—this unique original work. Day 3: A Sneak Preview A large portion of our time was devoted to preparing a “sneak preview” for donors and others who have particularly helped us develop the project. Among them, three women carrying whole chunks of Tosca Café history were at the presentation: Jeannette Etheridge, who has been the owner and soul of the bar since the late 1970s (and shared many of her stories with us ...

by Beatrice Basso, Dramaturg and A.C.T. Artistic Consultant This week at A.C.T. we’re holding a workshop to continue developing The Tosca Project , a theater/dance fusion piece created by A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff and San Francisco Ballet choreographer Val Caniparoli. Featuring a remarkable cast of actors and dancers, The Tosca Project celebrates a century of San Francisco history in North Beach’s famed Tosca Café. Beatrice Basso, who serves as the production’s dramaturg, writes to u s from the workshop room about the process of shaping—and reshaping—this unique original work. DAY 2: On Letting Go Yesterday afternoon we worked on a duet between WPA artist Sargent Claude Johnson and a young woman who happens to enter the Tosca Café as he is painting a mural inside. We were talking and struggling, trying and re-trying. In general, this is a process of experimentation that requires patience and the willingness to “fail again, fail better,” especially in those awkward...

posted by Beatrice Basso, Dramaturg and A.C.T. Artistic Consultant This week at A.C.T. we’re holding a workshop to continue developing The Tosca Project , a theater/dance fusion piece created by A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff and San Francisco Ballet choreographer Val Caniparoli. Featuring a remarkable cast of actors and dancers, The Tosca Project celebrates a century of San Francisco history in North Beach’s famed Tosca Café. Beatrice Basso, who serves as the production’s dramaturg, writes to us f rom the workshop room about the process of shaping—and reshaping—this unique original work. DAY ONE: Layers and Anticipation We are sitting around in the rehearsal room. I don’t know if the picture shows it, but it’s right at that moment before a new process begins, when the air is filled with plans and chatter and unspoiled anticipation—still one of my favorite moments in theater. Even as these moments accumulate, each one seems to carry its own brand of specialness. In thi...