Inside A.C.T.

posted by Elizabeth Brodersen, A.C.T. Publications Editor and a research dramaturg on The Tosca Project Listen to an excerpt from Carey Perloff and Elizabeth Brodersen’s interview with Tosca Cafe owner Jeannette Etheredge, who describes her decision to buy the bar and honor its rich historical legacy. (5.6 mb) Listen to an excerpt from Valerie Hart’s interview with Vesuvio Cafe co-owner Janet Clyde, who describes her early memories of Tosca Cafe. (2.2 mb) On any theatrical production, it is typically the dramaturg’s job to collect research that will help the playwright, director, and performers create, shape, and authentically realize the story that will unfold onstage. Developed organically in a series of improvisatory workshops, based on real people in a real place over a 90-year period, and conceived without a conventional script, The Tosca Project presented a particularly complex challenge. What kind of information would be most helpful to the process? Where could we find ...

posted by Kyle Schaefer, cast member of The Tosca Project  Kyle Schaefer, who graduated from the A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program in May, writes about his experience performing on the A.C.T. mainstage and the joy of working with the artists of varied backgrounds who make up the ensemble of The Tosca Project . The Tosca Project is my first job as a professional actor out of school. It feels oddly like home, however, and I think I’ve been realizing how prepared I am for the nuts and bolts of this profession. In many ways it has felt like any other production I’ve been involved with: get together in the room, rehearse, take breaks, rehearse again, argue a point, take direction, joke around, work hard, get frustrated, have fun. I’m certainly familiar with life at 30 Grant and the American Conservatory Theater. However, there are also many firsts for me in this new world of postgraduation life. I don’t take it lightly that I am employed directly out of school on a world premi...

posted by Brian Jansen, A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program class of 2011  I found this picture and wanted to share it with the A.C.T. community. It is trustee Dianne Hoge and her husband Ron with three Master of Fine Arts Program students—myself (on the right), Sara Hogrefe ’10, and Matt Bradley ’12. Clearly, we are having a ball. Diane is one of the members of the Board of Trustees who act as a “Trustee Host” for M.F.A. Program students. What does this mean? Well, every student-trustee host relationship is different, but the general idea is that board members take a particular student or group of students under their wing. They are a familiar face at opening nights and the annual gala events; they attend our shows, cheer on our progress, and help with networking and general support during our three years here. Dianne and Ron are incredibly gracious hosts. We get invited over to their house a few times a semester for drinks and dinner. Often they invite other artists or yo...

posted by Katie May, A.C.T. Publications & Literary Intern  Katie writes about her experience doing dramaturgical research for the Round and Round the Garden edition of A.C.T.’s performance guide series, Words on Plays . And her correspondence with Simon Murgatroyd, personal archivist to playwright Alan Ayckbourn, which grew out of that research. Dramaturgical work on a play is an interesting process. It begins (of course) with reading the play, but it’s a different kind of reading from reading for pleasure or critical evaluation, a deeper reading informed by the question: What information would deepen the audience’s experience of this playwright’s work? After the reading comes the research. Which begins, like most research nowadays, with a Google search and quick trip to Wikipedia, but quickly extends to trips to the library and explorations of the archives of obscure literary journals in a quest to bring our audience precisely what can’t be found with a Google search a...

posted by Manoel Felciano, cast member of Round and Round the Garden Associate Artist Manoel Felciano plays Norman in A.C.T.’s production of Round and Round the Garden . He writes about his unique inspiration for Alan Ayckbourn’s endearingly lusty librarian. Character inspiration can come from the unlikeliest of sources. As rehearsals began for Round and Round the Garden , I was struck by how much my character, Norman, is compared to a dog in Ayckbourn’s text. He is lovingly described, with his “aimless sort of beard,” as “an Old English sheepdog . . . all woolly and doubled ended.” Norman’s long-suffering wife, Ruth, who knows him best, describes him as follows: “It’s a bit like owning an oversized unmanageable dog, being married to Norman. He’s not very well house-trained, he needs continual exercising—mental and physical—and it’s sensible to lock him up if you have visitors. Otherwise he mauls them. But I’d hate to be rid of him.” Of his philandering ways, Ruth wryly remar...

posted by Courtney Thomas,  A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program class of 2012  The A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program class of 2012 makes its public performance debut in Sam Shepard’s A Lie of the Mind . Courtney Thomas writes about preparing to take on this challenging play with her seven classmates at the end of her first year as an M.F.A. Program student. Funny: I could have sworn I was the bravest and most outspoken fighter. That is, until I was introduced to Beth, the character I play in Sam Shepard’s A Lie of the Mind . That is what this journey has been about for me: finding my voice. Beth is not shy about saying what she wants, when she wants it, and, most importantly, why . So there is no room for me to be shy either, right? But it’s hard. I am rounding out my first year at A.C.T., where I have thrust myself into more uncomfortable situations than one could fathom with seven new people in my life. It was easy to get shy, and that shyness started to bleed into ...