SAN FRANCISCO’S PREMIER NONPROFIT THEATER COMPANY

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY

JAN 2018 SEASON 51, ISSUE 4 BY QUI NGUYEN DIRECTED BY JAIME CASTAÑEDA

Vietgone is not your typical how-Mom- met-Dad story. Not unless they hit it off at a refugee camp in Arkansas. But that’s the story of playwright Qui Nguyen’s parents, who fell in love against all odds. Fleeing war-torn Vietnam, Tong and Quang navigate the unfamiliar landscape of 1970s America. As they learn more about the culture of this new land, they ponder what “home” really means. Is home a place, a person, a feeling? Bending genres and breaking rules, Nguyen’s cheeky retelling of his own family story skips through time and

“A raucous, immensely moving comedy.” Charles Isherwood, The New York Times BEGINS FEBRUARY 21 A.C.T.’S STRAND THEATER act-sf.org/vietgone | 415.749.2228 “Hip, high-wire theatricality . . . sultry sexiness . . . quirky playfulness.” The Seattle Times

bounces between borders, cracking Winner of the 2016 Harold and Mimi jokes along the way. Director Jaime Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Castañeda, who’s known Nguyen for Association New Play Award, Vietgone years, calls this play “uniquely Qui— was an off-Broadway hit at Manhattan he takes what seems like a traditional Theatre Club and sold out shows at immigrant story and turns it into this 2016’s Oregon Shakespeare Festival. wild, epic road-trip fantasia with fights This all-new production—complete and music and dancing and sex.” with kick-ass ninja fights and an original rap-inspired score—will burst Set to an original soundtrack that mixes into The Strand this February. contemporary hip-hop sounds with ’70s funk and disco, Vietgone is a toe-tapping adventure that explores the heartbreak of war along with the funny side of love. Throughout, Nguyen’s storytelling seamlessly shifts from romantic comedy to heart-rending drama. January 2018 Volume 16, No. 4 Business, meet box office. Encore connects your business to arts patrons

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4 ACT-SF.ORG SAN FRANCISCO'S THEATER COMPANY

American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco’s Tony Award– A.C.T.’s 50-year-old Conservatory, led by Melissa Smith, is winning nonprofit theater, nurtures the art of live theater at the center of our work. Our three-year, fully accredited through dynamic productions, intensive actor training, Master of Fine Arts Program is at the forefront of America’s and ongoing engagement with our community. Under the actor training programs. Meanwhile, our intensive Summer leadership of Artistic Director Carey Perloff and Executive Training Congress attracts students from around the world, Director Peter Pastreich, we embrace our responsibility to and the San Francisco Semester offers a unique study-abroad conserve, renew, and reinvent our rich theatrical traditions opportunity for undergraduates. Other programs include and literatures, while exploring new artistic forms and Studio A.C.T.—our expansive course of theater study for new communities. Founded by William Ball, a pioneer of adults—and the Professional Development Training Program, the regional theater movement, A.C.T. opened its first San which offers actor training for companies seeking to elevate Francisco season in 1967. We have since performed more than their employees’ business performance skills. Our alumni 350 productions to a combined audience of more than seven often grace our mainstage and perform around the Bay million people. Every year we reach more than 250,000 people Area, as well as on stages and screens across the country. through our productions and programs. A.C.T. also brings the benefits of theater-based arts education Rising from the wreckage of the earthquake and fire of 1906 to more than 16,000 Bay Area students and educators each and hailed as the “perfect playhouse,” the beautiful, historic year. Director of Education & Community Programs Elizabeth Geary Theater has been our home since the beginning. When Brodersen oversees the world-famous Young Conservatory the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake ripped the roof apart, San (for students ages 8 to 19) and our ACTsmart education Franciscans rallied together to raise a record-breaking $30 programs, including the Student Matinee (SMAT) program million to rebuild the theater. The Geary reopened in 1996 with that has brought hundreds of thousands of young people to a production of The Tempest directed by Perloff, who took over A.C.T. performances since 1968. We also provide touring Will on in 1992 after the retirement of A.C.T.’s second artistic director, Wheels Shakespeare productions, teaching-artist residencies, gentleman artist Ed Hastings. in-school workshops, and study materials to Bay Area schools and community-based organizations. Perloff’s 25-season tenure has been marked by groundbreaking productions of classical works and new translations creatively With our increased presence in the Central Market neighborhood colliding with exceptional contemporary theater; cross- marked by the renovation of The Strand Theater and the disciplinary performances and international collaborations; opening of The Costume Shop Theater, A.C.T. plays a leadership and theater made by, for, and about the Bay Area. Her fierce role in securing the future of theater for San Francisco and commitment to audience engagement ushered in a new era the nation. of InterACT events and dramaturgical publications, inviting everyone to explore what goes on behind the scenes.

American Conservatory Theater Board of Trustees (As of November 2017) The Board of Directors of the M.F.A. Program Kirke M. Hasson Ray Apple Peter Pastreich Joan Danforth CHAIR Lesley Ann Clement Carey Perloff Dagmar Dolby Abby Sadin Schnair Kay Yun Richard T. Davis-Lowell Robina Riccitiello William Draper III CHAIR PRESIDENT Jerome L. Dodson Sally Rosenblatt John Goldman Michael G. Dovey Rusty Rueff Kaatri Grigg Sara Barnes Nancy Livingston IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIR Olympia Dukakis Abby Sadin Schnair James Haire Carlotta Dathe Sarah M. Earley Lori Halverson Schryer Kent Harvey Frannie Fleishhacker Celeste Ford Frannie Fleishhacker Jeff Spears Sue Yung Li Arnie Glassberg VICE CHAIR Ken Fulk Robert Tandler Christine Mattison Christopher Hollenbeck Priscilla Geeslin Dianne Hoge Patrick S. Thompson Joan McGrath Luba Kipnis VICE CHAIR Jo S. Hurley Joaquin Torres Deedee McMurtry Linda Kurtz David Riemer Jeri Lynn Johnson Jeff Ubben Mary S. Metz Jennifer Lindsay VICE CHAIR Alan Jones Adriana López Vermut Toni Rembe Joseph Ratner Steven L. Swig Jascha Kaykas-Wolff Susy Wadsworth Cherie Sorokin Toni Ratner Miller VICE CHAIR James H. Levy Nola Yee Alan L. Stein Toni Rembe Heather Stallings Little Barry Lawson Williams Sally Rosenblatt Linda Jo Fitz TREASURER Janet V. Lustgarten EMERITUS Carlie Wilmans Anne Shonk Jamie Martin ADVISORY BOARD Melissa Smith Daniel E. Cohn Jeffrey S. Minick Barbara Bass Bakar Patrick S. Thompson SECRETARY Michael P. Nguyen Rena Bransten Alan L. Stein Martim Oliveira Jack Cortis CHAIR EMERITUS

American Conservatory Theater was founded in 1965 by William Ball. Edward Hastings, Artistic Director 1986–92

415.749.2228 5 EAP full-page template.indd 1 11/29/17 4:23 PM PHOTO BY SIMON HODGSON BY PHOTO

Dramaturg Michael Paller and Director Carey Perloff at the first WHAT’S INSIDE rehearsal for A.C.T.’s production of The Birthday Party (2018).

ABOUT THE PLAY INSIDE A.C.T.

9 LETTER FROM THE 22 LOOKING FORWARD EDITOR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR A New Chapter SIMON HODGSON By Carey Perloff in the Young Conservatory ASSOCIATE EDITOR By Elspeth Sweatman ELSPETH SWEATMAN 12 LIKE STAGING A BOXING MATCH An Interview with Director Carey Perloff CONTRIBUTORS 24 RAISING ACTORS MICHAEL PALLER By Simon Hodgson A.C.T. and Macy’s Support Education CAREY PERLOFF TAYLOR STEINBECK 14 THE KNOCK AT THE DOOR Programs with Dickens Event By A.C.T. Publications Staff How Power Works in The Birthday Party By Michael Paller VOLUNTEER! 25 PART OF SOMETHING GREATER A.C.T. volunteers provide an invaluable service A.C.T.’s Prospero Society with their time, enthusiasm, and love of theater. By Elspeth Sweatman Opportunities include helping out in our performing arts library and ushering in our theaters. act-sf.org/volunteer

DON’T JUST SIT THERE . . . VIETGONE (FEB 21–APR 22) OUT WITH A.C.T.* WENTE VINEYARDS WINE SERIES AT THE STRAND THEATER Mar 14, 7:30 PM Mar 27, 6:30 PM Mix and mingle at this hosted Meet fellow theatergoers at BIKE TO THE THEATER NIGHT postshow LGBT party. this hosted wine-tasting event. Feb 21, 6:30 PM Ride your bike to A.C.T. and take THEATER ON THE COUCH* PLAYTIME advantage of secure bike parking Mar 16, 7:30 PM Apr 14, 12:45 PM and low-priced tickets at our preshow Take part in a lively conversation with Get hands-on with theater at this mixer, presented in partnership with Dr. Mason Turner, chief of psychiatry interactive preshow workshop. the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center. At A.C.T.’s free InterACT KDFC PROLOGUE events, you can mingle with Mar 6, 5:30 PM COMMUNITY DAY cast members, join interactive Go deeper with a fascinating preshow Mar 17, 4 PM workshops with theater artists, discussion with a member of the Join us for a celebration of Vietnamese food, music, and culture. and meet fellow theatergoers Vietgone artistic team. at hosted celebrations in our AUDIENCE EXCHANGE* lounges. Join us for Vietgone Mar 13, 7 PM; Mar 28, 2 PM; and InterACT with us! Apr 1, 2 PM To learn more and order tickets for InterACT events, visit act-sf.org/interact. Join us for an exciting Q&A with the cast following the show. *Events take place immediately following the performance.

415.749.2228 7 A C SAVE THE DATE A.C.T. CELEBRATES CAREY Saturday, April 7 Y

RFour Seasons HotelE A star-studded, black-tie gala with 757 Market St., San Francisco a cocktail reception, elegant dinner, GALA CHAIRS special performances, and dancing. Priscilla Geeslin and Nancy Livingston Proceeds will go to A.C.T.’s education HONORARY CHAIRS programs, serving over 16,000 young Ruth and Alan L. Stein people in the Bay Area each year.

For more information, please contact Jody Price at 415.439.2470 or [email protected]. FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year and welcome to The Birthday Party! As I got to know Pinter, it became clear what a Jewish writer he was. Growing up in the East End of London as the son of Samuel Beckett famously said about James Joyce, “His work a Jewish tailor, Pinter was evacuated during World War II and is not about the thing, it is the thing itself.” I have always felt experienced the force of anti-Semitic violence as a young man. that the same applies to the extraordinary work of Harold His humor is drawn from Jewish music hall traditions, and his Pinter. Although much has been written about Pinter’s writing exhibits a palpable sense of being an outsider in the existential or absurdist tendencies, the truth is that a Pinter class-oriented world of postwar Britain. One particular hint of play is pure experience. He encloses a world, puts people his Jewish background is the obsession with names and naming inside that world, and watches them fight to survive. In in his plays, in particular with the way Jews often change their Pinter’s landscape, you are predator or prey. And watching names to protect themselves. Pinter himself acted under the how those roles shift in an instant can make for thrilling and stage name “David Baron” for many years, and when I asked him surprisingly hilarious drama. Pinter asks us to examine why we why he finally gave that up, he replied, “They always find out in treat each other the way we do. What is power? How does the end.” In The Birthday Party, Goldberg’s name is an object sexuality play into it? Why is innocence so dangerous and of great confusion (and some terror) for McCann, who doesn’t seductive? What are we guilty of? Later in life, when talking seem to understand what Goldberg is hiding. about The Birthday Party, Pinter said that although his plays became more obviously political over time, he always felt The In addition, Pinter was one of the most erudite of writers, and Birthday Party told the story of one individual fighting against completely self-taught. Like his friend Tom Stoppard, Pinter the co-option of the state, or the group, or the mob. When left school at 17 and never went to university, but his deep Petey yells out, “Stan, don’t let them tell you what to do!” knowledge of literature and history, and his profound love Pinter was speaking from experience. He spent his whole life of Shakespeare, come through in all his writing. Having just not doing what people told him to do. directed Hamlet, I find much of the Bard inThe Birthday Party.

I first worked with Pinter in 1989 in New York. I was running Since that encounter in New York, I have directed nearly all of Classic Stage Company, a small off-Broadway theater, where Pinter’s plays, but I have not returned to The Birthday Party until we were producing the American premiere of Pinter’s now. It felt like a fitting choice for my final season as A.C.T.’s Mountain Language (a one-act play about political prisoners artistic director, in part because it is material that is more forbidden to speak their own language) in a double bill with resonant than ever in this moment of terror and bullying, in part The Birthday Party. Pinter came to New York to rehearse because in spite of its dark themes, it still makes me laugh out with us. You can’t imagine how surreal that was for me: I loud, and in part because the play offered me the opportunity was a twentysomething director running a fairly indigent to bring back to The Geary so many favorite artists, including downtown theater, and was offered the opportunity to Marco Barricelli, Firdous Bamji, Dan Hiatt, Julie Adamo, and collaborate with perhaps the greatest living playwright in the Scott Wentworth, as well as designers Nina Ball, Darron L English-speaking world. Despite his famously cantankerous West, and Candice Donnelly, and to introduce one of America’s reputation, Pinter was a joy to work with. He relished the greatest comediennes, Judith Ivey, to the Geary stage. Working process (he loved actors, being one himself), and when on the play, it is clear what a profound influence it has had on solicited, gave succinct and brilliant notes. He took the so many subsequent writers, from Martin McDonagh to Sam characters at their word, interrogated them just as we Shepard to Annie Baker. It has been a great joy to go back to did, defended their territory and laughed at their jokes, the source. understood their vulnerability and shuddered at their cruelty. Every moment was about action, every duet was a stand-off This production of The Birthday Party is dedicated to my and a dance. husband, Anthony Giles, in celebration of all the many nights we have sat on our couch reading Pinter aloud to each other and feeling, in Lenny’s words from The Homecoming, “jubilant.”

Thank you for joining us, and enjoy!

Carey Perloff Artistic Director

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EAP full-page template.indd 1 12/12/17 9:50 AM CAREY PERLOFF, Artistic Director PETER PASTREICH, Executive Director PRESENTS

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY BY HAROLD PINTER DIRECTED BY CAREY PERLOFF

CREATIVE TEAM CAST (IN ORDER OF SPEAKING) SCENIC DESIGNER NINA BALL COSTUME DESIGNER CANDICE DONNELLY MEG JUDITH IVEY* LIGHTING DESIGNER ROBERT HAND PETEY DAN HIATT* SOUND DESIGNER DARRON L WEST STANLEY FIRDOUS BAMJI* DRAMATURG MICHAEL PALLER LULU JULIE ADAMO* CASTING DIRECTOR JANET FOSTER, CSA McCANN MARCO BARRICELLI* DIALECT COACH CHRISTINE ADAIRE GOLDBERG SCOTT WENTWORTH*

UNDERSTUDIES STAGE MANAGEMENT PETEY, GOLDBERG JAMES COYLE* STAGE MANAGER ELISA GUTHERTZ* LULU BEATRIZ MIRANDA** ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER DANI BAE* MEG TRISH MULHOLLAND* STAGE MANAGEMENT STANLEY, McCANN RYAN TASKER* FELLOW ERIN SWEENEY

THIS PRODUCTION MADE POSSIBLE BY *Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States COMPANY SPONSORS **Member of the A.C.T. M.F.A. Program class of 2018 appearing BURT AND DEEDEE MCMURTRY in this production courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS KEVIN AND CELESTE FORD ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS PAUL ANGELO NANCY AND JERRY FALK MR. JOEL KRAUSKA AND MS. PATRICIA FOX The Birthday Party is presented LINDA KURTZ LEE AND CAROLYN SNOWBERG by special arrangement with MRS. KATHERINE G. WALLIN AND MR. HOMER WALLIN Samuel French, Inc. BEVERLY AND LORING WYLLIE

415.749.2228 11 ABOUT THE PLAY

LIKE STAGING PHOTO BY NINA BALL A BOXING MATCH AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR CAREY PERLOFF BY SIMON HODGSON

12 ACT-SF.ORG In 1987, Carey Perloff wrote to Harold Pinter to gain the rights to The Birthday Party for Classic Stage Company. The odds were against the 28-year-old director. Pinter was unhappy about American productions of his plays that were overly psychological. “Americans tend to do dramaturgy that’s confessional,” says Perloff. “If you tell the truth, you

absolve yourself. But the British don’t tend to tell people PHOTO BY TOM CHARGIN what they think. For them, language is a smokescreen.” Perloff’s persistence earned her not only the rights to the play, but the beginning of a collaboration with Pinter that would span 20 years. As Perloff returns to The Birthday Party for the first time since the ’80s, she spoke about the play and her long partnership with Pinter and his work.

Why do you keep coming back to Pinter? There’s nothing better. [Laughs] He’s such a touchstone for me. ABOVE I find his work absolutely hilarious. Meg asks Goldberg, “Do Carey Perloff and Harold Pinter at Classic Stage Company you like my dress, Mr. Goldberg?” and he says, “It’s out on its in New York (1989). own.” Who writes like that? It’s so crazy and yet so real and OPPOSITE brilliant. I love the mystery of it, the muscle. Every line is active. Set model, by scenic designer Nina Ball, You’re either predator or prey. It’s like staging a boxing match. for A.C.T.’s 2018 production of The Birthday Party.

What did you learn from working with Pinter? Having him in the room was incalculable. Pinter never sexuality, and surprise. Nobody ever says anything that explained something in terms of what it meant. I asked him isn’t targeted. When Goldberg threatens Stanley and says why Meg always asks Petey to read her the newspaper; what sit down and Stanley won’t sit down and then Goldberg does it tell us about their marriage? He said, “I believe she’s stands up, that is a change of landscape as enormous as forgotten how to read.” That is something an actor can play. a bomb going off. The stage directions and the physical He always said “I believe” because as a writer, he trusted relationship of characters to each other are potent. his characters to teach him what the play was about. Why is Pinter one of the great playwrights? You first directedThe Birthday Party in 1988. What’s He brought a liveness and muscle to drama that had been different about this play for an audience in 2018? very conversational. If you look at who had come before We’ve gone through a lot more terror. We’ve been through 9/11. him—Noël Coward, J. B. Priestley, Terence Rattigan—they’re Remember that Pinter grew up during World War II. The fact quite different. Pinter’s plays are like athletic events. All that he was a Jewish kid living in London during the Blitz at a about competition. The drama is sexual and active. It’s time of enormous anti-Semitism is highly relevant to Pinter’s about moment-to-moment experiences of people caught sense of the world. The Birthday Party is about the individual in a room, trying to either protect or defend themselves. against the state—the visceral experience of being hunted—but it’s also about coercive religious and political institutions. How does the past impact his characters? For any Pinter character, the past is fraught terrain, a country What are the challenges facing you and scenic of infinite mystery. Everyone has done things they’re ashamed designer Nina Ball? of. As he said about Old Times, you don’t have nostalgia until The set should feel inescapable, claustrophobic, and not you turn 40 and then all you think about is your past. That’s too capacious. It’s a challenge in the enormous Geary why he usually writes older characters. In The Birthday Party, Theater to make something enclosed. Nina’s an amazing several characters refer to incidents or people in their pasts. designer. Her set looks ordinary, but it’s also just a little Are they telling the truth? Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. It skewed and weird. It was Nina’s thought to build the only matters how the past can influence the moment now. sand world around this seaside boardinghouse. As you prepare for opening night at The Geary, what How does the production design square with the dramaturgy? has been the most enjoyable part of the process? What I said to the designers is that Pinter had an incredibly Being in the rehearsal room. It’s absolutely alive. You can’t complex theatrical imagination. He started a play with two analyze it, you have to do it. You have to be incredibly bold. people sitting in a room, and he would listen and wait to see It’s funny and rigorous and uncompromising and delicious. what they said. He had an incredible sense of action, menace, It’s pure theater. Everything was theatrical for Pinter.

415.749.2228 13 ABOUT THE PLAY PHOTO COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS WIKIMEDIA COURTESY PHOTO

THE KNOCK AT THE DOOR HOW POWER WORKS IN THE BIRTHDAY PARTY BY MICHAEL PALLER

In Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party, Goldberg and McCann Pinter was very young when he learned how dangerous the arrive at an English seaside boardinghouse in search of a third world can be when those with power attempt to bend the man—Stanley. Who they are, whom they represent, and why powerless to their will. He was born in London in 1930 to a they’ve come for Stanley are mysteries. Into this expositional Jewish family. In 1939, at the beginning of World War II, he vacuum rush uncertainty and unease. In Act Two, they subject and 1.5 million other British city children were evacuated to him to a fierce interrogation, including a series of bewildering the countryside, where they would be safe from German questions: “What about the Albigensenist heresy?” “Who bombers. On the coast of Cornwall, he felt isolated from the watered the wicket in Melbourne? “What about the blessed surroundings and people he knew. His disoriented seaside Oliver Plunkett?” What’s the meaning of this? Is it code? The life lasted a year, after which he returned to London in time answer lies in how Pinter’s characters get and deploy power. It for the worst of the bombing. lies, too, in the reasons why power mattered so much to him in the first place.

14 ACT-SF.ORG Before and even after the war he saw members of the British Union of Fascists parade through the heavily Jewish East End. The brigades of black-shirted men were a reminder that the nighttime knock on the door could come to England as well as mainland Europe. For Pinter and his friends, this display of power was a none-too-subtle threat.

The blackshirts were an ugly minority in Britain, but Pinter ran up against the full power of the state when in 1948 he refused

to register for national service (the British equivalent of the AMOROSINO BRAD BY DRAWING draft in America). The war was just over; revelations about the Nazi death camps were still shocking; the Soviets had seized Eastern Europe, and the Allies, led by the United States, were airdropping supplies to keep West Berlin from starvation. Obligated by world affairs, patriotism, and the pressure to conform, Pinter’s closest friends obeyed the law and signed up. But Pinter refused to serve. He spent a night in jail and only his father’s willingness to pay the fines—as well as a change in the way that conscientious objectors were treated—kept him from a prison sentence. Before he was 20, the ways in which the powerful pressured the powerless had been indelibly implanted in his consciousness and imagination.

Power isn’t always about physical violence: the knock at the ABOVE Graphite drawing of Harold Pinter. door, the punch to the solar plexus. In Pinter’s plays, power is more often psychological, and words are the weapons. As OPPOSITE theater critic Michael Billington wrote in his biography Harold East London during the Blitz, September 1940. By Paris Bureau Collection (USIA). Pinter, “Any conversation between two people conceals a New York Times Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. tactical battle for advantage.”

In daily life we use words to refer to the things and concepts succumbs to power until the curtain comes down, and even that they represent. But Pinter often uses words not to relay then, there may be no clear-cut victor. Goldberg and McCann or discover information but to define a relationship in terms wield power inside the boardinghouse, but may well have of power. A character makes a statement or asks a question none outside it. Neither man exits the play unscathed, and and, regardless of the sentence’s literal meaning, the listener their fate is as unknown as Stanley’s. They too may discover understands that he’s being asked to accept lower status in the need to resist. a struggle for power. When Goldberg asks Stanley, “Who watered the wicket in Melbourne?” (a reference to a notorious 1955 cricket match), he’s not asking for information. He means to dominate, confuse, and terrorize Stanley into submission.

“Power” in and of itself isn’t a theme. “Power must be resisted” is. A character asked to surrender power may choose to resist instead. Stanley resists with words of his own, and when they fail him, one can argue that he still tries to exert his will through sounds. He resists Goldberg and McCann all the way Want to know more about The Birthday Party? from the interrogation until the moment when Petey, Meg’s Words on Plays is full of original essays and easygoing husband, urges, “Stan, don’t let them tell you what interviews that give you a behind-the-scenes look. to do!”—a line that Pinter said was possibly the most important Proceeds from sales of Words on Plays benefit he ever wrote. A.C.T.’s education programs.

The one thing a Pinter character must never do when confronting power is admit fear or confess vulnerability. The Available at the box office and lobby, at the bars, battle must be played out to the end. No one in a Pinter play and online at act-sf.org/wordsonplays.

415.749.2228 15 WHO’S WHO IN THE BIRTHDAY PARTY JULIE ADAMO* include Dostoyevsky’s The Gambler, credits include Joe Turner’s Come and (Lulu) is a recent Camille by Alexandre Dumas, fils, and Gone and Dinner with Friends at graduate of the The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Berkeley Repertory Theatre; The Life A.C.T. Master of Rushdie (Audie Award nomination). and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby Fine Arts Program. and many others at California She was most MARCO Shakespeare Theater; The 39 Steps at recently seen on BARRICELLI* TheatreWorks; Picasso at the Lapin Agile the Geary stage in (McCann), former at Theatre on the Square; Breakfast with Tom Stoppard’s The Hard Problem and artistic director of Mugabe at Aurora Theatre Company; as Beth in A Christmas Carol (2016). Santa Cruz and Anne Boleyn at Marin Theatre Previous M.F.A. Program productions Shakespeare, has Company. Regional theater credits include Cardenio (Susan), Macbeth been an actor, include work with Shakespeare Theatre (Malcolm), The Belle’s Stratagem (Miss director, and Company, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Ogle/Kitty Willis), and The Skin of Our educator since 1982. He has acted and Arizona Theatre Company, Huntington Teeth (Mrs. Antrobus). Her regional directed for over 30 years at theaters Theatre Company, Pasadena Playhouse, credits include Carly in reasons to be across the country. After eight seasons Theatre Calgary, and Ford’s Theatre. pretty with the Workshop Theater with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Group. Adamo holds a BS in theater he became a core company member at JUDITH IVEY* performance from the University of A.C.T., where he acted in many (Meg) is a four-time Evansville and is the recipient of the mainstage productions, and directed nominated and Bert and Le Anne Steinberg Leadership and taught in the Master of Fine Arts two-time winner of Award. Program. He has also worked on the Tony Award, a Broadway and with Long Wharf Theatre, three-time FIRDOUS Williamstown Theatre Festival, Guthrie nominated and BAMJI* (Stanley) Theater, The Old Globe, and South two-time winner of is an award-winning Coast Repertory, among others. the Drama Desk Award, a three-time actor who has Television appearances include L.A. Law nominated and winner of the Lucille worked with and a recurring role on NBC’s The Book Lortel Award, an Emmy Award nominee, numerous theater of Daniel. Barricelli teaches acting in the and an Obie Award winner. Ivey has companies around MFA program at UC San Diego and has appeared in over 40 films (most recently the country and taught abroad at the Accademia Big Stone Gap and Cortez), starred in internationally. He has performed in Nazionale d’Arte Drammatica Silvio four television series (Designing premieres of works by Tom Stoppard, D’Amico in Rome and the Prima del Women), and guest-starred in many Tony Kushner, Naomi Wallace, and Teatro in San Miniato, Italy. He holds more (including White Collar, Nurse Rebecca Gilman. Bamji played Anish an honorary M.F.A. from A.C.T., is a Jackie, and Bloodline). She received an Das in the American premiere of Fox Fellow, and a graduate of The honorary doctorate from her alma Stoppard’s Indian Ink at A.C.T. (1999), Juilliard School. mater, Illinois State University, was and Nirad Das at A.C.T. and inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Roundabout Theatre Company (2015; DAN HIATT* Fame, received the Texas State Medal of Obie Award). Bamji moved to London (Petey) was most Arts for Theatre, and was honored by in 2007 to co-write and act in recently seen at Women in Film. Her latest production Complicité’s A Disappearing Number A.C.T. as Polonius in was Fireflies, directed by Gordon (Laurence Olivier, Critics’ Circle Hamlet. Other roles Edelstein, at Long Wharf Theatre, Theatre, and Evening Standard awards). at A.C.T. include starring opposite Jane Alexander and The play was filmed for National James Reiss in King Denis Arndt. Theatre Live, and toured Europe, Charles III, Sid Davis Australia, India, and the United States. in Ah, Wilderness!, the ensemble of Love Bamji’s screen credits include The Sixth and Information, Tom in Round and Sense, Unbreakable, Analyze That, Round the Garden, Bob Acres in The Ashes, Justice, and The War Within Rivals, Guildenstern in Rosencrantz and (Independent Spirit Award nomination). Guildenstern Are Dead, and Cornelius Bamji’s numerous audiobook narrations Hackl in The Matchmaker. His Bay Area

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States 16 ACT-SF.ORG SCOTT WENTWORTH* music dance theater 2017/18 (Goldberg) last Cal Perform ances SEASON appeared at A.C.T. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY as Lord Burleigh in Mary Stuart. He starred on Manual Cinema Broadway in Lost in Ada/Ava Yonkers, Anna Karenina, Getting Married, Drew Dir, director Kyle Vegter and Ben Kauffman, sound and score and Welcome to the Club, for which he

was nominated for a Tony Award. A Shadow puppetry, live music, twenty-four-year veteran of Canada’s and immersive visual effects Stratford Festival, he has played Iago in combine to tell the magical story of two elderly sister lighthouse Othello; the title role in Macbeth; Daniel keepers separated by death. de Bosola in The Duchess of Malfi; Claudius in Hamlet; the Earl of Gloucester in King Lear; the title role in “Spellbinding…harking Henry IV, Part 1; Sky Masterson in Guys back to the earliest days of cinema while opening new and Dolls; Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof; possibilities for theatre.” Shylock in The Merchant of Venice; Sir —The Telegraph, London Epicure Mammon in The Alchemist; the Ragman in The Madwoman of Chaillot; and the title role in John Gabriel Borkman, directed by Carey Perloff. Next season he will play James Tyrone March 16–18 in Long Day’s Journey into Night ZELLERBACH PLAYHOUSE opposite Seana McKenna. He has acted in theaters across the US and Canada.

JAMES COYLE* Ex Machina (Understudy) has 887 acted for nearly 40 Written, designed, directed, years on both coasts and performed by Robert Lepage in theater, film, and television. In New Acclaimed Canadian director, actor and playwright Robert York, he was seen in Lepage focuses his latest work Uncle Vanya on down to the most intimate scale—a one-man show steeped Broadway (with Derek Jacobi), and off in his own childhood memories. Broadway in Gross Indecency: The Three The production employs Trials of Oscar Wilde at the Minetta Lane everything from archival film footage to shadow puppetry Theatre, Kenneth Branagh’s Public to dollhouse-like miniatures of Enemy at the Irish Arts Center, and The entire city blocks. Professional at Circle Repertory Theatre. Regional engagements include the “Touching, intimate, powerful” Denver Center for the Performing Arts, —The Guardian, London McCarter Theatre Center, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Goodspeed Musicals, and the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts. Television credits include Law & Order, May 4 & 5 ZELLERBACH HALL Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Rescue Me, and he will be seen in an Performed in English and French with English supertitles. upcoming episode of 13 Reasons Why. Season calperformances.org Sponsor:

415.749.2228 17 18 18 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT A.C.T. Support to Proud www.sflg.com 415.834.1120 San Francisco, CA94105 575 Market Street, Suite 4000 client’s dignityandhumanity. Our goalisto preserve our final resolution thoughtful litigation Personal a [email protected]. contact Program Director DanKolodny at To learnmore, visitact-sf.org/growth or F collaboration A M innovation leadership presence CLIENTS INCLUDE: I TRAINING L YL ttention A

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* * courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association Equity Actors’ of courtesy production this in appearing 2018 of class Program Arts Fine of Master A.C.T. the of Member the United States United the in managers stage and actors professional of union the Association, Equity Actors’ of Member ( Salem de brujas Las Puertorriqueño’s Teatro Rodante el in to life Putnam Ann of character stand-up comedian and brought the and improviser an as performed Miranda Rico, Puerto of University the from theater and psychology in BA and non-actors on presentation skills. actors coaches she and director, casting a instructor, A.C.T. aStudio is She Area. Bay the in settling finally before France, and Italy in shows radio hosting Europe, in lived Mulholland Australia. Melbourne, in host radio award-winning atop-rating, was and School Drama Theatre National Australia’s of graduate Hamptons the in Seagull Bacchae The Agave in Courage, Mother include Favorite roles Festival. Shakespeare Company, and the San Francisco Theatre Aurora A.C.T., including Christmas Carol A in Mary as stage Geary the on seen recently most was Miranda Brackett. Clickshare Meninas Bride Juliet and Romeo in aBottle LoveBullfinch and Mrs. include A.C.T. at Roles town. home her in teacher and adirector as worked Las Las in Marie-Therese , Queen , and Ashley in Lucas Kavner’s Kavner’s Lucas in Ashley , and , and the updated diva in A in diva updated the , and , directed by Stephen by Stephen , directed . The Crucible The River River The in , Helena pursuing a double adouble pursuing Program. While Arts Fine of Master A.C.T.’s of year third her in currently (Understudy) MIRANDA** BEATRIZ around the Bay Area Area Bay the around stages on appeared has and Players Shotgun Berkeley’s of amember is (Understudy) MULHOLLAND* TRISH . She is a is . She , Nurse in in , Nurse ). She also also She ). is is

He died on Christmas Eve, 2008. Eve, 2008. Christmas on died He Literature. in Prize Nobel the awarded was he 2005, In activist. political and director, poet, aprolific was Pinter plays. (2007), (1993), Day the of Sleuth Remains The Tale (1990), Handmaid’s The (1981), Theater, amongothers. Rhinoceros, TheatreFIRST, andJust Pacific Repertory Theatre, Theatre Theatre, TheatreWorks, Shotgun Players, Theatre Company, SanJoseRepertory Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Aurora credits includeroles withtheSan staged reading series.Tasker’s other and directing for theirOffthe Page Gone, inadditionto acting,producing, a Party andYou Know When theMenAre whom hehasoriginated roles inThree on Word Performing ArtsCompany, with He isanassociate artist withWord for Lee’s Straight White Menlater thisyear. where hecanbeseeninYoung Jean Osage County at MarinTheatre Company, performed inAnneBoleyn andAugust: Sensibility. Tasker alsorecently Juliet, The RealThing, andSense Much Ado aboutNothing, Romeoand Festival, where hehasalsoappeared in HAROLD PINTER PINTER HAROLD (1963), Eater Pumpkin The for screenplays the wrote also Pinter Celebration (1999). (1978), Betrayal (1974), Land Man’s No (1970), Times Old The Homecoming (1964), Theincluding Birthday Party followed, plays other Twenty-eight play, The Room first his in England and Ireland before writing companies theater repertory in acted He London. east in 1930 in born was (1988), and and Mountain Language (1988), The French Lieutenant’s Woman and several adaptations of his his of adaptations several and Shakespeare the Livermore de Bergerac with role inCyrano played thetitle most recently (Understudy) RYAN TASKER* (Playwright) , in 1957. , in (1957), (1957), ACT-SF.ORG

NINA BALL (Scenic Designer) has designed sets for A.C.T. (Chester Bailey, Monstress, and Underneath the Lintel), California Shakespeare Theater, Shotgun Players, San Francisco Playhouse, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Aurora Theatre Company, Center REPertory Company, TheatreFIRST, The Cutting Ball Theater, Z Space, and Santa Cruz Shakespeare, among others. Recent honors include a Theatre Bay Area Award for The Nether (SF Playhouse), and San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards for My Fair Lady (SF Playhouse) and Metamorphosis (Aurora); a BroadwayWorld San Francisco Award for Care of Trees (Shotgun Players); and a Shellie Award for her design of Mirandolina! Mistress of a Tuscan Inn at Center REP. Ball is also a company member of Shotgun Players. In addition to theater, Ball works as a production designer in film and television. Upcoming projects include The Effect and An Entomologist’s Love Story at SF Olivia and Jim Guthrie, residents since 2015 Playhouse and White at Shotgun Players.

CANDICE DONNELLY (Costume Their Shared Designer) designed the upcoming film The Chaperone, written by Julian Fellows. She is currently designing The Acting Company’s X: Or, Betty Shabazz v. The Nation and Twelfth Night. Donnelly’s A.C.T. credits VISION include Indian Ink and Between Riverside With children and grandchildren in California and and Crazy, among others. Additional credits include Madama Butterfly (Opera a teaching history that includes Stanford and UC Theatre of Saint Louis), A Little Night Music Berkeley, Olivia and Jim decided that San Francisco (Roundabout Theatre Company), Private Lives (Shakespeare Theatre Company), Towers not only is the city’s most appealing Life Plan La novicia rebelde (Teatro Opera Citi), Endgame (Brooklyn Academy of Music), Community, but also offers an address central to The Wiz (Baltimore Center Stage), She the best of the Bay Area. To learn more, or for your Loves Me (Westport Country Playhouse), Edgardo Mine (Guthrie Theater), Haroun personal visit, please call 415.447.5527. and the Sea of Stories (New York City Opera), The Flying Dutchman (Vlaamse Opera), and Tales of Hoffman (Opera Hong Kong). On Broadway, she has designed Our Country’s Good, Fences, Hughie, Mastergate, and Search and Destroy. Off-Broadway credits include As You Like It (The Public Theater), Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (The Pearl Theater Company), and Harbor (Primary Stages). Donnelly has designed for many American 1661 Pine Street, San Francisco, CA 94109 sanfranciscotowers-esc.org Experience films (PBS), as well as Frogs A not-for-profit community owned and operated by Episcopal Senior Communities. License No. 380540292 COA #177 EPSF752-06WB 030117 and Snakes and I Love You, I Love You Not.

415.749.2228 19

CLIENT ESC / San Francisco Towers PUB Encore AD NAME Gutheries REF NO EPSF752-06wb TYPE 2/3 page vertical, 4C SIZE 4.75 x 9.875 ISSUE March Ballet DUE 1.27.17 VERSION 03 AGENCY RESIN CONTACT Tim Paschke 415.987.4274 ROBERT HAND (Lighting Designer) Sovremennik Theater. Paller is the Cruz, and Shakespeare & Company. designed John, Monstress, and Chester author of Gentlemen Callers: Tennessee She has coached the dialects for the Bailey, for which he received the Theatre Williams, Homosexuality, and Mid- Broadway production and first national Bay Area Award for Outstanding Twentieth-Century Drama; Williams in tour of Mary Poppins. Adaire has Lighting Design (A.C.T.); La Cage aux an Hour; and A Five-Act Play: 50 Years taught at DePaul University, National Folles, Seared, and Stage Kiss (San of A.C.T. He has also written theater and Theatre School of Canada, University Francisco Playhouse); Home in 7 by book reviews for the Washington Post, of Massachusetts–Amherst, University choreographer Amy Seiwert and Village Voice, and Newsday magazine. of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and Roosevelt Boiling Point by choreographer Darrell Before his arrival at A.C.T., he taught University. She’s taught workshops in Grand Moultrie (Atlanta Ballet); and at Columbia University and the State Shanghai, Barcelona, London, Australia, Peter Pan by choreographer Jorden University of New York at Purchase. and New Zealand. Her current area of Morris (Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and research and writing is transgender voice. Nevada Ballet Theatre). Additional JANET FOSTER, CSA (Casting She works with transgender individuals credits include lighting designs for the Director) has cast for A.C.T. for six so that they can modify their voice to English National Ballet, North Carolina seasons including Hamlet, The Hard more fully express their gender identity. Theatre, Milwaukee Ballet, Scottish Problem, King Charles III, John, Arcadia, Ballet, Anchorman 2: The Legend Stuck Elevator, The Orphan of Zhao, ELISA GUTHERTZ* (Stage Continues, and Scary Movie 5. He was Napoli!, Elektra, Endgame and Play, Manager) most recently worked on previously the resident lighting designer and Scorched. On Broadway she cast Hamlet at A.C.T. Last season she staged for Atlanta Ballet, where he designed The Light in the Piazza (Artios Award managed A Thousand Splendid Suns at more than 25 new works, many of which nomination), Lennon, Ma Rainey’s Black A.C.T. and Theatre Calgary. Her numerous remain in their permanent repertoire. Bottom, and Taking Sides (co-cast). other productions for A.C.T. include A Off-Broadway credits include True Night with Janis Joplin, King Charles III, DARRON L WEST (Sound Love, Floyd Collins, The Monogamist, Chester Bailey, The Realistic Joneses, Designer) is a Tony and Obie Award– A Cheever Evening, and Later Life. Monstress, Love and Information, winning sound designer whose work Regionally, she has worked at Intiman Testament, Major Barbara, Underneath for dance and theater has been heard Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, the Lintel, Arcadia, The Normal Heart, in over 600 productions all over the California Shakespeare Theater, The Scottsboro Boys, Endgame and United States and internationally in 14 Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Yale Play, Scorched, Clybourne Park, The countries. For A.C.T., West has designed Repertory Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Rainmaker, Fatherville, The Tosca Project (2010 San Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The A Number, and Eve Ensler’s The Good Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Old Globe, and American Repertory Body, among others. She has also Award), The Government Inspector, Theater. Film, television, and radio stage-managed The Mystery of Irma Vep, and Travesties. His accolades include credits include Cosby, Tracey Takes Suddenly Last Summer, Rhinoceros, Big Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Audelco, On New York, The Deal, Advice from a Love, Civil Sex, Collected Stories, and and Princess Grace Statue awards. Caterpillar, The Day That Lehman Died Cloud Tectonics at Berkeley Repertory (Peabody, SONY, and Wincott awards), Theatre. Other productions include MICHAEL PALLER (Dramaturg) and “T” Is for Tom (Tom Stoppard radio The Good Body at the Booth Theatre joined A.C.T. as resident dramaturg and plays, WNYC and WQXR). She also on Broadway, Big Love at Brooklyn director of humanities in 2005, where cast LifeAfter, a GE Theater podcast. Academy of Music, and The Vagina he has been the dramaturg for more Monologues at the Alcazar Theatre. than 70 productions and workshops. CHRISTINE ADAIRE (Dialect He began his professional career as Coach) is a Designated Master Linklater DANI BAE* (Assistant Stage literary manager at Center Repertory Voice Teacher, trained by the world Manager) returns to A.C.T. for The Theatre (Cleveland), then worked as renowned voice teacher Kristin Linklater. Birthday Party. Recent A.C.T. credits script consultant for Manhattan Theatre She has worked as an actor, voice coach, include A Thousand Splendid Suns. Bae Club and the Eugene O’Neill Theater and director in many American regional has worked locally at Aurora Theatre Center, and has since been a dramaturg theaters, including Oregon Shakespeare Company on Luna Gale and Splendour. for George Street Playhouse, the Festival, The Old Globe, Milwaukee Other favorite stage management credits Berkshire Theatre Festival, Barrington Repertory Theatre, The Guthrie Theatre, include the Bard Music Festival (Bard Stage Company, Long Wharf Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare, Goodman Theatre, SummerScape) and Urinetown: The Roundabout Theatre Company, and Lyric Opera, Steppenwolf Theatre Musical (American Theatre of Actors). others. He dramaturged the Russian Company, Court Theatre, American She has recently completed a fellowship premiere of Tennessee Williams’s Players Theatre, Theatre for a New at A.C.T. Bae has a BFA in stage Small Craft Warnings at Moscow’s Audience (NYC), Shakespeare Santa management from Syracuse University.

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States 20 ACT-SF.ORG BURT AND DEEDEE MCMURTRY (Company Sponsors) have produced numerous A.C.T. shows, including A Thousand Splendid Suns, Satchmo at the Waldorf, A Little Night Music, 1776, Arcadia, Maple and Vine, Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City, Vigil, Rock ’n’ Roll, and Happy End. Deedee is a member of A.C.T.’s Emeritus Advisory Board and former co-chair of the Producers Circle. She is on the Art Committee for Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, the Arts Advisory Board and the Director’s Advisory Board for the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, and the Advisory Council for Eastside College Preparatory School. An electrical engineer by training and a retired venture capitalist, Burt is a past chair of the Stanford University Board of Trustees, and a former trustee of Rice University and Carnegie Institution for Science. Burt is currently involved with Stanford’s Hoover Institution, Institute for Economic Policy Research, and various other entities.

KEVIN AND CELESTE FORD (Executive Producers) moved to the Bay Area in 1978 and purchased A.C.T. season tickets to support and watch two classmates from the University of Notre Dame who were enrolled in the A.C.T. M.F.A. Program. The Fords have not missed a production at A.C.T. since. Celeste is the CEO and founder of Stellar Solutions, an aerospace engineering services business, and Kevin is the CFO. Stellar Solutions just celebrated its 23rd anniversary and has received accolades including the National Baldrige Award for performance excellence and Fortune magazine’s Great Places to Work list. The company’s engineers work on a variety of satellite projects, including the science mission to Mars, commercial communication satellites, and defense and intelligence satellites. Celeste and Asian Art Museum 200 Larkin Street Kevin have three grown children who join Chong Moon-Lee Center San Francisco, CA 94102 them at A.C.T. productions whenever they for Asian Art and Culture www.asianart.org can. Celeste, who was an engineer by day and actress by night in college, currently serves on the A.C.T. Board of Trustees.

415.749.2228 21 INSIDE A.C.T. PHOTO BY BRAD AMOROSINO BY PHOTO

LOOKING FORWARD A NEW CHAPTER IN THE YOUNG CONSERVATORY BY ELSPETH SWEATMAN

Exploration and Collaboration. Those are the two words new Another area of discovery and collaboration is the growing Young Conservatory Director Jill MacLean uses to describe this relationship between A.C.T.’s mainstage shows and those year’s YC season. “It’s all about experiencing theater not just produced in the YC. When Hamlet was on the Geary stage as an assignment—‘Come in and pick up your script’—but as a in September, the YC was preparing to perform Tom collaboration,” says MacLean. “That’s how a play starts: artists Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a play sit down in a room and ask what do we want to say. That’s at that centers on two of Hamlet’s supporting characters. The the heart of why we do theater.” cast of Hamlet, including Tony Award–nominated actor John Douglas Thompson, even stopped by to chat with these This exploration of every facet of the theater world is budding actors about their process and their thoughts on happening in the YC in many different ways. One is expanding Shakespeare’s iconic characters. current acting classes to include other aspects of theater- making—playwriting, dance, stage combat, design, stage This relationship with A.C.T.’s mainstage productions continues management, and directing. YC students will also have the this winter, as YC actors study playwright Harold Pinter in opportunity to attend and participate in staged readings and their classes and prepare to tackle Vietgone playwright Qui collaborative workshops. The students in one of this fall’s Nguyen’s play Begets: Fall of a High School Ronin. Begets acting classes traveled with their teacher, Black Butterflies follows Emi Edwards, a high schooler who overcomes bullying director Lauren Spencer, to Brava Theater Center in the using her kung fu prowess, only to discover that violence Mission to watch her in action in a staged reading of a new engenders violence. “It’s Mean Girls meets samurais meets the play. “I want these young theater artists to see firsthand how teenage trifecta of adolescence, popularity, and power. It’s a the acting tools they are learning translate to the real theater great opportunity to explore some movement-based work,” world,” says MacLean. “Sometimes the most impactful lessons says A.C.T. Associate Producer Ken Savage. YC actors will also for developing actors are learned outside of the classroom.” meet the playwright and share their experiences of working on Nguyen’s plays with the cast of Vietgone.

22 ACT-SF.ORG PHOTO BY REEK FELIZIANI BY PHOTO PHOTO BY TAYLOR STEINBECK TAYLOR BY PHOTO

FROM LEFT YC Director Jill MacLean; Amanda Morrow in Black Butterflies (2017); John Douglas Thompson with the Young Conservatory cast of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (2017).

Begets also provides an opportunity for collaboration with participate in the new play development process with The River another of A.C.T.’s actor training programs: the Master of Bride playwright Marisela Treviño Orta as she crafts a work Fine Arts Program. A handful of roles in Nguyen’s play will about them and for them. be played by M.F.A. Program actors, building upon the relationships that these developing theater-makers fostered “This year in the YC is all about these young developing actors during this year’s Christmas Carol. “With the M.F.A. Program connecting with what is going on outside the classroom,” says actors literally rehearsing right next door, there are so many MacLean, “creating the stories they want to tell, and exploring opportunities for these actors-in-training to learn and discover theater-making, what it means to them, and their place in it.” together,” says MacLean.

This relationship between the YC and the M.F.A. Program will carry through into the summer, as M.F.A. Citizen Artists teach BEGETS: FALL OF in the YC’s summer classes as well as in the Summer Training A HIGH SCHOOL RONIN Congress and Education & Community Programs initiatives runs April 17–21 in The Rueff throughout the Bay Area. at A.C.T.’s Strand Theater.

Later this season, the YC will continue its mission to To buy tickets and learn more about upcoming commission new work written for young actors through the classes and performance opportunities in the Collaborative Youth Arts Project (CYAP). Working alongside Young Conservatory, visit act-sf.org/yc. other theater-makers from Destiny Arts Center in Oakland and A.C.T.’s Education & Community Programs, the YC actors will

415.749.2228 23 INSIDE A.C.T. PHOTOS BY RYAN MONTGOMERY RYAN BY PHOTOS RAISING ACTORS A.C.T. AND MACY’S SUPPORT EDUCATION PROGRAMS WITH DICKENS EVENT BY A.C.T. PUBLICATIONS STAFF

On a sunny day in December, Union Square rang out with the sounds of A.C.T. as young actors from our Master of Fine Arts Program and Young Conservatory performed at our inaugural family-friendly fundraiser, A Dickens of a Holiday. The brand-new event, a partnership between Macy’s and A.C.T. celebrating A Christmas Carol, raised $70,000 for our Education & Community Programs, which reach more than 16,000 young people every year. Families from across the Bay Area enjoyed holiday treats, costumed carolers, arts and crafts, and face-painting, before strolling two blocks to The Geary Theater for a matinee performance of the seasonal favorite. A big thank you to event chair Adriana López Vermut and her terrific event committee, to Macy’s Union Square, to the performers who wowed the crowd, and to everyone who supported this hugely entertaining holiday event.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP Young actors from A.C.T.’s Master of Fine Arts Program and Young Conservatory regale the crowd at Macy’s Union Square; families get creative in arts and crafts; M.F.A. Program actors Beatriz Miranda and Peter Fanone join fellow Carol cast members Dylan Elizabeth Hammond and David Graham Jones for a photo opportunity with guests at A Dickens of a Holiday.

24 ACT-SF.ORG INSIDE A.C.T. PHOTO BY DOUGLAS FAIRBURN DOUGLAS BY PHOTO

LEFT Nelda Kilguss and Jane Taber at A.C.T.’s Prospero Society brunch.

For their contribution, Prospero members become part of PART OF A.C.T.’s family. They are invited to attend meet-and-greets with actors and designers, staged readings, sneak peeks of the upcoming season, behind-the-scenes tours, and elegant meals SOMETHING on the Geary stage. They can also relax in our VIP Lounge before the show and during intermission. GREATER “It’s about feeling part of something bigger,” says Prospero Society committee member Kay Auciello. “It’s being able A.C.T.’S PROSPERO SOCIETY to see how A.C.T. grows, how its actors and Conservatory BY ELSPETH SWEATMAN students develop, appreciating all that’s involved in creating great theater, and knowing that your support will continue to contribute to these artistic endeavors after you’re gone.” As December turns to January, our minds fill with goals and plans for the future. For some, that means planning their next “Having legacy donors is more important now than we ever outing to the theater. For others, it means planning for the rest imagined,” says Prospero Society committee member Barbara of their lives—and beyond. Bessey. “Arts organizations need all the help they can get. Joining Prospero is about letting A.C.T. know that you think “If you are passionate about theater and passionate about enough of them that you want them to succeed in the future.” A.C.T., why not give a little for the future?” says A.C.T. Trustee and Prospero Society Chair Jo S. Hurley. “Everyone who loves theater and is interested in the future of theater in the Bay Area should join Prospero.” A heartfelt thank you to Kay Auciello, Barbara Bessey, Jo S. Hurley, and all of our Prospero Society members. Named after the magician in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, For more information on membership benefits and how A.C.T.’s Prospero Society was created especially for those to plan your legacy gift to A.C.T., visit theater lovers who have included A.C.T. in their estate plans. act-sf.org/prospero or contact A.C.T. Deputy Director Their generosity helps support all facets of A.C.T., including of Development Tiffany Redmon at 415.439.2482 the Master of Fine Arts and Education & Community programs, or [email protected]. new play development, and vital infrastructure upgrades, such as repaving the sidewalk outside The Geary Theater.

415.749.2228 25 FRANNIE FLEISHHACKER, CO-CHAIR • ROBINA RICCITIELLO, CO-CHAIR We are privileged to recognize Producers Circle members’ generosity during the December 1, 2016, to December 1, 2017, period. For information about Producers Circle membership, please contact Tiffany Redmon at 415.439.2482 or [email protected].

*An Evening at Elsinore event sponsor/lead supporter †A Dickens of a Holiday event sponsor/lead supporter

SEASON PRESENTERS

FRANNIE FLEISHHACKER FRED M. LEVIN AND TONI REMBE AND JEFF AND LAURIE UBBEN has supported A.C.T. for more than 21 NANCY LIVINGSTON* ARTHUR ROCK Jeff is a founder of ValueAct Capital years. She has chaired season galas and Nancy is the immediate past chair of Past chair of A.C.T.’s Board of Trustees, and a director of 21st Century Fox serves on A.C.T.’s Board of Trustees and A.C.T.’s Board of Trustees. She serves Toni is a retired partner at Pillsbury Inc. and Willis Towers Watson PLC. several committees. She funded the on the boards at the College of Fine Winthrop Shaw Pittman. Arthur was one He serves on the boards of Duke Mort Fleishhacker M.F.A. Scholarship Arts at Boston University and the of America’s first venture capitalists. University, Northwestern University, and multiple capital campaigns. She National Council for the American Along with other community endeavors, and the E. O. Wilson Biodiversity has held board positions at the SF Theatre. Fred serves on the boards they are cofounders of the Arthur and Foundation. Laurie founded San Junior League and the Francisca Club. of the SF Symphony, the Asian Art Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Francisco’s Bird School of Music. Museum, and the SF Film Society. Governance at Stanford Law School. PRISCILLA AND KEITH GEESLIN† Priscilla is a vice chair of A.C.T.’s BURT AND DEEDEE MCMURTRY* MARY AND STEVEN SWIG Board of Trustees and chairs the Deedee is on A.C.T.’s Emeritus Advisory Steven has served on A.C.T.’s board Development Committee. She serves Board. She serves on the art committee since 1986 and is cofounder of Presidio on the boards of SF General Hospital for Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Graduate School. Mary is on the Foundation, the SF Symphony, Grace and the arts advisory and director’s Women’s Leadership Board of Harvard Cathedral, and NARAL Pro-Choice advisory boards for Stanford Cantor Art University’s John F. Kennedy School of America. A principal of Francisco Center. Burt has served on the boards Government. They serve on the boards Partners, Keith is the president of of Stanford University, Rice University, of the Solar Electric Light Fund and SF Opera’s board of trustees. and Carnegie Institution for Science. the Americans for Cures Foundation.

COMPANY SPONSORS EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS PRODUCERS Merrill Randol Sherwin Jerome L. and Thao N. Dodson Lesley Ann Clement and Karl Lukaszewicz Paul Asente and Ron Jenks David and Carla Riemer* Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund* Bill and Phyllis Draper Nancy and Joachim Bechtle Dr. Caroline Emmett and Dr. Russell Rydel Mr. and Mrs. Gordon P. Getty Sakana Foundation Lloyd and Janet Cluff Abby and Gene Schnair* Jeri Lynn and Jeffrey W. Johnson*† Kevin and Celeste Ford Daniel E. Cohn and Lynn Brinton Kathleen Scutchfield Mimi and Peter Haas Fund Jo S. Hurley* Carlotta and Robert Dathe* Anne and Michelle Shonk* Barbara Ravizza and John S. Osterweis Christopher and Leslie Johnson Concepción and Irwin Federman Cherie Sorokin Patti and Rusty Rueff John Little and Heather Stallings Little Linda Jo Fitz* Doug Tilden Jack and Susy Wadsworth† Janet V. Lustgarten† Kirke and Nancy Sawyer Hasson* Barry Williams and Lalita Tademy Nion McEvoy and Leslie Berriman Stephen and Diane Heiman* Kay Yun and Andre Neumann-Loreck*† Kenneth and Gisele Miller Dianne and Ron Hoge*† Robina Riccitiello† Rodman and Ann Marymor Sally and Toby Rosenblatt* Don and Judy McCubbin Lori Halverson Schryer† Mr. and Mrs. J. A. McQuown Mr. and Mrs. Charles R. Schwab Clay Foundation - West Valli Benesch and Bob Tandler Donald J. and Toni Ratner Miller* Susan A. Van Wagner Rich Rava and Elisa Neipp Aaron Vermut and Adriana López Vermut† LeRoy Ortopan Barbara and Stephan Vermut† Elsa and Neil Pering Nola Yee Mr. and Mrs. Tom Perkins*

DIANNE HOGE, CO-CHAIR • NOLA YEE, CO-CHAIR

We are privileged to recognize these members’ generosity during the December 1, 2016, to December 1, 2017, period. For information about Directors Circle membership, please contact Tiffany Redmon at 415.439.2482 or [email protected].

*An Evening at Elsinore event sponsor/lead supporter †A Dickens of a Holiday event sponsor/lead supporter

ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS William H. Donner Foundation Arnie and Shelly Glassberg* Jennifer Langan Paul Angelo The New Ark Fund Dr. Allan P. Gold and Mr. Alan C. Ferrara Marcia and Jim Levy Mrs. Barbara Bakar Barb and Gary Erickson Marcia and John Goldman Jennifer S. Lindsay Kenneth Berryman Nancy and Jerry Falk Marcia and Geoffrey Green Helen M. Marcus, in memory of Dr. Barbara L. Bessey Mr. Rodney Ferguson and Betty Hoener David Williamson Ben and Noel Bouck Ms. Kathleen Egan Chris and Holly Hollenbeck Drs. Michael and Jane Marmor Linda Joanne Brown Vicki and David Fleishhacker Alan and Cricket Jones Christine and Stan Mattison Gayle and Steve Brugler Tom Frankel Luba Kipnis and David Russel* Mr. and Mrs. Robert McGrath James and Julia Davidson Mr. and Mrs. Thomas A. Gallagher Mr. Joel Krauska and Ms. Patricia Fox Mary and Gene Metz Carol Dollinger Dr. and Mrs. Richard E. Geist Linda Kurtz* Mr. Byron R. Meyer

26 ACT-SF.ORG Milton Mosk and Thomas Foutch Gary Rubenstein and Nancy Matthews Ms. Kendra Hartnett and Robert Santilli Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. Spears Tim Mott and Pegan Brooke Scott and Janis Sachtjen Mrs. Deirdre Henderson Steven and Chris Spencer Paula and John Murphy Kent and Nancy Clancy Mr. and Mrs. Jerre Hitz Mr. Paul Spiegel Terry and Jan Opdendyk The Somekh Family Foundation Ms. Marcia Hooper Lillis and Max Stern The Bernard Osher Foundation Mr. Richard Spaete Rob Hulteng Vibeke Strand, MD and Jack Loftis, PhD Norman and Janet Pease Diana L. Starcher Robert Humphrey & Diane Amend Richard and Michele Stratton Marjorie Perloff Roselyne C. Swig Judy and Bob Huret Mr. Jay Streets Ms. Carey Perloff and Mr. Anthony Giles Martin Tannenbaum† Robert and Riki Intner Mr. M. H. Suelzle Ms. Saga Perry and Mr. Frederick Perry Pasha and Laney Thornton Harold and Lyn Isbell Susan Terris Lisa Pritzker Larry Vales Franklin Jackson & Maloos Anvarian Dr. Eric Test and Dr. Odelia Braun John Riccitiello Jane and Bernard von Bothmer† Stephanie and Owen Jensen Nancy Thompson and Andy Kerr Rick and Anne Riley Joy and Ellis Wallenberg, Russell and Mary Johnson Mrs. Helena Troy Wasp Dr. James Robinson and Milton Meyer Foundation Sy Kaufman and Kerstin Edgerton John R. Upton Jr. and Ms. Kathy Kohrman Louise Wattrus Ms. Pamela L. Kershner Janet Sassoon-Upton Matt and Yvonne Rogers Ms. Allie Weissman Miss Angèle Khachadour Arnie and Gail Wagner Susan Roos Barbara and Chris Westover Ms. Nancy L. Kittle Mr. and Mrs. James Wagstaffe Paul and Julie Seipp Dr. and Mrs. Andrew Wiesenthal Mr. R. Samuel Klatchko Ms. Margaret Warton and Rick and Cindy Simons Carlie Wilmans Mr. Brian Kliment Mr. Steve Benting Lee and Carolyn Snowberg Mr. and Mrs. Roger Wu Harold L. Wyman Foundation Ms. Carol Watts Mr. Laurence L. Spitters Thomas and Barbara Lasinski Ms. Patricia Tomlinson and Emmett and Marion Stanton DIRECTORS Harriet Lawrie Mr. Bennet Weintraub Vera and Harold Stein Anonymous (2) Mr. Richard Lee and Irv Weissman and Family Dr. Martin and Elizabeth Terplan Martha and Michael Adler Ms. Patricia Taylor Lee Ms. Beth Weissman John and Sandra Thompson Bruce and Betty Alberts Ms. Pamela D Lee Marie and Daniel Welch Patrick S. Thompson* Lynn Altshuler and Stanley D. Herzstein Dr. Lois Levine Mundie Mr. and Mrs. David Wilcox Mrs. Katherine G. Wallin and Mr. and Mrs. Harold P. Anderson Mr. Michael Levy and Kenneth and Sharon Wilson Mr. Homer Wallin Sharon L. Anderson Mr. Michael Golden Mr. David S. Wood and Katherine Welch Ms. Kay Auciello Ms. Helen S. Lewis Ms. Kathleen Garrison Mr. and Mrs. Bruce White Jeanne and William Barulich Sue Yung Li and Dale K. Ikeda Mr. and Mrs. Roy B. Woolsey Beverly and Loring Wyllie Bonnie Frank and Michele Bear Ron and Mary Loar The Arthur and Charlotte Zitrin David V. Beery and Norman Abramson* Ms. Evelyn Lockton Foundation BENEFACTOR Jane Bernstein and Robert Ellis Ms. Gayla Lorthridge Diane B. Wilsey* David and Rosalind Bloom Dr. Thane Kreiner and Larry and Lisbeth Blum Dr. Steven Lovejoy PLAYWRIGHTS John Boland and James Carroll Richard N. Hill and Nancy Lundeen Ray and Jackie Apple Mr. Mitchell Bolen and Patrick Machado Mr. Eugene Barcone Mr. John Christner Stephanie and Jim Marver Sara and Wm. Anderson Barnes Fund Christopher and Debora Booth John B. McCallister The Tournesol Project Brenda and Roger Borovoy Elisabeth and Daniel McKinnon Donna L. Beres and Terry Dahl Nicholas and Janice Brathwaite Sue and Ken Merrill Roger and Helen Bohl Benjamin Bratt and Talisa Soto Ms. Nancy Michel Ms. Donna Bohling and Jean L. Brenner Mr. and Mrs. Roger Miles Mr. Douglas Kalish Mrs. Libi Cape J. Sanford Miller and Vinie Zhang Miller Mr. Mark Casagranda Denis Carrade and Jeanne Fadelli Craig and Kathy Moody Dolly Chammas Steven and Karin Chase Mr. and Mrs. Merrill E. Newman Madeline and Myrkle Deaton Susan and Ralph G. Coan, Jr. Ms. Mary D. Niemiller Richard DeNatale and Craig Latker Rebecca Coleman Mrs. Margaret O’Drain Michael G. Dovey Mr. and Mrs. Ricky J. Curotto Emilie and Douglas Ogden Emerald Gate Charitable Trust Tiffanie DeBartolo and Scott Schumaker Margo and Roy Ogus Philip and Judy Erdberg Robert and Judith DeFranco Ms. Barbara Oleksiw Jacqueline and Christian Erdman Ingrid M. Deiwiks Meredith Orthwein Sue and Ed Fish Reid and Peggy Dennis Janet and Clyde Ostler Mr. and Mrs. Patrick F. Flannery William Dewey Janine Paver and Eric Brown Dr. and Mrs. Fred N. Fritsch Mrs. Julie D. Dickson Barbara Phillips Mrs. Susan Fuller Art and JoAnne Dlott Kenneth Preston Sameer Gandhi and Monica Lopez Bonnie and Rick Dlott Gordon Radley Glasser Family Fund Anne and Gerald Down Sandi and Mark Randall Dr. A. Goldschlager Ms. Kathleen Dumas Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Ratinoff Barbara Grasseschi and Tony Crabb Charles and Susan Fadley Albert and Roxanne Richards Fund Mark and Renee Greenstein Mr. Alexander L. Fetter and Jeff and Karen Richardson Mr. Bill Gregory Ms. Lynn Bunim Victoria and Daniel Rivas Kaatri and Doug Grigg Mr. Robert Feyer and Mrs. Marianne B. Robison Rose Hagan and Mark Lemley Ms. Marsha Cohen* Ms. Shelagh Rohlen Mr. and Mrs. Henry Paul Hensley Jacques Fortier Barbara G. Rosenblum Bannus and Cecily Hudson Laura Frey and Erico Gomes Susan Rosin and Brian Bock Paola and Richard Kulp Ms. Kathleen Gallivan Marieke Rothschild Melanie and Peter Maier - Marilee K. Gardner Ms. Irene Rothschild John Brockway Huntington William Garland and Michael Mooney Ms. Dace Rutland Foundation Mr. Michael R. Genesereth Ms. Monica Salusky and Mr. Daniel Murphy Susan and Dennis Gilardi Mr. John Sutherland Barbara O’Connor Ms. Ann M. Griffiths Betty and Jack Schafer Mr. Don O’Neal Raymond and Gale L. Grinsell Ms. Jean Schulz Peter Pastreich and Jamie Whittington Ms. Margaret J. Grover Russ Selinger Mr. Adam Pederson Naren and Vinita Gupta Mr. and Mrs. John Shankel Mr. and Mrs. William Pitcher James Haire and Timothy Cole Mr. James Shay and Mr. Steven Correll Joseph E. and Julie Ratner*† Mr. and Mrs. Richard Halliday Mr. Earl G. Singer Mr. and Mrs. John A. Reitan Vera and David Hartford Richard and Jerry Smallwood Gary and Joyce Rifkind Mr. and Mrs. David M. Hartley Ms. Judith O. Smith

415.749.2228 27 ALAN JONES, CHAIR We are privileged to recognize Friends of A.C.T. members’ generosity during the December 1, 2016, to December 1, 2017, period. Space limitations prevent us from listing all those who have generously supported the Annual Fund. For information about Friends of A.C.T. membership, please contact Sarah Armstrong-Brown at 415.439.2353 or [email protected].

*An Evening at Elsinore event sponsor/lead supporter †A Dickens of a Holiday event sponsor/lead supporter

PATRONS Dr. Gary Stein and Jana Stein Richard and Cheryl Jacobs Dr. Elliot and Mrs. Kathy Shubin Anonymous (2) Ian E. Stockdale and Ruth Leibig Anne and Ed Jamieson Ms. Patricia Sims Mr. Howard J. Adams Dr. and Mrs. G. Cook Story Allan and Rebecca Jergesen Raven Sisco Mr. Michael Bassi and Ms. Christy Styer Mr. Keith Wetmore Mr. and Mrs. Norman L. Johnson Mr. Mark Small Dorothy and Ervin Behrin Christina Yu Mrs. Zeeva Kardos Bert and LeAnne Steinberg Mr. and Mrs. Paul Berg Jascha Kaykas-Wolff Jeffrey Stern, M.D. Fred and Nancy Bjork SUSTAINERS Michael Kim Mr. and Mrs. Monroe Strickberger Peter Blume Anonymous (4) Karla Kirkegaard Mr. Jason Surles Teresa Clark Mr. Paul Anderson Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Klotter Marvin Tanigawa Mr. Byde Clawson and Ms. Patricia Wilde Anderson Edward and Miriam Landesman Maggie Thompson Dr. Patricia Conolly Rebecca and David Ayer Carlene Laughlin Melita Wade Thorpe Ms. Linda R. Clem Dick Barker Mrs. Judith T. Leahy Robert Tufts Paul and Deborah Cleveland Mr. David N. Barnard Mrs. Gary Letson Ms. Leslie Tyler Jean and Mike Couch Mr. William Barnard Barry and Ellen Levine Leon Van Steen Ms. Karen T. Crommie Ms. Pamela Barnes Kathleen Anderson and Jeff Lipkin Mr. and Mrs. Ronald G. VandenBerghe Mr. Copley E. Crosby Robert H. Beadle Ms. Linda Lonay Marsha Veit Ira and Jerry Dearing Mr. Daniel R. Bedford Timothy Lucas Mr. Douglass J. Warner Michael Kalkstein and Susan English David and Michele Benjamin Christiana and Sandy Macfarlane Ms. Meredith J. Watts Leif and Sharon Erickson Ms. Joyce Avery and Mr. Brian A. Berg Mr. and Mrs. William Manheim Mr. Richard West Mr. and Mrs. Richard Fowler Richard and Katherine Berman Alan Markle Mr. Robert Weston Elizabeth and Paul Fraley Stuart and Helen Bessler Robert McCleskey Timothy Wu Ms. Susan Free Mr. Igor R. Blake Karin and Gregory McClune Marilyn and Irvin Yalom Alan and Susan Fritz Mr. John Blankenship and Karen and John McGuinn Nancy and Kell Yang Kathy Hart Ms. Linda Carter Dr. Margaret R. McLean Jacqueline L. Young Mr. John F. Heil Mr. Noel Blos Trudy and Gary Moore Leni and Doug Herst Carol M. Bowen and Michael Morgan James and Helen Hobbs Christopher R. Bowen Sharon and Jeffrey Morris Dr. and Mrs. John E. Jansheski Mr. Roland E. Brandel Mr. Ronald Morrison Ms. Carolyn Jayne Martin and Geri Brownstein Jon Nakamura Louise Karr Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Butcher Dorotea C. Nathan Jeffrey and Loretta Kaskey Jaime Caban and Rob Mitchell Jane and Bill Neilson Ed and Peggy Kavounas Glenn Chapman Jeanne Newman George and Janet King Ms. Shirley Cookston Nancy and Bill Newmeyer Eileen Landauer and Mark Michael James Cuthbertson Ms. Nancy F. Noe Julia Lobel Yogen and Peggy Dalal Ms. Joanna Officier and Mr. Ralph Tiegel Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Logan Jill and Stephen Davis Pamela Orloff Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Long Kelly and Olive DePonte Mr. James O’Toole Jeff and Susanne Lyons Edward and Della Dobranski Barbara Paschke and John G. McGehee Ms. Joanne Dunn David Volpendesta Jeffrey and Elizabeth Minick Mr. and Mrs. John L. Elman Mr. David J. Pasta Thomas and Lydia Moran Marilynne Elverson Richard and Donna Perkins John and Betsy Munz Mr. Robert G. Evans Ms. M. N. Plant Cindy Nicola Mr. James Feuille and Mr. and Mrs. Mark O. Rand Ms. Lisa Nolan Ms. Nancy J. Murray Ms. Joyce Ratner Ms. Susan O’Brien M. Daniel and Carla Flamm Ms. Danielle Rebischung Ann Paras Mrs. Dorothy A. Flanagan Maryalice Reinmuller Caitlin A. Quinn and Peter C. Garenani Karen and Stuart Gansky Mr. and Mrs. Charles Rino Ms. Diane Raile Mr. John Garfinkle Mr. and Mrs. Richard Rogers Helen Hilton Raiser Frederick and Leslie Gaylord Marguerite Romanello Mr. Orrin W. Robinson, III Kathleen and Paul Goldman Deborah Romer and William Tucker Barbara and Saul Rockman Dr. James and Suzette Hessler Mr. L. Kyle Rowley Ms. Mary Ellen Rossi Mr. Kim Harris and Bennet Marks Ms. Diane Rudden Mr. and Mrs. David Sargent* David Hawkanson Louise Adler Sampson Peter and Janice Scattini Mr. John Heisse and Sonja Schmid Mr. Paul Schmidt Ms. Karin Scholz-Grace Mr. James J. Scillian David Schnur Ms. Dixie Hersh Mr. Jim Sciuto Andrew and Marva Seidl Ms. Sandra Hess Ms. Karen Scussel and Mr. Curt Riffle Ms. Ruth A. Short Edward L. Howes, MD Michelle Shonk

28 ACT-SF.ORG JO S. HURLEY, CHAIR A.C.T. gratefully acknowledges the Prospero Society members listed below, who have made an investment in the future of A.C.T. by providing for the theater in their estate plans.

**Deceased

Providing a Legacy for A.C.T.

GIFTS DESIGNATED TO Marilee K. Gardner Dr. Mary S. and F. Eugene Metz GIFTS RECEIVED BY AMERICAN CONSERVATORY Michele Garside J. Sanford Miller and AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATER Dr. Allan P. Gold and Vinie Zhang Miller THEATER Anonymous (8) Mr. Alan C. Ferrara Milton Mosk and Tom Foutch The Estate of Barbara Beard Anthony J. Alfidi Arnold and Nina Goldschlager Bill** and Pennie Needham The Estate of John Bissinger Judith and David Anderson Carol Goodman and Anthony Gane Walter A. Nelson-Rees and The Estate of Ronald Casassa Kay Auciello JeNeal Granieri and James Coran The Estate of Rosemary Cozzo Ms. Nancy Axelrod Alfred F. McDonnell Michael Peter Nguyen The Estate of Nancy Croley M. L. Baird, in memory of William Gregory Dante Noto The Estate of Leonie Darwin Travis and Marion Baird James Haire and Timothy Cole Sheldeen Osborne The Estate of Mary Jane Detwiler Therese L. Baker-Degler Richard and Lois Halliday Elsa and Neil Pering The Estate of Olga Diora Ms. Teveia Rose Barnes and Terilyn Hanko Marcia and Robert Popper The Estate of Mortimer Fleishhacker Mr. Alan Sankin Mr. Richard H. Harding Kellie Yvonne Raines The Estate of Mary Gamburg Eugene Barcone Kent Harvey Anne and Bertram Raphael The Estate of Phillip E. Goddard Robert H. Beadle Betty Hoener Jacob and Maria Elena Ratinoff The Estate of Mrs. Lester G. Hamilton Susan B. Beer R. W. and T. M. Horrigan Mary L. Renner The Estate of Sue Hamister David Beery and Norman Abramson Jo S. Hurley Ellen Richard The Estate of Howard R. Hollinger J. Michael and Leon Berry-Lawhorn Barry Lee Johnson Jillian C. Robinson The Estate of William S. Howe, Jr. Dr. Barbara L. Bessey and Paul and Carol Kameny Susan Roos The Estate of Thomas H. Maryanski Dr. Kevin J. Gilmartin** Dr. and Mrs. Stewart Karlinsky Andrea Rouah The Estate of Michael L. Mellor Lucia Brandon Nelda Kilguss David Rovno, MD The Estate of Bruce Tyson Mitchell Mr. Arthur H. Bredenbeck and Ms. Heather M. Kitchen Paul and Renae Sandberg The Estate of Gail Oakley Mr. Michael Kilpatrick Mr. Jonathan Kitchen and Harold Segelstad The Estate of Dennis Edward Parker Linda K. Brewer Ms. Nina Hatvany F. Stanley Seifried The Estate of Rose Penn Agnes Chen Brown John and Karen Kopac Reis Ruth Short The Estate of Shepard P. Pollack Martin and Geraldine Brownstein Catherine Kuss and Danilo Purlia Dr. Eliot and Mrs. Kathy Shubin The Estate of Margaret Purvine Gayle and Steve Brugler Mr. Patrick Lamey Andrew Smith and Brian Savard The Estate of Gerald B. Rosenstein Christine Bunn and William Risseeuw Philip C. Lang Cherie Sorokin The Estate of Charles Sassoon Bruce Carlton and Richard McCall** Mindy Lechman Alan L. and Ruth Stein The Estate of Olivia Thebus Florence Cepeda and Earl Frick Marcia Lowell Leonhardt Mr. and Mrs. Bert Steinberg The Estate of Ayn and Brian Thorne Paula Champagne and David Watson Marcia and Jim Levy Jane and Jay Taber The Estate of Sylvia Coe Tolk Mr. and Mrs. Steven B. Chase Ines R. Lewandowitz Mr. Marvin Tanigawa The Estate of Elizabeth Wallace Lesley Ann Clement Jennifer Lindsay Martin Tannenbaum and Alex Ingersoll† The Estate of Frances Webb Lloyd and Janet Cluff Nancy Livingston and Fred M. Levin Nancy Thompson and Andy Kerr The Estate of William Zoller Patricia Corrigan Dot Lofstrom and Robin C. Johnson Phyllis and Dayton Torrence Susan and Jack Cortis Ms. Paulette Long Michael E. Tully FOR MORE INFORMATION Ms. Joan Danforth Dr. Steve Lovejoy and Ms. Nadine Walas ABOUT PROSPERO SOCIETY Richard T. Davis-Lowell Dr. Thane Kreiner Marla Meridoyne Walcott Sharon Dickson Melanie and Peter Maier Katherine G. Wallin MEMBERSHIP Jerome L. and Thao N. Dodson Jasmine Stirling Malaga and David Weber and Ruth Goldstine Drs. Peter and Ludmila Eggleton Michael William Malaga Paul D. Weintraub and TIFFANY REDMON, Linda Jo Fitz Mr. Jeffrey Malloy Raymond J. Szczesny DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF Michael and Sharon Marron Beth Weissman Frannie Fleishhacker DEVELOPMENT Kevin and Celeste Ford Mr. John B. McCallister Tim M. Whalen Mr. and Mrs. Richard L. Fowler John McGehee Mr. Barry Lawson Williams 415.439.2482 Alan and Susan Fritz Burt and Deedee McMurtry [email protected]

The following members of the A.C.T. community made gifts in memory and in honor of friends, Memorial & Tribute Gifts colleagues, and family members of $100 or more during the December 1, 2016, to December 1, 2017, period.

Karen Blodgett In Honor of Linda Jo Fitz and her service to A.C.T. Roselyne C. Swig In Honor of Carey Perloff Mr. Robert G. Evans In Honor of Linda Jo Fitz Susan Medak and Gregory S. Murphy In Honor of Ellen Richard Mr. and Mrs. David M. Hartley In Honor of Linda Jo Fitz Sue and Ken Merrill In Honor of Patti and Rusty Rueff Jacqueline L. Young In Honor of Linda Jo Fitz Cheryl Brandon In Honor of Craig Slaight Sandi and Mark Randall In Honor of Frannie Fleischhacker Jon and Betsy Nakamura In Honor of Craig Slaight Sakana Foundation In Honor of Priscilla Geeslin Helene Roos In Honor of Craig Slaight Mary Cathryn Houston In Honor of Arnie Glassberg Julia and Vladimir Zagatsky In Honor of Gideon and Cheryl Sorokin Vicki and Stephen Hoffman In Honor of Skylar Goldberg Patrick Hobin In Honor of Giles Havergal Ms. Jamie Ney In Memory of Ann Adams Elizabeth Mason In Honor of Luba Kipnis Anonymous In Memory of Ruth Asawa Laurie Hernandez In Honor of Alan Littlehales Jane Shurtleff In Memory of John Chapot Daniel E. Cohn and Lynn Brinton In Honor of Nancy Livingston Ms. Kathleen Gallivan In Memory of Jack Gallivan Anne and Ed Jamieson In Honor of Nancy Livingston Mr. David J. Pasta In Memory of Gloria Guth Ms. Carey Perloff and Mr. Anthony Giles In Honor of Nancy Livingston Richard and Victoria Larson In Memory of Dennis Powers Helen Hilton Raiser In Honor of Nancy Livingston Ms. Peggy Kivel In Memory of Eva Ramos Anat Pilovsky In Honor of Janet Lustgarten Ms. Joy Eaton In Memory of Todd Wees Katherine E. Akos and Harry L. Jacobs In Honor of Peter Pastreich, Tiffany Redmon, and Nancy Mims

415.749.2228 29 INVEST IN THE FUTURE OF THEATER

BECOME A FRIEND OF A.C.T. TODAY!

For a full listing of member benefits, visit ACT-SF.ORG/MEMBERSHIPS or contact Sarah Armstrong-Brown at 415.439.2353.

Corporate Partners Circle

The Corporate Partners Circle comprises businesses that support the artistic mission of A.C.T., including A.C.T.’s investment in the next generation of theater artists and audiences, and its vibrant educational and community outreach programs. Corporate Partners Circle members receive extraordinary entertainment and networking opportunities, unique access to renowned actors and artists, premium complimentary tickets, and targeted brand recognition. For information about how to become a Corporate Partner, please contact Caitlin A. Quinn at 415.439.2436 or [email protected].

LEAD EDUCATION OFFICIAL HOTEL PRESENTING PRESENTING PARTNERS PERFORMANCE STAGE PARTNERS SPONSOR SPONSOR HOST ($25,000–$49,999) PARTNERS ($5,000–$9,999) Hotel G Bank of America Foundation ($10,000–$24,999) Burr Pilger Mayer, Inc. City National Bank BNY Mellon Wealth S&P Global Mozilla Management Schoenberg Family Theatre Forward Bank of the West Law Group U.S. Bank/Ascent Deloitte LLP Farella Braun + Martel SEASON SPONSOR OFFICIAL AIRLINE Perkins Coie LLP Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Foundations and Government Agencies

The following foundations and government agencies provide vital support for A.C.T. For more information, please contact Caitlin A. Quinn at 415.439.2436 or [email protected].

$100,000 AND ABOVE $50,000–$99,999 $25,000–$49,999 $10,000–$24,999 $5,000–$9,999 Jewels of Charity, Inc. The Bernard Osher Anonymous The Kenneth Rainin Davis/Dauray Family Fund Doris Duke Charitable Foundation The Kimball Foundation Foundation Edna M. Reichmuth Foundation Department of Children, The Harold and Mimi Laird Norton Family Educational Fund of San Francisco Grants Youth & Their Families Steinberg Trust Foundation The San Francisco for the Arts The Edgerton Foundation MAP Fund The Sato Foundation Foundation The William Randolph Hearst National Endowment for Saint Francis Foundation The Stanley S. Langendorf Foundation the Arts San Francisco’s Office of Foundation The William and Flora Economic and Workforce Wallis Foundation Hewlett Foundation Development The Zellerbach Family The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Foundation Walter and Elise Haas Fund

30 ACT-SF.ORG Theatre Forward Current Funders List as of January 2017

Theatre Forward advances American theater and its communities by providing funding and other resources to the country’s leading nonprofit theaters. Theatre Forward and its theaters are most grateful to the following funders:

THEATRE EXECUTIVES PACESETTERS DONORS Kevin & Anne Driscoll *Theatre Forward Fund for ($50,000+) ($15,000–$24,999) ($10,000–$14,999) John R. Dutt*▴ New American Theatre AT&T▴ American Express* Paula A. Dominick*▴ Bruce R. and Tracey Ewing*▴ †Includes in-kind support ▴ Bank of America* Bloomberg Dorsey & Whitney Foundation Jessica Farr* ▴Educating through Theatre Support James S. & Lynne Turley*▴ Cisco Systems, Inc.* Epiq Systems* Mason & Kim Granger*▴ The Schloss Family The Estée Lauder Karen A. & Kevin W. Kennedy Brian J. Harkins*▴ Theatre Forward supporters are former Foundation▴ Companies Inc. Foundation Gregory S. Hurst*▴ supporters of National Corporate Theatre Fund and Impact Creativity. ▴ Howard and Janet Kagan▴ EY* Lisa Orberg For a complete list of funders, visit ▴ BENEFACTORS Alan & Jennifer Freedman*▴ Presidio* Joseph F. Kirk* theatreforward.org. ($25,000–$49,999) Frank & Bonnie Orlowski*▴ Thomas C. Quick* Mary Kitchen and Jon Orszag Buford Alexander and Marsh & McLennan RBC Wealth Management▴ Anthony and Diane Lembke, Pamela Farr*▴ Companies, Inc. Daniel A. Simkowitz*▴ in honor of Brian J Harkins, BNY Mellon National Endowment for S&P Global board member Steven & Joy Bunson*▴ the Arts▴ TD Charitable Foundation▴ John R. Mathena*▴ Citi Pfizer, Inc. Isabelle Winkles*▴ Jonathan Maurer and DeWitt Stern* Southwest Airlines▴† Gretchen Shugart*▴ Goldman, Sachs & Co. Theatermania/Gretchen SUPPORTERS Dina Merrill & Ted Hartley* MetLife Shugart*▴ ($2,500–$9,999) Newmark Holdings* Morgan Stanley George S. Smith, Jr.*▴ Mitchell J. Auslander*▴ Sills Cummis & Gross P.C.* Wells Fargo*▴ UBS Sue Ann Collins John Thomopoulos*▴ Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP* Disney/ABC Television Group* Evelyn Mack Truitt* Dorfman and Kaish Family Leslie C. & Regina Quick Foundation, Inc.▴ Charitable Trust Dramatists Play Service, Inc.*

Gifts in Kind

A.C.T. thanks the following donors for their generous contributions of goods and services.

4imprint Krista Coupar Adrienne Miller The Marker Hotel Blackbird Vineyards Moleskine Chateau St. Jean Piedmont Piano Company Chris and Holly Hollenbeck Premium Port Wines, Inc. Clift Hotel Rust & Flourish Florals CyberTools for Libraries Tout Sweet Pâtisserie diptyque Emergency BBQ Company First Crush Restaurant and Wine Bar Inspiration Vineyards Joe Tally and Dan Strauss

Corporations Matching Annual Fund Gifts

As A.C.T. is both a cultural and an educational institution, many employers will match individual employee contributions to the theater. The following corporate matching gift programs honor their employees’ support of A.C.T., multiplying the impact of those contributions.

Acxiom Corporation BlackRock GE Foundation Macy’s, Inc. The Clorox Company Adobe Systems Inc. Charles Schwab Google Merrill Lynch & Co. Foundation Apple, Inc. Chevron Hewlett-Packard Foundation, Inc. The James Irvine Foundation Applied Materials Chubb & Son IBM International Foundation Northwestern Mutual The Morrison & Foerster AT&T Foundation Dell Direct Giving Campaign JPMorgan Chase Foundation Foundation Bank of America Dodge & Cox Johnson & Johnson Family Pacific Gas and Electric TPG Capital, L.P. Bank of America Foundation Ericsson, Inc. of Companies Arthur Rock Verizon Bank of New York Mellon Federated Department Stores Levi Strauss Foundation Salesforce Visa International Community Partnership The Gap Lockheed Martin Corporation State Farm Companies John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Foundation

415.749.2228 31 A.C.T. STAFF

CAREY PERLOFF PETER PASTREICH MELISSA SMITH Artistic Director Executive Director Conservatory Director

James Haire Costume Shop Ticket Services M.F.A. Program Core Faculty Producing Director Emeritus Jessie Amoroso, Costume Director Ian Fullmer, Box Office Manager Christine Adaire, Head of Voice Callie Floor, Rentals Manager Mark C. Peters, Subscriptions Manager Nancy Benjamin, Co-Head of Voice and Dialects, Resident Artists Keely Weiman, Build Manager/Draper David Engelmann, Head Treasurer Director Anthony Fusco, Domenique Lozano Jef Valentine, Inventory Manager Elizabeth Halperin, Assistant Head Treasurer Stephen Buescher, Head of Movement, Director Maria Montoya, Head Stitcher Anthony Miller, Group Sales Domenique Lozano, Acting, Director Associate Artists Kelly Koehn, Accessories & Crafts Artisan Scott Tignor, Stephanie Arora, Subscriptions Michael Paller, Director of Humanities, Director Marco Barricelli, Olympia Dukakis, Giles Coordinators Lisa Anne Porter, Co-Head of Voice and Dialects Havergal, Bill Irwin, Steven Anthony Jones, Chanterelle Grover, First Hand Andy Alabran, Hillary Bray, Peter Davey, Jack Sharrar, PhD, Theater History Andrew Polk, Tom Stoppard, Gregory Wallace, Victoria Mortimer, Costume Administrator Alex Mechanic, Johnny Moreno, Katharine Timberlake Wertenbaker Tessanella DeFrisco, Bree Dills, Costume Fellows Melissa Smith, Head of Acting, Director Torres, Treasurers Playwrights Wig Shop M.F.A. Program Adjunct Faculty Front of House Pamela Gray, Qui Nguyen, Suzan-Lori Parks, Lindsay Saier, Wig Master Milissa Carey, Singing, Director Kevin Nelson, Theater Manager Carey Perloff and Paul Walsh, Harold Pinter, Melissa Kallstrom, Wig Supervisor Andy Donald, Arts Leadership William Shakespeare, Simon Stephens, Chris Bahara, David Whitman, Julie Douglas, Improv House Managers Bess Wohl Lauren English, Business of Acting STAGE STAFF Megan Murray, Genevieve Pabon, Tuesday Ray, Daniel Feyer, Music Director, Accompanist Directors The Geary: Associate House Managers Miguel Ongpin, Head Carpenter Janet Foster, Audition, Showcase Hal Brooks, Jaime Castañeda, Rachel Chavkin, Kevin Hoskins, Lead Bartender Giles Havergal, Director, Acting Liz Diamond, Sheryl Kaller, Domenique Lozano, Suzanna Bailey, Head Sound Oliver Sutton, Security Carey Perloff Mark Pugh, Head Properties Ramsey Abouremeleh, Shannon Amitin, Gregory Hoffman, Combat Daniel Swalec, Head Electrician Kimberly Anthony, Nic Candito, Forrest Choy, Jasmin Hoo, Citizen Artistry Choreographers Colin Wade, Flyman Bernadette Fons, Kadeem Harris, Anthony Mark Jackson, Devised Theater Val Caniparoli, Josh Prince Mary Montijo, Wardrobe Supervisor Hernandez, Kevin Hoskins, Caleb Lewis, Susan Darryl Jones, Acting Monson, Haley Nielsen, Trever Pearson, Pete Diane Cornelius, Assistant Wardrobe Supervisor Sean Kana, Singing Pickens, Jeremy Rice, Atarah Richmond, Miki Composers/Orchestrators W. D. Keith, On-Camera Acting Loren Lewis, Joe Nelson, Stage Door Monitors Richmond, Travis Rowland, Tracey Sylvester, David Coulter, Shammy Dee, Paul Scott Philip Charles MacKenzie, On-Camera Acting Goodman Leonard Thomas, Cevie Toure, Robyn Williams, The Strand: Bartenders Heidi Marshall, On-Camera Acting Patsy McCormack, Strand Master Technician Music Directors Susan Allen, Rodney Anderson, Branden Seana McKenna, Acting Sarah Jacquez, Strand Sound Engineer Bowman, Serena Broussard, Danica Burt, Caymichael Patten, Audition Daniel Feyer, Greg Kenna Margaret Cahill, Jose Camello, Barbara Casey, Carey Perloff, Arts Leadership ADMINISTRATION Wendy Chang, Niyjale Cummings, Kathy Dere, Kari Prindl, Alexander Technique Designers John Doll, Larry Emms, Doris Flamm, Claire Denys Baker, Administrative Project Manager Stacey Printz, Dance John Arnone, Nina Ball, Brian Bembridge, Gerndt, Blue Kesler, Ryszard Koprowski, Sharon Riccardo Hernandez, Laura Jellinek, Alexander Coralyn Bond, Executive Assistant and Board Lee, Sadie Li, Joe MacDonald, Val Mason, Sam Tiffany Redmon, Fundraising V. Nichols, David Israel Reynoso, Donyale Liaison Mesinger, Eileen Murphy, Kathy Napoleone, Lindsay Saier, Stage Makeup Werle, Scenic Lily Narbonne, Brandie Pilapil, Mark Saladino, Ken Savage, Director Human Resources Jessie Amoroso, Beaver Bauer, Linda Cho, Steve Salzman, Walter Schoonmaker, Stephanie Elyse Shafarman, Alexander Technique Candice Donnelly, Tilly Grimes, Meg Neville, David Jackson, Human Resources Director Somersille, Michael Sousa, Melissa Stern, Claire Liz Tenuto, Dance David Israel Reynoso, Costumes Alpa Shah, Human Resources Generalist Tremblay, Dale Whitmill, Lorraine Williams, Lisa Townsend, Director, Choreographer Robert Hand, James F. Ingalls, Wen-Ling Liao, Ushers Mike Inwood, Alexander V. Nichols, Nancy General Management James Wagner, Business of Acting Schertler, Robert Wierzel, Yi Zhao, Lighting Louisa Balch, General Manager The Strand Cafe Studio A.C.T. Brendan Aanes, Stowe Nelson, Jake Rodriguez, Amy Dalba, Associate General Manager Rafael Monge, Cafe Manager Leon Rothenberg, Darron L West, Sound Mark Jackson, Program Director Sabra Jaffe, Company Manager LaRina Hazel, Raj Paul Pannu, Baristas Tal Yarden, Chris Lundahl, Video Liz Anderson, Filmmaking Mia Carey, General/Company Heidi Carlsen, Voice Management Fellow EDUCATION & COMMUNITY Coaches PROGRAMS Matt Chapman, Movement Christine Adaire, Nancy Benjamin, Julie Douglas, Mask, Clown, and Movement Finance Elizabeth Brodersen, Director of Education Lisa Anne Porter, Voice and Text Lawrence Yuan, Director of Finance & Community Programs Francie Epsen-Devlin, Musical Theater Stephen Buescher, Movement Sharon Boyce, May Chin, Matt Jones, Jasmin Hoo, Associate Director of Education Paul Finocchiaro, Acting Jonathan Rider, Danielle O’Dea, Fights Finance Associates & Community Programs W. D. Keith, On-Camera Acting Daniel Feyer, Music Vincent Amelio, Workshops & Events Manager Drew Khalouf, Speech and Diction Information Technology Vanessa Ramos, Residencies Coordinator Jessica Kitchens, Acting ARTISTIC Thomas Morgan, Director Stephanie Wilborn, Community Programs Kari Prindl, Alexander Technique Andy Donald, Associate Artistic Director Joone Pajar, Network Administrator Coordinator Mark Rafael, Acting Michael Paller, Dramaturg Elizabeth Halperin, Student Matinees Katie Rubin, Acting, Stand-Up Operations Janet Foster, Director of Casting and Lealani Drew Manuta, Education Programs Naomi Sanchez, Musical Theater Artistic Associate Jamie McGraw, Associate Manager, Facilities Fellow Operation and Security Jonathan Spector, Introduction to Playwriting Allie Moss, Artistic Associate Nailah Harper-Malveaux, Community Jeffrey Warren, Assistant Facilities Manager Laura Wayth, Acting Ken Savage, Associate Producer Producing Fellow Leopoldo Benavente, Facilities Crew Member Nora Zahn, Artistic Fellow Conservatory Accompanists Curtis Carr, Jr., Theo Sims, Jesse Nightchase, YOUNG CONSERVATORY Security Lynden James Bair, Daniel Feyer, Christopher PRODUCTION Jill MacLean, Craig Slaight Director of Hewitt, Paul McCurdy, Thaddeus Pinkston, Jaime Morales, Geary Cleaning Foreman the Young Conservatory Audrey Hoo, Production Manager Naomi Sanchez Jamal Alsaidi, Jeaneth Alvarado, Lidia Godinez, Emily Hanna, Young Conservatory & Studio Robert Hand, Associate Production Manager Geary Cleaning Crew A.C.T. Coordinator Library Staff Jack Horton, Associate Production Manager Andy Alabran, Acting Joseph Tally, Head Librarian Chris Lundahl, Design and Production Associate Development Cristina Anselmo, Acting G. David Anderson, Theresa Bell, Laurie Michelle Symons, Assistant Production Manager Caitlin A. Quinn, Director of Development Molly Bell, Musical Theater Bernstein, Helen Jean Bowie, Bruce Carlton, Walter Ryon, Conservatory Production Manager Tiffany Redmon, Deputy Director of Danielle Conover, Physical Theater Barbara Cohrssen, William Goldstein, Pat Hunter, Haley Miller, Conservatory Design and Development Connie Ikert, Ashok Katdare, Martha Kessler, Nancy Gold, Physical Character, Acting Production Coordinator Jody Price, Director of Special Events Nelda Kilguss, Barbara Kornstein, Analise Leiva, Dan Griffith, Movement Sean Key-Ketter, Conservatory Design and Renée Gholikely, Development Research and Ines Lewandowitz, Patricia O’Connell, Roy Production Coordinator Prospect Manager Jane Hammett, Musical Theater Ortopan, Maida Paxton, Connie Pelkey, Christine Maggie Manzano, Conservatory Production and Sarah Armstrong-Brown, Donor Relations and Emily Hanna, Acting Peterson, Dana Rees, Roger Silver, Jane Taber, Stage Management Coordinator Membership Manager W. D. Keith, Director Susan Torres, Joyce Weisman, Jean Wilcox, Marie Wood, Library Volunteers Spencer Jorgensen, Production Fellow Stephanie Swide, Development Operations Domenique Lozano, Director, Acting Manager Christine Mattison, Dance, Choreographer Stage Management Champagne Hughes, Special Events Manager Lauren Rosi, Musical Theater A.C.T. thanks the physicians and staff of the Elisa Guthertz, Head Stage Manager Jordan Nickels, Development Assistant Centers for Sports Medicine, Saint Francis Vivian Sam, Musical Theater, Dance Memorial Hospital, for their care of the A.C.T. Elisa Guthertz, Deirdre Rose Holland, Emily Remsen, Special Events Fellow Josh Schell, Acting company: Dr. Victor Prieto, Dr. Hoylond Hong, Marcy Reed, James Steele, Karen Szpaller, Rachel Stuart, Development Fellow Valerie Weak, Acting Dr. Susan Lewis, Don Kemp, P.A., and Chris Stage Managers Krista Wigle, Musical Theater Corpus, Clinic Supervisor. Dani Bae, Christina Hogan, Christina Larson, Marketing & Public Relations Megan McClintock, Leslie M. Radin, Assistant Christine Miller, Acting Director of Marketing Accreditation Stage Managers CONSERVATORY Brad Amorosino, Senior Graphic Designer A.C.T. is accredited by the Accrediting Hal Day, Production Assistant Christopher Herold, Director of Summer Simon Hodgson, Publications Manager Commission for Senior Colleges and Miranda Campbell, Erin Sweeney, Bri Owens, Training Congress Simone Finney, Digital Content Manager Universities of the Western Association Stage Management Fellows Jack Sharrar, PhD, Director of Academic Affairs Kevin Kopjak/Charles Zukow Associates, of Schools and Colleges (WASC), 985 Jerry Lopez, Director of Financial Aid Public Relations Counsel Atlantic Avenue, Suite 100, Alameda, Prop Shop Dan Kolodny, Manager, Conservatory Operations CA 94501, 510.748.9001, an institutional Diana Freeberg, Marketing Associate Ryan L. Parham, Supervisor & Professional Development Training accrediting body recognized by the Stefanie Shoemaker, Graphic Designer Abo Greenwald, Assistant Emily Hanna, Young Conservatory & Studio Council on Postsecondary Accreditation Elspeth Sweatman, Publications Associate A.C.T. Coordinator and the U.S. Department of Education. Miranda Ashland, Marketing Fellow Matt Jones, Bursar/Payroll Administrator Taylor Steinbeck, Publications Fellow Vanessa Flores, Conservatory Associate, Tabriana Willard, Graphics Fellow Academic Programs Ilyssa Ernsteen, Olga Korolev, Conservatory Fellows 32 ACT-SF.ORG A.C.T. PROFILES

CAREY PERLOFF (Artistic Director) Mary Stuart, ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, The Tosca Café, The is celebrating her 25th season as artistic Voysey Inheritance, Scorched, and Underneath the Lintel. director of A.C.T., where she has Perloff is also an award-winning playwright. Her recent overseen a huge growth in the quality play Kinship premiered at the Théâtre de Paris in 2014; and scope of A.C.T.’s work, helped to Higher won the 2011 Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation rebuild the earthquake-damaged Geary Theatre Visions Fund Award; and Luminescence Dating Theater and the new Strand Theater in premiered in New York at The Ensemble Studio Theatre. Central Market, and has forged Perloff’s book, Beautiful Chaos: A Life in the Theater collaborations between A.C.T. and theaters across the United (City Lights Press), was selected as San Francisco States and Canada. Known for innovative productions of Public Library’s One City One Book read for 2016. classics and championing new writing and new forms of Before joining A.C.T., Perloff was artistic director of theater, Perloff has directed classical plays from around the Classic Stage Company in New York, where she directed the world, 10 plays by Tom Stoppard (including the American premiere of Ezra Pound’s Elektra, the American premiere premieres of The Invention of Love and Indian Ink, also at of Pinter’s Mountain Language, and many classic works. Roundabout Theatre Company, and two productions of Named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by Arcadia), and many productions by favorite contemporary the French government, Perloff received a BA Phi Beta writers such as Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, José Rivera, Kappa in classics and comparative literature from Stanford and Philip Kan Gotanda. Favorite productions include Hecuba, University and was a Fulbright Fellow at Oxford.

PETER PASTREICH (Executive six years as managing director of the Mississippi River Director) joined A.C.T. after a 50-year Festival. In addition, Pastreich has done management career in arts management. He spent 21 consulting for the Berlin Philharmonic, Southbank Centre in years as executive director of the San London, Detroit Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Milwaukee Francisco Symphony, a period that Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Sydney Symphony included the tenures of music directors Orchestra in Australia. He has also served as mediator in Edo De Waart, Herbert Blomstedt, and orchestra and opera union negotiations in Detroit, Louisville, Michael Tilson Thomas, and during which Milwaukee, Phoenix, Sacramento, Seattle, and San Antonio. the orchestra increased its endowment from $12 million to $120 Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1938, Pastreich received million. Pastreich was the chief administrator responsible for a BA in English literature from Yale University in 1959. In the construction of Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, 1999, he was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des and for its acoustical renovation. Lettres by the French government and was named an Before coming to San Francisco, he spent 12 years as honorary member of the International Alliance of Theatrical executive director of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and Stage Employees by Local 16 of the Stagehands Union.

MELISSA SMITH (Conservatory the Bay Area. Prior to assuming leadership of the Director, Head of Acting) has served as Conservatory, Smith was the director of the Program in Conservatory director and head of acting Theater and Dance at Princeton University, where she also in the Master of Fine Arts Program at taught introductory, intermediate, and advanced acting. She A.C.T. since 1995. During that time, she has taught acting classes to students of all ages in various has overseen the expansion of the M.F.A. colleges, high schools, and studios around the continental Program from a two- to a three-year United States, at the Mid-Pacific Institute in Hawaii, New York course of study and the further University’s La Pietra campus in Florence, and the Teatro di integration of the M.F.A. Program faculty and student body Pisa in San Miniato, Italy. She is featured in Acting Teachers of with A.C.T.’s artistic wing, while also teaching and directing in America: A Vital Tradition. Also a professional actor, she has the M.F.A. Program, Summer Training Congress, and Studio performed regionally at the Hangar Theatre, A.C.T., the A.C.T. She also successfully launched the San Francisco California Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Semester, a semester-long intensive designed to deepen in New York at Primary Stages and Soho Rep.; and in England students’ well of acting experience, broaden their knowledge at the Barbican Centre in London and Birmingham Repertory of dramatic literature, and sharpen their technical skills—all Theatre. Smith holds a BA from Yale College and an MFA while immersing them in the multifaceted cultural landscape of in acting from Yale School of Drama.

415.749.2228 33 F.Y. I .

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES REFRESHMENTS AFFILIATIONS Full bar service, sweets, and savory items are A.C.T.’s administrative and conservatory A.C.T. is a constituent of Theatre available one hour before the performance in offices are located at 30 Grant Avenue, San Communications Group, the national Fred’s Columbia Room on the lower level and Francisco, CA 94108, 415.834.3200. On the organization for the nonprofit professional the Sky Bar on the third level. You can avoid web: act-sf.org. theater. A.C.T. is a member of Theatre Bay the long lines at intermission by preordering Area, the Union Square Association, the San food and beverages in the lower- and third- Francisco Chamber of Commerce, and the level bars. Bar drinks are now permitted in the BOX OFFICE INFORMATION San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau. theater. A.C.T. BOX OFFICE Visit us at 405 Geary Street at Mason, next to CELL PHONES A.C.T. operates under an agreement the theater, one block west of Union Square; If you carry a pager, beeper, cell phone, or between the League of Resident Theatres or at 1127 Market Street at 7th Street, watch with an alarm, please make sure that and Actors’ Equity Association, the union of across from the UN Plaza. Walk-up hours it is set to the “off” position while you are professional actors and stage managers in are Tuesday–Sunday (noon–curtain) on in the theater. Text messaging during the the United States. performance days, and Monday–Friday performance is very disruptive and not allowed. (noon–6 p.m.) and Saturday–Sunday The Director is a member of the STAGE (noon–4 p.m.) on nonperformance days. PERFUMES DIRECTORS AND CHOREOGRAPHERS (For Strand Box Office walk-up hours, please The chemicals found in perfumes, colognes, SOCIETY, a national theatrical labor union. visit act-sf.org.) Phone hours are Tuesday– and scented aftershave lotions, even in Sunday (10 a.m.–curtain) on performance small amounts, can cause severe physical The scenic, costume, lighting, and sound days, and Monday–Friday (10 a.m.–6 p.m.) reactions in some individuals. As a courtesy to designers in LORT theaters are represented and Saturday–Sunday (10 a.m.–4 p.m.) on fellow patrons, please avoid the use of these by United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 of nonperformance days. Call 415.749.2228 and products when you attend the theater. the IATSE. use American Express, Visa, or MasterCard; The scenic shop, prop shop, and stage crew or fax your ticket request with credit card EMERGENCY TELEPHONE are represented by Local 16 of the IATSE. information to 415.749.2291. Tickets are also Leave your seat location with those who available 24 hours a day on our website at may need to reach you and have them call act-sf.org. All sales are final, and there are no 415.439.2317 in an emergency. A.C.T. is supported in part by a grant from refunds. Only current ticket subscribers and Grants for the Arts. LATECOMERS those who purchase ticket insurance enjoy Performances begin promptly, and late ticket exchange privileges. Packages are seating is at the house manager’s discretion. available by calling 415.749.2250. A.C.T. gift Latecomers may have to watch the certificates can be purchased in any amount performance on a video monitor in the lobby online, by phone or fax, or in person. until intermission. Latecomers and those who GEARY THEATER EXITS SPECIAL SUBSCRIPTION DISCOUNTS leave the theater during the performance may Full-time students, educators, and be seated in alternate seats (especially if they administrators save up to 50% off season were in the first few rows) and can take their subscriptions with valid ID. Visit act-sf.org/ assigned seats at intermission. educate for details. Seniors (65+) save $40 on LISTENING SYSTEMS 8 plays, $35 on 7 plays, $30 on 6 plays, $25 Headsets designed to provide clear, amplified ORCHESTRA on 5 plays, and $20 on 4 plays. sound anywhere in the auditorium are SINGLE TICKET DISCOUNTS available free of charge in the lobby before Joining our eClub is the best—and sometimes performances. Please turn off your hearing aid only—way to find out about special ticket when using an A.C.T. headset, as it will react to offers. Visit act-sf.org/eclub to sign up. Find the sound system and make a disruptive noise. us on Facebook and Twitter for other great PHOTOGRAPHS AND RECORDINGS of A.C.T. deals. Beginning two hours before curtain, performances are strictly forbidden. a limited number of discounted tickets are available to seniors (65+), educators, RESTROOMS are located in Fred’s Columbia administrators, and full-time students. For Room on the lower lobby level, the Mezzanine matinee performances, all seats are just $20 Lobby, and the Garret on the uppermost for seniors (65+). Valid ID required—limit lobby level. one ticket per ID. Not valid for Premiere Wheelchair Seating is located MEZZANINE Orchestra seating. All rush tickets are subject in Fred’s Columbia Room on the to availability. lower lobby level, the Balcony Lobby, and the Garret on the GROUP DISCOUNTS uppermost lobby level. Groups of 15 or more save up to 35%! For more information, call Anthony Miller A.C.T. is pleased to announce that an Automatic at 415.439.2424. External Defibrillator (AED) is now available in the house management closet in the lobby AT THE THEATER of The Geary. A.C.T.’s Geary Theater is located at 415 Geary Street. The lobby opens one hour before LOST AND FOUND curtain. Bar service and refreshments are If you’ve misplaced an item while you’re available one hour before curtain. The theater still at the theater, please look for it at our opens 30 minutes before curtain. merchandise stand in the lobby. Any items found by ushers or other patrons will be taken ABOUT OUR PLAYS there. If you’ve already left the theater, please BALCONY Copies of Words on Plays, A.C.T.’s in-depth call 415.439.2471 and we’ll be happy to check performance guide, are on sale in the main our lost and found for you. Please be prepared lobby, at the theater bars, at the box office, with the date you attended the performance and online at act-sf.org/wordsonplays. and your seat location.

34 ACT-SF.ORG After enthralling audiences with Aubergine, Julia Cho returns to Berkeley Rep with a searing and touching play. Hiding in the back of the classroom, Dennis’ sullen presence has his fellow students and professors on edge. But during an office visit, his writing instructor seeks to break through Dennis’ silence and earn his trust—with shocking results. A deeply personal story of empathy and redemption, Office Hour explores otherness and paranoia while revealing our essential human need for connection.

BY Julia Cho DIRECTED BY Lisa Peterson STARTS FEB 22 · PEET’S THEATRE

Call 510 647-2949 · Click berkeleyrep.org SEASON SPONSORS

EAP full-page template.indd 1 12/11/17 11:40 AM EXPERIENCE A.C.T.’S 17 18 SEASON PACK AGES START AT $14 A PLAY

AN IRREVERENT ROAD-TRIP COMEDY THE HIT BROADWAY PLAY

HEISEN BERG

FEB 21–APR 22 MAR 14–APR 8

A NEW AMERICAN ODYSSEY A WORLD-PREMIERE MUSICAL

APR 25– MAY 20 JUN 5–JUL 1

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