# American Conservatory Theater

The American Conservatory Theater (ACT) is a nonprofit theater company in San Francisco, California, United States, that offers both classical and contemporary theater productions. It also has an attached acting school.

## History

The American Conservatory Theater was founded in 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by theatre and opera director William Ball in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Playhouse and Carnegie Mellon University. Ball presented twenty-seven fully staged productions in rotating repertory, in two different theaters – the Geary Theater and the Marines Memorial Theatre – during the first 40-week season.
A.C.T.'s original twenty-seven member acting company featured René Auberjonois, Peter Donat, Richard Dysart, Michael Learned, Ruth Kobart, Paul Shenar, Charles Siebert, Ken Ruta, and Kitty Winn among others. Ball's mid-1970s productions of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, starring Marc Singer, and Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, starring Peter Donat and Marsha Mason, were televised by PBS.
In the mid-1980s, Ball, suffering from exhaustion and under accusations of financial mismanagement, was forced to relinquish his post as artistic director. He was succeeded by A.C.T. founding member and stage director Edward Hastings, who revived the company's fortunes until the Geary Theater was severely damaged by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The company continued performing in a number of San Francisco venues.
Carey Perloff served as A.C.T.'s artistic director from 1992 to 2018. In 2007, A.C.T. released a cast album of Perloff's production of the Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill musical Happy End, produced by LucasArts studios. It includes the full score and is the first English-language recording of this musical. Pam MacKinnon was appointed to succeed Perloff as artistic director, effective with the end of the 2017–2018 season.

## Theaters

A.C.T.'s primary home in San Francisco is the Toni Rembe Theater (formerly the Geary Theater, located at 415 Geary Street near the corner of Mason Street in the Theatre District of San Francisco. Built in 1910 and designed by Walter D. Bliss and William B. Faville in the Classical Revival and Late Victorian styles, it was previously known as the Columbia Theater. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 27, 1975, under the name "Geary Theater", and was designated an official San Francisco Designated Landmark on July 11, 1976, under the name "Geary Theater".
In 2015, A.C.T. opened the Strand Theater at 1127 Market Street between 7th and 8th Streets, across from the U.N. Plaza in the Civic Center neighborhood of San Francisco. The building has a 283-seat theater as well as a 120-seat event and performance space. A.C.T. uses the theater to present educational workshops, cabaret performances and specially commissioned new works, as well as productions connected to their M.F.A. and Young Conservatory programs.

## Acting school

A.C.T.'s was WASC accredited to grant Master of Fine Arts degrees for actors, 1984–2022. However, due to lack of funding, A.C.T. discontinued that program in June 2022.
A.C.T. offers training through the Studio A.C.T., the Summer Training Congress, and Young Conservatory programs.

### Young Conservatory

A.C.T.'s Young Conservatory is a theater training program for youth through the ages of 19. It was founded by Luanne and Ross Graham in 1971. Successive YC directors include Candace Birk, Sharon Newman, Linda Aldrich, and Susan Stauter. The program has been led since 1988 by Craig Slaight. The Young Conservatory is geared toward performing new works specifically for young actors, and has premiered plays and musicals by playwrights such as Horton Foote and Paul Zindel. The conservatory members are also offered roles in the main stage productions, most frequently A Christmas Carol, which is performed every winter.

## Sound design

The first person to be given the title sound designer in regional theater was Dan Dugan at A.C.T. in the late 1960s. The term sound design was introduced to the film world when Francis Ford Coppola directed a production of Private Lives at A.C.T. for which his father, Carmine Coppola, arranged the music and Charlie Richmond was the sound designer while the final cut of the film The Godfather was being edited in 1972.

## Alumni
### Young conservatory actors

* Darren Criss
* Brie Larson
* Milo Ventimiglia
* Zendaya

### Actors

* Elizabeth Banks
* Anna Belknap
* Annette Bening
* Sarayu Blue
* Benjamin Bratt
* Christopher Fitzgerald
* Danny Glover
* Harry Hamlin
* Teri Hatcher
* Amy Irving
* Don Johnson
* Lauren Lane
* Sacheen Littlefeather
* Elizabeth McGovern
* Omar Metwally
* Dileep Rao
* Jean Rasey
* Anika Noni Rose
* Winona Ryder
* Greg Sestero
* Douglas Sills
* Morgan Spector
* Mfoniso Udofia
* Denzel Washington
* Gedde Watanabe
* Justin Whalin
* Sharr White
* Dane Witherspoon

### Sound design

* Dan Dugan