Inside A.C.T.

Five Tips for Your Vocal Routine

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Mon, 10 May 2021 20:34:00 +0000

by A.C.T. Staff

An actor’s voice is one of the most important tools in their toolbox. Below, voice teacher and instructor in A.C.T.’s San Francisco Semester Jessica Berman shares five tips for taking care of your vocal instrument.

Jessica Berman

1. Focus on posture and alignment, especially when speaking online.

Hopefully the days of spending hours on Zoom will soon be behind us, but in the meantime, if you find that your voice feels fatigued after long stretches of vocal use online, take a moment every 30–60 minutes to do a little physical reset. You can:

Drop down your spine so that your whole upper body is hanging from your tailbone (you can do this seated or in standing)
Shake out your shoulders
Gently roll your head and neck around
Give your arms and legs a little pat and notice the sensations that you feel in your body

As Kristin Linklater says in her book Freeing the Natural Voice, “The efficiency of the vocal apparatus depends on the alignment and posture of the body and the economy with which it functions.” Quick physical resets can help to keep your voice connected to your breath, grounded, and strong.

2. Use steam.

Using a steam inhaler is one of the best things you can do to hydrate your voice. It is an essential tool for maintenance, or for voices that are fatigued, over used, or if you’re dealing with illness. You can purchase a personal steam inhaler at most drug stores, or simply pour boiled water into a cup or bowl and place your nose and mouth over it, inhaling normally (be very careful not to burn yourself!). Be sure to wait an hour or so after steaming before using your voice at full force to allow the vocal folds to cool down.

3. Always warm up, even if you’re limited by time.

Even taking a few minutes to connect to your breath, shake out your body, release some easy, open vowel sounds (try “ahh” or “hey”), and flutter the lips can make a big difference to your long-term vocal health.

4. Warm down.

We know that it’s good for our vocal health to warm up, but we often forget about the benefits of warming down. Especially after a very vocally demanding performance or speaking engagement, or even just a long day of talking, warming down helps us to release physical tension and re-center. It can be brief—consider a few minutes of fluttering the lips, gentle humming, and lying down on the floor to connect to the breath and release muscular tension.

5. Yawn!

It’s simple yet extremely effective for opening up and creating space at the back of the mouth and relaxing the throat.

Jessica Berman is a dialect, voice, text, and acting teacher and coach. She currently teaches at UC Berkeley, A.C.T. (STC and SFS), and Academy of Art University, and has led workshops and vocal warm ups for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Recent dialect and vocal coaching credits include: Kiss My Aztec!, The Good Book, Paradise Square: A New Musical, Angels in America, and What the Constitution Means to Me (Berkeley Rep); An American in Paris (North American Tour); In Old Age, The Eva Trilogy, The Baltimore Waltz, Sojourners, and runboyrun (Magic Theatre); and Oslo, The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley, Shakespeare in Love, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Native Son, and August: Osage County (Marin Theatre Company). In addition to her work in the theater, Jessica works with business professionals and private individuals on communication, presence, and presentation skills. She holds an MA from the Birmingham School of Acting, and an MFA from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Seven Signs That Dolly Levi and the Ghost of Christmas Present Are the Same Person

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 18:16:00 +0000

by A.C.T. Staff

1. They both know how to work a head-to-toe look.

A.C.T.'s A Christmas Carol

Its dark brown curls were long and free; free as its genial face, its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice, its unconstrained demeanor, and its joyful air . . . “You have never seen the like of me before!” exclaimed the Spirit.

—Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

A.C.T.'s The Matchmaker

MRS. LEVI: I’ve seen the workroom a hundred times. I’ll stay right here and try on some of these hats.

—Thornton Wilder, The Matchmaker

2. They both believe that a well-laid table can work magic.

A scene from A.C.T.'s A Christmas Carol

MRS. LEVI: I’m the best cook in the world myself, and I know what’s good.

—Thornton Wilder, The Matchmaker

3. Pretty much everything would be better if we all followed their advice.

This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!

—Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

A.C.T.'s The Matchmaker

MRS. LEVI: Mr. Kemper, I am a woman who arranges things . . . life as it is is never quite interesting enough for me—I’m bored, Mr. Kemper, with life as it is—and so I do things. I put my hand in here, and I put my hand in there, and I watch and I listen—and often I am very much amused.

—Thornton Wilder, The Matchmaker

4. They both like to spread the wealth.

On the threshold of the door the Spirit smiled, and stopped to bless Bob Cratchit’s dwelling with the sprinkling of his torch. Think of that! Bob had but fifteen “Bob” a-week himself; he pocketed on Saturdays but fifteen copies of his Christian name; and yet the Ghost of Christmas Present blessed his four-roomed house!

—Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

MRS. LEVI: I’m very interested in this household here—in Mr. Vandergelder and all that idle, frozen money of his. I don’t like the thought of it lying in great piles, useless, motionless, in the bank, Mr. Kemper. Money should circulate like rain water. It should be flowing down among the people, through dressmakers and restaurants and cabmen, setting up a little business here, and furnishing a good time there. Do you see what I mean?

—Thornton Wilder, The Matchmaker

5. They both have a real talent for eavesdropping.

It was a much greater surprise to Scrooge to recognise it as his own nephew’s [laugh] and to find himself in a bright, dry, gleaming room, with the Spirit standing smiling by his side, and looking at that same nephew with approving affability!

—Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

—Thornton Wilder, The Matchmaker

6. Either one can change your life in under 24 hours.

Much they saw, and far they went, and many homes they visited, but always with a happy end. The Spirit stood beside sick beds, and they were cheerful; on foreign lands, and they were close at home; by struggling men, and they were patient in their greater hope; by poverty, and it was rich. In almshouse, hospital, and jail, in misery’s every refuge, where vain man in his little brief authority had not made fast the door, and barred the Spirit out, he left his blessing, and taught Scrooge his precepts.

—Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

MRS. LEVI: I am helping him find a suitable bride.

AMBROSE: For Mr. Vandergelder there are no suitable brides.

MRS. LEVI: I think we can safely say that Mr. Vandergelder will be married to someone by the end of next week.

—Thornton Wilder, The Matchmaker

7. They’re both played by Catherine Castellanos!

Catherine Castellanos in A.C.T.'s A Christmas Carol

Catherine Castellanos as Dolly Levi

From Stage to Screen—Tips to Remember for On-Camera Acting

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 16:54:00 +0000

by A.C.T. Conservatory Staff

At the A.C.T. Conservatory, we seek to develop the artist in every actor and prepare them to succeed in all aspects of the profession, including acting in film and on television. Whether on stage or screen, acting is about conveying the emotional truth of the character, but the change in medium requires some adjustments. Below, actor Warren David Keith—who also directs and teaches at A.C.T.’s Summer Training Congress—shares some tips for stage actors looking to translate their skills on camera.

Warren David Keith

1) The distance of communication has changed. The back row of the theater may be 20 feet or hundreds of feet. It might be the Aurora or the second balcony of the Geary Theater, but that is the distance that the theater actor must bridge. On film it is only the distance to the lens and to the microphone.

2) Performance and experience. In the theater you must render a performance in order to be seen and heard in the furthest seat. The camera detects all aspects of “performance” and renders the judgment: “false.” On camera you must have an “experience.”

3) What is Realism? Since almost all film is shot with actors working in the Realistic Style, a useful definition of that Style follows: Realism is the art of disguising “art” to give the appearance of reality.

4) Emotion. Some actors waste energy trying to convince an audience that they are having a certain feeling. They only way you can do that effectively is by convincing yourself, and the only way to do THAT, is to have the feeling.

5) Less is less. What is the last great performance you saw by a film actor? Did he or she appear to be doing less? Here’s useful advice from Viola Davis in a 2016 interview in the New Yorker Magazine: “I don’t see acting as hiding—I see it as stepping up buck naked in front of a group of people that you don’t know. Every single time. It’s about exposing. If you're not doing that you’re basically not doing anything.” There can be a great deal of feeling without as much externalization. Think: simplicity without loss of passion. Or, “speak softly and think loud.” (Montgomery Clift)

6) The camera photographs thoughts. A director will always film reaction shots, will always film the Moment Before and the Moment After. Thinking about your line cue is not human thought, it is an actor thought. The camera detects that and the film viewer rejects it. Your thoughts are the thoughts that most deeply engage the character you are embodying. All the time.

Warren David Keith is an actor, teacher, and director. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the Yale School of Drama and has served on the faculties of Barnard College, The New School, UC Davis, American Conservatory Theater, The Nueva School, and as a Teaching Fellow for the National Endowment for the Humanities. In addition to theaters in NYC and across the East Coast he has also appeared at A.C.T., Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, Marin Theatre Company, SF Playhouse, TheatreWorks, and Word for Word. Onscreen appearances include: Haiku Tunnel, Love and Taxes, Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and A Serious Man.

To learn about the A.C.T. Conservatory, visit our website at act-sf.org.

Five Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Actor Training

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 20:10:00 +0000

By Peter J. Kuo

A.C.T.’s Director of the Conservatory, Peter J. Kuo, offers these five tips to actors who are thinking about engaging in any form of rigorous or intensive training. Whether it’s for two weeks or five years, these tips may help you get the best out of your actor training.

Peter J. Kuo

1. Take Advantage of Access to Opportunity

When you join an extensive training program, you gain access. Reach out to staff members you’re interested in chatting with, see if you can sit in on other classes, try to grab coffee/tea with an artist or faculty member that you’re not working with but want to get to know. See if there are jobs or volunteer opportunities, or investigate the library and archives. The worst anyone can say is “no.” And a “yes” can open up access to so much opportunity!

2. Learn How to Take and Decipher Feedback

Not all teachers are the best communicators, but they have knowledge, information, and insight you’re seeking. Learn to take the feedback you are given, process it, and be able to ask for clarity if something doesn’t make sense. Rejecting, being defensive, or closing yourself off to feedback can tell a teacher you don’t trust what they have to offer you, and cause them to limit their feedback to you in the future. By all means, invite a conversation if something feels problematic.

3. Spend Time Learning How You Learn

Everyone learns differently—some people absorb better through reading, others through watching, and others still through doing. Some people need to stay active, while others need meditation to process, and others need to journal. The more you understand how you learn, the better you can understand why you might be struggling to learn something and try a different approach, or explain to a teacher why you’re struggling.

Students at A.C.T.'s Summer Training Congress. Photo by Macie Davies.

4. Set Up Expectations and Dream Big While Expecting Reality

Understand the opportunities and limitations an institution can provide you. You can’t walk into a McDonalds and expect a prime rib, but you also can’t walk into a steakhouse and expect a Big Mac. However, the steakhouse may be able to prepare a burger, if you ask. Every training program has advantages and limitations, so don’t expect something it can’t deliver, but ask for something you think you need and see what they can provide.

5. Make Sure You’re Ready for Training

Only you can decide if you’re ready to go into training. Here are some things to consider assessing before you decide: finances, time, mental and emotional support, an interest and willingness to learn and grow in unexpected ways, patience, self-analysis, critical thinking skills. You may not have all these things yet, and some you may gain through your training process. It’s important to know what you’re walking in with—and what you’re walking in without and hoping to gain.

Learn more about A.C.T.’s Conservatory and Actor Training programs at act-sf.org/conservatory.

To Inspire, Lift, and Liberate—the Enduring Vision of Alice Childress

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 17:29:00 +0000

By Arminda Thomas

Announcing her death in 1994, the New York Times headline read, “Alice Childress, 77, a Novelist,” though the full obituary allowed that she also wrote some plays. While Childress would likely have objected to that order, having devoted the bulk of her life to playwriting, the paper of record’s choice is understandable. As a playwright, Childress’s story is more difficult to measure: hers was a progressive voice too often hemmed in by anxious, benighted producers; a mainstage talent shoehorned into black box realities.

Alice Childress. Photo courtesy of Arminda Thomas.

The story began, promisingly enough, at a little Harlem theater with a big mission, the American Negro Theatre—a company so hardworking members called themselves the ANTs, and were expected to function as actors, directors, designers, and box office managers. "The American Negro Theatre Company," Childress recalled, "worked ten years without salary, four nights per week, keeping the same acting company together, until the boot-straps wore out." [i] When Childress expressed her discontent with the quality of the material in general and with the quality of roles for women past the ingénue stage in particular, her colleagues (including fellow ANT Sidney Poitier) challenged her to write it herself. She came in the next day with her first play, Florence—a gem of a piece centered around a character who would seldom be granted more than a line or two in most plays of that era. From the beginning, her work displayed her talent for marrying rich, layered characterization and sharp insight into the political forces shaping those characters.

After ANT disbanded, Childress along with several members joined forces with the Committee for the Negro in the Arts to keep providing opportunities for African American artists and audiences at Club Baron, a Harlem nightclub-turned-community theatre. Her pieces written for this venue spoke to the struggle for freedom (in the US and in Africa), while incorporating song, dance, and live music—a combination that was popular both with the crowds and the few critics who made the trip uptown. "Alice Childress seems to know more about language and drama than most people who write for theatre today," wrote Freedom magazine's reviewer Lorraine Hansberry in 1952.

“It’s the man’s theater, the man’s money, so what you gonna do?” (Wiletta, Trouble in Mind)

Then came Childress’s first big break. Greenwich Mews, a downtown theatre with a progressive cachet, had an open slot in their 1955–56 season. Childress had the play to fill it—her first full-length play, Trouble in Mind, about an interracial cast and crew who come together to produce a play about racial injustice in the South and instead find themselves caught up in racial tensions of their own. The Greenwich Mews producers snapped it up.

Soon, however, Childress found her play hitting uncomfortably close to home. Deep into the rehearsal process, the producers became uncomfortable with the play’s ending and demanded that Childress craft a more hopeful resolution, with a unified cast and a redemptive arc for the play's antagonist (a liberal, white director). It was a resolution Childress could not believe in, but—faced with the prospect of scrapping the production so close to opening—she acquiesced. The play was a hit, with mostly positive reviews (though some made a point of objecting to the “claptrap” ending) and sold-out audiences. Even better, Broadway producers came knocking, and soon it was announced that Alice Childress would be the first African American woman to be produced on the Great White Way.

That announcement, however, turned out to be premature. The new would-be producers, had more conditions (including a new title), and demanded still more rewrites, until the playwright “couldn’t recognize the play one way or the other.” After two years, Childress withdrew the play and restored her original ending for publication. Also premature was the New York Times’s report heralding a Broadway production of her next big work, Wedding Band, which had been optioned immediately after its first reading in 1963 for production the next year. Those plans also fell through. And though the play was produced in Michigan and in Chicago—and optioned for Broadway seven times—it took nearly a decade to reach New York. The subject matter was controversial, certainly, but the sticking point seemed to be remarkably similar to the one that stopped her earlier piece: not enough attention being paid to the (white, male) lover, too much Black everywoman at the center.

Childress in Anna Lucasta. Photo courtesy of Arminda Thomas.

“The Black writer explains pain to those who inflict it. Those who repress and exclude us also claim the right to instruct us on how best to react to repression. All too often we follow their advice.” (Childress, 1984) [ii]

The latter half of the 1960s saw a resurgence of Black theatres across the nation—at least five sprang up in New York City, alone. In the years before Wedding Band found a New York home, Childress had three new plays produced: two at New Heritage Repertory Company, one at the Negro Ensemble Company. While still deeply personal, deeply political, and deeply committed to telling Black women’s stories, Childress’s new works shifted these women away from the terrain of interracial relations to explore more fully the navigation of class, gender, and racism-related tensions within African American communities.

From the beginning of her career, Childress had advocated for “a Negro People’s Theatre…powerful enough to inspire, lift, and eventually create a complete desire for the liberation of all oppressed peoples,” and if her rhetoric tempered, her belief in the necessity of Black theatres remained firm. Still, she was sometimes frustrated by the constraints of writing to fit into the venues in which those companies operated. “I like writing full-length plays,” she confessed, “but I saw a need for short plays, because so many little theatres in black communities…need for many reasons, which we can understand, short plays. And also they kept writing me for something for their group of eight people to do or that they had forty minutes on a program or they had an hour.”[iii] It was, perhaps, this need to write as expansively as she craved, without having to compromise her vision, which led Childress to take up novel writing. And while Childress never stopped writing or identifying as a playwright, it is nevertheless true that her second path garnered her the attention and acclaim she so richly deserved.

Trouble in Mind is part of A.C.T's Out Loud reading series. Get your tickets here!

[i] Alice Childress, “But I Do My Thing,” New York Times, February 2, 1969

[ii] Alice Childress, “A Candle in a Gale Wind,” in Mari Evans, Black Women Writers (New York, Harbor), 113

[iii] Quoted in Childress, Selected Plays, xxviii

For the Heart of Frisco—Downtown High School Exhibition Goes Viral

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 22:48:00 +0000

By Livian Yeh

On December 10 and 11, 2020, students from San Francisco’s Downtown High School performed an hour-long exhibition of original works, created with their teachers Charmaine Shuford and Robert Coverdell, A.C.T. teaching artist Carlos Aguirre, with classroom support from Sabrina Belara and Bianca Fernandez, and in collaboration with the writing staff and tutors from 826 Valencia.

The performance, titled For the Heart of Frisco, was the final presentation of the Acting for Critical Transformations Project at Downtown High School. Students wrote, directed, and acted in monologues and short plays about gentrification and activism in the city. In Eulogy to San Francisco, the class held a candlelight vigil for their city, which has long ceased to be affordable and equitable. This Trend Cannot Continue focused on painful truths about the cost of living here: the rent has gone up $2,400 in 24 years, and landlords raise the rent by 2.6% every year. In Kimberly’s Play, a group of tenants organized to protest a rent hike in their building. In a video project shot on location at Oakdale, West Point, and Hunter’s Point, students spoke lovingly about their neighborhoods. If I Left the City was a beautiful and candid response to living in a city that doesn’t love you back. The exhibition ended with Rebirth, during which the young artists voiced their hope that San Francisco will become a more welcoming place for low-income and immigrant families.

Artwork by Nien-Ken Alec Lu; poster design by Vivian Sming

Though the COVID-19 pandemic forced the class to rehearse and perform online, the group of 12 found strength in each other. “Connection issues were one of the biggest challenges,” says teacher Charmaine Shuford, who has been part of A.C.T.’s collaboration with Downtown High School since 2018. “It is hard for our students to be in parts of the city with broadband issues. Also, they are living in multigenerational homes, so their priorities at times were to assist their family members.” Student Jamir Pulliam agreed that creating theater through Zoom had its ups and downs, but said that by swapping scripts and being flexible, the class was able to pull through. “At least we went through the process together,” says classmate Kimberly Guevara.

A.C.T. has been working with Downtown High School since 2011, and the partnership is among the longest running in our Education and Community Programs. Every year, A.C.T.’s teaching artists work with students at the project-based credit recovery high school; Carlos Aguirre has been the leading teaching artist there since 2018. He has weekly meetings with students to do warmups, play theater games, and work on building scenes. “The education team at A.C.T. has never said no and has always had dreams for the students that match our own,” says teacher Robert Coverdell. “They have always tried to create a safe and inviting space for our students, so that our students can be heard and shine.”

A.C.T.’s virtual season also inspired the class. The exhibition’s first image of a flickering candle mirrored the final scene of Blood Wedding, and the live Zoom production was modeled after our fall lineup, including In Love and Warcraft, The Thanksgiving Play, Moon Man Walk, and Ironbound. “We got to create moments that would not have been possible on stage,” says Coverdell. “The Zoom structure allowed those moments to truly shine.”

Against the backdrop of a pandemic that has exacerbated existing issues of access and inequality, Shuford says that arts education is more important than ever. Through making theater together, the students were able to express their feelings, build confidence, and feel empowered in the process. “They need opportunities to feel pride about what they can offer right now,” Shuford writes. “And the arts is that vehicle.”

To learn more about the Acting for Critical Transformations Project, visit their website here. To support A.C.T.’s Education and Community Programs, go to act-sf.org.

Evocation, Inspiration, and Ignition—A.C.T.’s Blood Wedding Brings the Spirit of Duende to Life

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 16:06:00 +0000

by A.C.T. Publications Staff

The spirit of duende, the Spanish term for passion and inspiration, is central to the works of Federico García Lorca. For A.C.T.'s production of Lorca's Blood Wedding, director Christine Adaire and actor Hernán Angulo share their interpretation of duende, and how it influenced their production.

Federico García Lorca (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Federico García Lorca was obsessed by the spirit of Duende. Duende is one of the most elusive words in the Spanish language. Literally, it means “ghost” or “goblin.” In art, particularly drama, dance, and the music of Flamenco, it refers to the powerful energy emitted by a performer to captivate the audience. Lorca gave a lecture in Buenos Aires in 1933 in which he described duende as “a force, not a labor, a struggle, not a thought,” “the mystery, the roots that cling to the mire we all know,” and “a creature who sweep[s] the earth with its wings of rusty knives.” It is not based in reason or the intellect, it “surges up from the soles of the feet.”

Blood Wedding was inspired by a true story of a fatal feud between two families in Almería, high in the mountains of Southern rural Spain. It is a fierce play, written in only a week, in a frenzy of inspiration. Death, violence, pride, lust, and love are explored in a breathless race to a tragic end. In this production, we’ve introduced two Flamenco dancers who embody the spirit of duende. Their passion and relentless rhythm guide us through the story.

—Christine Adaire, Blood Wedding director and A.C.T. faculty member

Before we began rehearsal, we learned about duende (doo-EN-deh). It's a Spanish term that is connected to flamenco. The term is also connected to the spirit of evocation, inspiration, and ignition. It's a spirit that enters the body of the artist when they are performing, writing, and/or painting. It also enters the bodies of audience members when they see a performance or hear a song. Think about the last time you saw a performance that gave you chills or moved you so much it made you laugh or cry—that's duende. We hope that when our audiences see Blood Wedding, they can feel the duende enter the soles of their feet and travel all the way up to their chests as they see the electrifying flamenco dancing and the characters in the play pursue the dualities of their freedom and possessions.

—Hernán Angulo, cast member and A.C.T. MFA class of 2022

Read more on Federico García Lorca and duede here:

Get your tickets to A.C.T.'s Blood Wedding here!

The Evolution of a Holiday Classic: A Christmas Carol at A.C.T. Part Two

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 21:23:00 +0000

By Michael Paller

*This article originally appeared on Inside A.C.T. in 2016.

By 2004, A Christmas Carol was 28 years old, and the sets were showing their age. A significant investment would be required to refurbish them, which set Artistic Director Carey Perloff to thinking. Carol had more than served its purpose since 1976. Every year but 1994 and 1995, when the production was put on hiatus until The Geary reopened, many young Bay Area children—and parents—had their first theater experience watching Bill Paterson, Sydney Walker, Raye Birk, or Ken Ruta awake on Christmas morning a changed man. Now, however, Perloff wanted Carol to serve an additional purpose, featuring parts for students in the Young Conservatory, and roles for actors in M.F.A. Program who could add the mainstage experience toward earning their Actors’ Equity union card.

A.C.T.'s 2009 production of A Christmas Carol. From the left:

René Augesen, Gregory Wallace, James Carpenter, Calum John, and Philip Mills.

Photo by Kevin Berne.

Perloff went in search of an existing Carol that told the story well while accommodating a full class of young actors. But after failing to find one, like Williamson 28 years earlier, she wrote a new adaptation in collaboration with dramaturg Paul Walsh. The process started with Dickens’s original text; Perloff read the novella aloud to her own children and then, with the sound of Dickens’s language in her ears, set about the new adaptation. This version would have roles for every third-year M.F.A. student, plus many in the YC. Such a intergenerational Carol turned out to be exactly what Ball had meant by a conservatory theater: the veteran actors would instruct, mostly by example, the M.F.A. Program students, who in turn mentored the members of the YC.

James Carpenter as Scrooge and Tony Sinclair as Boy Scrooge
in A.C.T.'s 2010 production of A Christmas Carol.
Photo by Kevin Berne.

Ken Ruta as Marley and Sharon Lockwood as Mrs. Dilber (a role that Perloff expanded from Dickens, as the original had no significant roles for women) have been regulars (Jack Willis played Marley from 2006 through 2011). And since 2006, the gifted James Carpenter has played Scrooge with the estimable Anthony Fusco doing several performances a season as well.

Just as Williamson and Powers were drawn to certain aspects of the story (including the dark nature of its world), so too Perloff’s own tastes dictated significant elements of the new version. She was struck by what she saw as Dickens’s conviction that the imagination can trigger empathy: Scrooge’s change of heart from an alienated miser into a caring human being occurred because he was willing to believe in the three ghosts (the last thing one would expect from a character like Scrooge). This, she thought, was an emphatic endorsement of the power of art. No wonder the story had appealed to theater people since the year the book was published in 1843.

John Arnone’s sets—alternating realistic windows and Victorian furniture with exteriors of houses in shimmering watercolors—lent the production a powerful sense of forward movement, and Beaver Bauer’s bold, bright costumes struck a playful modern note. The script, composed of two acts of 45 minutes, is more attuned to contemporary attention spans and, mindful of the many children in the audience, includes an intermission, which the previous version did not.

In the 40 years A Christmas Carol has been on The Geary stage, more than a million Bay Area theatergoers, young and old, have seen the show.

Carol returns to A.C.T., this time as a radio play! Get your tickets here.

The Evolution of a Holiday Classic: A Christmas Carol at A.C.T. Part One

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 22:39:00 +0000

By Michael Paller

*This article originally appeared on Inside A.C.T. in 2016.

In the mid-1970s, regional theaters around the country discovered that audiences wanted a Christmas story at Christmastime, and none more so than Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Adaptations began appearing, starting with the Guthrie (1974) and the Actors Theater of Louisville (1976). Artistic Director Bill Ball asked Company Director Laird Williamson to look at the handful of existing adaptations and choose one to direct. Williamson found them sentimental and clichéd. They were “sugar-coated Dickens,” he said. “Tiny Tim is not the leading character. Scrooge is the real story.”

The cast of A.C.T.'s 1981 production of A Christmas Carol.

Williamson was drawn to the tale’s psychological and social realism, to its “comment on poverty and the inequality of the classes.” He suggested that he and Dennis Powers, the company’s literary jack-of-all-trades, do their own version. Ball agreed. Determined not to produce an animated Christmas card, their version would hew to the story’s dark aspect, its “brutal, painful realities.” “Unless there’s a full articulation of the painful aspects,” Powers said, “the conversion of Scrooge has no meaning.”

Nicholas Perloff-Giles, Andrew Fleischer, Imaide Steverango, and
Steven Anthony Jones in A.C.T.'s 2003 production of A Christmas Carol.

Williamson had been impressed with the simplicity and elegance of a Russian adaptation he saw of Gogol’s story “The Overcoat.” The set that he and designer Robert Blackman devised for Carol reflected this approach and provided a metaphor for Scrooge’s move from darkness into light: a tower of safes, money boxes, ledgers, cases, and cupboards, representing the coffins in which Scrooge has buried his feelings. As he regains the feelings that he has locked away, the objects on the tower fall away. All that is left on Christmas morning is a bare framework on which Scrooge can erect a new life based on love and warmth.

For years, the production provided a vehicle for William Paterson and Sydney Walker, who alternated as Scrooge, with occasional appearances in the role by Ken Ruta and Raye Birk. In 1976, Magnin predicted this play would be “another Nutcracker,” and so it was, returning almost every year until 2005, when a new version continued the tradition.

Carol returns to A.C.T., this time as a radio play! Get your tickets here.

The Prepared Mind: An Interview with Emma Van Lare

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 17:16:00 +0000

By Claire L. Wong and Alejandra Maria Rivas

Emma Van Lare grew up in Spring, Texas, 22 miles from Houston. Her parents immigrated from the Republic of Ghana in West Africa. “I’m first-generation Ghanaian American,” Van Lare says, “so I think I’m of two places, actually.” When planning out her career, Van Lare sat her parents down and told them, “Look. I am not going to business school. I want to be an actor.” Her mom said, “Okay, but you have to treat it like a business. It can’t be a hobby.”

Emma Van Lare. Photo by Deborah Lopez.

“I appreciated that,” Van Lare says, “because my mom’s a doctor, my dad’s an insurance business guy. Their background was, [dramatic voice] ‘Education is the way! The truth and the light!’ I appreciated them telling me that, because it showed that they were not rigid, they were very supportive. In creative work, you have to be your own engine and treat it like a business even if you’re not making money from it. It’s the only way you’ll survive.” Van Lare recently graduated from A.C.T.’s three-year MFA Program and we spoke with her about her time here.

Can you describe your experience in the Program?
This program has really expanded my breadth of expression and taught me to trust my expression, however extreme or small. It taught me more about truth, and expressing that no matter whether it’s prickly or not.

Emma Van Lare in California Shakespeare Theater's 2019 production of House of Joy. Photo by Kevin Berne.

What’s your favorite part of the Program?
The people. I’ve been very lucky to have a class that is supportive, but also challenges you to do [laughs] what you must do. To work through difficulty. And not just my class, but also the people who work at A.C.T. They’re awesome. I appreciate this place for the community it has given me. In terms of my training, the thing that I appreciate the most is the movement curriculum. It was very hard, but it helped my work in ways I didn’t expect.

Who inspires you?
I’m inspired by people that really follow their passions, because I feel like that’s what I’m trying to do.

What’s your dream role?
I want to be in some sci-fi fantasy [sweeps arms], some magical, Afro-futuristic kind of world. They’re coming, those worlds. We’re seeing a lot more of it in television and film. In the theatrical canon, I want a bigger breadth of expression for Black people and people of color and marginalized groups. I want stories about us existing, not just out of oppression. I want big concepts, I want like, Star Wars, but Black people. That’s cool.

Jeff Wittekiend (A.C.T. MFA 2020) and Emma Van Lare in A.C.T.'s 2019 production of A Christmas Carol. Photo by Kevin Berne.

Do you have a personal mission statement?
I have two things. My mom says, “Don’t get lost in the forest.” Don’t get bogged down by day-to-day minutiae. As long as you know what your goal is, that can refocus you to stop worrying about what this person’s doing over here, what they’re saying to you.

The other is a quote from the scientist Louis Pasteur (he came up with the pasteurization process). He said, “In fields of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind.” I think it really applies to creative people. We always hear stories of people that are super successful in entertainment, and people make it seem like they became good at this thing overnight. And that’s not true; they have years of experience that we don’t see. If they hadn’t had all of the successes and failures behind them, they wouldn’t have been prepared for that moment. “Chance favors only the prepared mind.”

Check out A.C.T.’s MFA Program Class of 2020 here.

Uncovering a New Dimension: Director Peter J. Kuo on the Making of In Love and Warcraft (Part Two)

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 16:29:00 +0000

By Allie Moss

Click here to read Part One of this profile.

Originally, In Love and Warcraft was conceived as an in-person production to take place with A.C.T.’s MFA students in May 2020. But in the midst of the pandemic, A.C.T.’s Conservatory was forced to “pivot” and mount the show online instead. The May production did much more than fulfill the curricular need for student performance; it inspired a remount co-production from A.C.T. and Perseverance Theater, and it birthed a new medium that Kuo calls “live video theater.”

“Live video theater” is exactly what it sounds like: theater, happening on video, streaming live. And that live element is key; it’s what makes this form distinct from recorded videos of past theater productions. “When you’re watching something live versus recorded, the brain activates in a way that goes, ‘okay, something can happen,’” Kuo says. “That’s what I think liveness does; it allows us to be more forgiving, and lean into theatrical convention.” To facilitate that feeling, Kuo emphasizes the importance of the chat function on Zoom and other video streaming platforms. He says, “Comedy directors say, ‘You want that one person in the audience to break the ice. And once they laugh, there’s permission to laugh for everyone.’ I started feeling that way about the chat.” In the initial production, the chat was abuzz with everything from virtual laughter to personal, intimate experiences that the play elicited for audience members. Watching the production in real time and engaging with the chat was a communal experience that felt very much like the collective intake of breath that happens at an in-person theater performance.

A.C.T. MFA students Cassandra Hunter and Evangeline Edwards rehearse In Love and Warcraft, directed by Peter J. Kuo.

Since May, Kuo has been pioneering this new form in the American theater. He has taught master classes at Perseverance Theater in Juneau, Alaska (out of which the current co-production between A.C.T. and Perseverance was born) as well as in A.C.T.’s MFA program. During a showing of student work after a recent masterclass with A.C.T.’s MFA students, the energy around live video theater was palpable through the screen. MFA Acting students, who could have easily been apprehensive about beginning their school year with an online-only curriculum, expressed excitement at the possibilities that now felt open to them.

Even as he breaks new artistic ground, Kuo is excited to return to In Love and Warcraft for the September 2020 remount. For him, the story of a young person engaging with and coming into their sexuality online is deeply personal. As a teenager playing an online game, he forged a strong connection with a fellow queer gamer who ended up being an integral part of his coming out process. “She was like a sexuality godparent to me,” Kuo says. “As things were happening in my life, she was a person I could turn to . . . I can’t imagine what my journey with my own sexuality would have been had I not had that person.”

Kuo brings this deep appreciation of building relationships online to his direction of In Love and Warcraft and his work overall with live video theater. “I do get very frustrated when people talk about how flat experiences are in this medium or online,” he says. “That there's this kind of pooh-poohing of digital relationships and digital life, as opposed to in-person ‘real life.’ I don’t think one should replace the other, but it’s another dimension.” Indeed, it’s a dimension that springs to life under Kuo’s expert direction, and serves as a much-needed reminder that like the characters in Shekar’s play, we can and must build meaningful connections in the new reality of our digital world.

In Love and Warcraft streams live September 4, 5, 11, and 12, and will be available on demand September 18–25. Tickets and more information available here.

Uncovering a New Dimension: Director Peter J. Kuo on the Making of In Love and Warcraft (Part One)

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 21:29:00 +0000

By Allie Moss

Madhuri Shekar’s In Love and Warcraft is a play for our times. While there’s no mention of a pandemic, it expertly draws out questions of intimacy and relationship-building in virtual space. The play centers on Evie, a college senior who is navigating a budding in-person romance alongside an online relationship with her long-distance gamer boyfriend, with whom she plays World of Warcraft. By rehearsing and presenting the production on Zoom, life mirrors art as six of A.C.T.’s MFA actors are tasked with reaching through the screen to create deep connections. Peter J. Kuo, the production’s director, is profoundly aware of this overlap. “It’s not just that [the show] translates well into the online medium,” he says. “It actually shows that internet relationships have meaning and are palpable.”

Peter J. Kuo. Photo Courtesy of Peter J. Kuo.

This play resonates for Kuo in part because he has personal experience building relationships over the internet. “My main introduction to the internet was through an online game,” Kuo says. “That’s where I made some of my early friendships.” And later, when he started making YouTube videos, online was where Kuo found a strong sense of community. “The audience members and fellow content creators became a community of friends from around the world, and we would Tinychat (the Zoom before Zoom) late into the night,” Kuo writes in an essay on Howlround. “To this day, I annually vacation in person with these friends.”

Even though virtual relationships were a big part of his life, Kuo kept his online world separate from his IRL (in real life) theatrical career for a long time. “Theater values the ‘in-person-ness'; it’s all about in-person creation and experience, and so in a certain way, I think that part of my life and culture didn’t mesh well with theater.” However, he has noticed a shift now that everything, theater included, has been forced to move online. “Right now, it feels like because of the pandemic, things are converging, and those skills are coming together.”

And while some elements of creating a play on Zoom are very different, much remains the same. As Kuo and the cast think about how to make the two-dimensional screen feel like a three-dimensional space, they use the tools of theatricality. Kuo thinks about how our brains make patterns and tries to use those techniques to guide the audience’s attention so they can follow the story—which sounds remarkably like directing live, in-person theater. He also emphasizes the importance of encouraging actors to listen deeply to their scene partners, especially because they aren’t able to have the usual eye contact that is often foundational for building a relationship between characters.

This is part one of a two-part interview. Check back next week for more! To catch a performance of In Love and Warcraft directed by Kuo, click here.

Envisioning the Future: An Interview with Peter J. Kuo

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 23:50:00 +0000

By A.C.T. Publications Team

Peter J. Kuo is a director, producer, writer, and educator focused on raising the visibility of marginalized communities. As social justice programs coordinator at The New School, he founded the NSD: Affinity Groups program and was involved with several EDI initiatives. He is the co-founder of Artists at Play, a Los Angeles Asian American Theatre Collective. As a director, he has worked at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, East West Players, South Coast Rep., Geffen Playhouse, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Leviathan Lab, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, and others. He was recently named one of Theatre Communications Group's Rising Leaders of Color.

A.C.T. Associate Conservatory Director Peter J. Kuo.

We are so excited to have you at A.C.T., Peter! What drew you to this role?
I had just received my MFA in directing from The New School when I heard from A.C.T.’s new artistic director, Pam MacKinnon, who I’ve known for nearly six years. She knew that I was a director, arts administrator, and teacher who was looking to incorporate Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion values into these roles. I was not expecting to find a position that fulfilled all my interests. However, when Pam recommended me for this position, I was thrilled. I hit it off quickly with Conservatory Director Melissa Smith and was excited about the impact my position could have on creating the future artists of the American theater.

Can you share a little bit about why you chose to direct Medea as one of your first productions at A.C.T., and your vision for the production?
A lot of the plays I love to work on centralize stories of oppression. Medea is a strong female character who is fighting against a patriarchal society where she is treated cruelly. She is also an immigrant, a stranger in her land, and an occultist. She recognizes the injustice that is happening to her and decides to take matters into her own hands. But she is flawed, as all humans are. She is unable to get justice, so extracts vengeance instead. In my production, I want Medea to be portrayed as a strong woman, her actions driven by a need to be heard.

From Left: M.F.A. Program actor Ashley J. Hicks, Men on Boats playwright Jaclyn Backhuas,
Director of Dramaturgy and New Works Joy Meads, Associate Conservatory Director Peter J. Kuo,
and M.F.A. Program actor Summer Brown. Photo by Elspeth Sweatman.

Between teaching classes and directing, you have a lot going on this year. What are you most excited for?
I am discovering an incredible passion for advising and teaching students. I have spent a lot of time developing my self-awareness, which feeds my lifelong journey as an artist. Watching young artists awaken their artistic soul and become curious and passionate individuals has been extremely fulfilling. Of course, I’m also looking forward to getting my hands back into some directing. I’m very excited to see how the students take what I and the other faculty members have taught them and apply it in the rehearsal room.

To catch Peter's work as a director in our 20/21/22 season, click here.

Learning to Trust Yourself: An Interview with Kimberly Hollkamp-Dinon

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 22:03:00 +0000

By Livian Yeh

Hailing from Jeffersonville, Indiana, Kimberly Hollkamp-Dinon attended A.C.T.’s Summer Training Congress after graduating from college. “I immediately fell in love with the learning and training environment, and with the community here at A.C.T.,” she says. “I knew it was a place in which I could thrive.” Three years later, Hollkamp-Dinon has grown in technique, confidence, and artistry. We caught up with her to chat about her time in the MFA program, embracing her weirdness, and her love of The Great British Bakeoff.

Kimberly Hollkamp-Dinon. Photo by Deborah Lopez.

What's your favorite part of the MFA Program?

Definitely my classmates. I have learned so much from my fellow ensemble members of the class of 2020. I’m so grateful to work with them and learn from them. I have found lifelong collaborators in this group of artists. One of my favorite projects was when we all worked on a production of The School for Scandal directed by [MFA Program Head of Voice] Christine Adaire. We worked rigorously on our script analysis and vocal and physical technique. The production was set in a steampunk world, and it allowed us to explore our individual creativity while utilizing all the techniques we were learning. It was an exciting and fun experimental playground.

How would you describe your approach to your work?
I’ve been exploring how I work during my time here at A.C.T. Working on my third-year solo show, I’ve realized it’s important for me to rely on impulse, especially in the beginning stages of my work. I always look for glimpses of humor in my acting, collaborating, and creating. It helps to release pressure on myself to be perfect. Most of all, I try to focus on generosity and integrity in all my work. I'm kind of a weird person, and I have come to realize that it’s so important to let my weirdness shine through!

Other than theater, what nurtures you?
I love reading and playing video games. During shelter-in-place, I have been playing a lot of Animal Crossing with family and friends. I also love reading fantasy series; right now I’m reading The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. I also love baking! If I could be on The Great British Bakeoff, I would totally do it, but I’d need to practice more.

Kimberly Hollkamp-Dinon in Ti Jean and His Brothers (2019). Photo by Jay Yamada.

Who inspires you?
My family—they work hard and with extreme love and care. My mom and my grandmother have always been role models. My dad is also a huge inspiration—he’s a journalist for The Courier Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, and works harder than anyone I know. As the breaking news editor, he and his staff just won a Pulitzer Prize for a story they covered last year! I love my family immensely and am so proud of them.

How have you grown in your artistry in the past three years?
Oh man, I have grown tremendously. I’ve grown not only as an artist and actor, but also as a human being. I now really pride myself in my technique, especially regarding voice. I have become more confident. I rely on my impulses, and try not to question them. My stamina and emotional endurance have greatly improved. I now believe that anything in my career is possible. I have found my voice as an artist, and I cannot wait to expand on it and explore it for the rest of my life.

Check out A.C.T. MFA Program Class of 2020 here.

The Negro Leagues: Toni Stone in Historical Context

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Wed, 19 Aug 2020 22:11:00 +0000

By A.C.T. Publications Staff

Have you ever heard of the New York Black Yankees? What about the Homestead Grays, Baltimore Black Barons, or Cincinnati Tigers? From the 1880s until the 1950s, there were two professional baseball systems in the United States: one for white players, and another for Black Americans. Both contributed to the development of the modern game and baseball industry. This year, 2020, marks the centennial of the Negro Leagues, which was founded by Andrew “Rube” Foster, retired pitcher and owner of the Chicago American Giants, in February 1920 to “create a profession that would equal the earning capacity of any other profession . . . keep Colored baseball from the control of whites . . . [and] do something concrete for the loyalty of the Race.”

The 1943 Homestead Grays lineup included several future Hall of Fame players: Cool Papa Bell (back second from left), Josh Gibson (back fifth from left), and Buck Leonard (back second from right). Photo courtesy of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

Segregating Baseball

Black Americans played baseball throughout American history, likely even back in 1792, the year of the first written mention of the game, and some teams were integrated. After the Civil War, in 1867, the National Association of Amateur Baseball Players issued a recommendation “against the admission [to the association] of any club which may be composed of one or more colored persons.” By 1900, baseball, like the country, was segregated.

Barnstorming
Soon, professional all-Black teams were formed. The first of these was the Cuban Giants, established in 1885, who played to packed crowds on Long Island during the summer and in Cuba during the winter months. These teams would play local baseball clubs, regardless of skin color, on diamonds ranging from major or minor league stadiums to small-town fields—a practice known as barnstorming. Most drew large crowds. But without their own stadiums, teams were dependent on white booking agents for access to venues, and they couldn’t set their own schedules. Booking agents also determined how much of the revenue from games was paid to team owners.

Baseball player Toni Stone, the first woman to play professional baseball in the Negro League. Photo courtesy of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

The Negro National League
Foster’s vision of creating a Black professional league that would rival white Major League teams materialized when other team owners got on board, and the Negro National League kicked off the 1920–21 season with seven teams from the Midwest. Soon, the Southern Negro League and the white-owned Eastern Colored League were formed in their respective regions. Despite the financial challenges during the Great Depression, the leagues held together through the 1920s. From 1924 through 1927, each season culminated in the Negro World Series, sometimes known as the World’s Colored Championship. This nine-game series was played in different neutral cities, which allowed the leagues to grow their fan base and take advantage of wherever a large stadium was available.

Negro League baseball teams had their own style of play: fast, aggressive, and with showmanship. Some teams, like the Indianapolis Clowns, were forced to incorporate racist entertainment for their white audiences—ball tricks, juggling, dancing, and sleight-of-hand moves—into their games.

Integration
After World War II, during which soldiers of all races had been critical to victory, pressure grew to integrate American institutions, including baseball. Jackie Robinson, an infielder who began his career with the Kansas City Monarchs, was signed in 1945 to play for a minor league team affiliated with the Brooklyn Dodgers. After a season with their farm team, Robinson “broke baseball’s color line” when he walked onto the field at Ebbets Stadium in Flatbush, Brooklyn, on April 15, 1947.

As Black players joined Major League teams, Black fans—and their money—followed. The Negro National League folded in 1948. Its rival, the Negro American League, hung on through the 1950s, attempting to draw crowds by including women on their teams.

Recognition
The contributions and achievements of Negro League baseball teams are often overlooked, but not forgotten. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, works to preserve the story of Black American baseball in the United States. Thirty-five Negro League players, executives, and managers are now recognized in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, including Effa Manley, co-owner of the Newark Eagles and the first woman inducted in 2006.

This article originated in Roundabout Theatre Company’s UPSTAGE guide, produced for the world-premiere production of Toni Stone in 2019. We are grateful to Roundabout’s marketing and education teams for their great work and generosity.

For the safety and well-being of our patrons, staff, and artists, A.C.T.'s theaters have become dark. To help us rebound, make a donation here.

Seeking the Magic: An Interview with Lily Harris

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 23:26:00 +0000

By Livian Yeh

After graduating from Reed College with a degree in English, Lily Harris entertained career paths in teaching, academia, and horseback riding, but ultimately landed on acting. Learning about A.C.T.’s MFA program from a friend and eager to improve her craft, the Los Angeles native auditioned and was accepted as part of our class of 2020. She talks to us about her time in the program, her inspiration, and finding joy in life as an artist.

Lily Harris Headshot. Photo by Deborah Lopez.

How have you grown in your artistry in the past three years being in the MFA Program?

I am so much more confident in sharing myself with others. I think I started acting because I felt it gave me permission to show parts of myself I didn’t feel comfortable sharing in everyday life. Although that is definitely still true, one of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that the only person who can give you permission to do or be something is you. I am much more conscious of when I am hindered by fear or the desire to do something “right” in my work. I am able (most of the time) to overcome these feelings by leaning into my sense of play, exploration, and joy.

What's your favorite part of the Program and why?

My classmates! In all three years, but especially the CLASS OF 2020! It’s an amazing, supportive community that we create for each other.

Outside of theater, what interests do you have?

I live with my partner and our incredible, adorable dog Beau, and I don’t know where I’d be without them. I love to read, primarily fantasy and magical realism. I like being enveloped in worlds different from my own. Horseback riding was a huge part of my life for a long time, so it will always be important to me, even though I don’t get to do it as often as I would like. Someday, I’ll have a horse again.

Lily Harris in A Midsummer Night's Dream (2019). Photo by Alessandra Mello.

Who inspires you?

People who are wholly themselves and don’t have to prove it, who are passionate and intelligent and kind. Most of the inspirational people in my life are my friends and family rather than public figures. I find it easier to admire someone when you know their flaws and weaknesses as well as you do their gifts and virtues.

How would you describe your approach to your work?

I love collaborating! Being part of a team is always challenging, but I love co-creating with adventurous, ambitious, unique people. I have a hard time creating entirely on my own, but I’ve been working on that skill recently, because of the pandemic, which is helpful practice for me. I’m good at interpreting abstract ideas and fusing together disparate ones, and I love detail-oriented, specific work. I am a very flexible actor, and enjoy working with directors to try different ideas in the rehearsal room. I always strive for simplicity, truth, and humor in my work, because nothing kills energy and story more than taking yourself or a situation too seriously, or trying to make it something that it’s not. I am constantly seeking the magic in my art.

Check out A.C.T. MFA Program Class of 2020 here.

Behind the Scenes at A.C.T.: An Interview with Subscriptions Manager Mark C. Peters

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 21:52:00 +0000

By Annie Sears

Meet Mark Peters, a master of repurposing thrifted fabric, auditioning for the Amazing Race (he’s submitted four video auditions and attended six open calls), and maintaining a morning routine: meditation, followed by yoga, followed by breakfast and a crossword puzzle—which is surprisingly similar to his work here at A.C.T. as our subscriptions manager. We recently sat down with Peters to hear about his 32 years here at A.C.T.

A.C.T.'s Subscriptions Manager Mark Peters. Photo by Elspeth Sweatman.

How would you describe your job to someone that doesn’t know anything about it?
It’s a giant puzzle, and I love puzzles. Our subscribers get to choose their seats, and keep those same seats for each show they attend. So when we get new subscribers or have subscribers who want to change their seats—that’s my favorite part. I have to say, “Okay, this person wants to move to Saturday night, so I can get this person into this space. And what if I shift this person here?” I do my best to take care of every subscriber. The biggest puzzles were after the earthquake in 1989.

What was that like?
I was in The Geary when it happened. My friend and I were down in Fred’s Columbia Room when it started—boom, boom! Plaster was falling from the ceiling, and we ran into the bathroom doorway. Lore is that you’re supposed to stand in a doorway. But why? Who knows. When it finally stopped—it felt like it went on for minutes, even though it was seconds—I remember going upstairs, opening up the door to the theater, seeing all the dust from 100 years that had fallen down, and standing there with my jaw dropped.

After that, A.C.T. went on our “world tour” and performed in other theaters until 1996, which was tricky for me. The Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, for example, has continental seating. So when you’re seating subscribers, how do you determine what’s your “orchestra” level and what’s your “balcony” level? Even after we got back into The Geary, things were challenging. We went down to 16 rows on the orchestra level to get more leg room, and we took out ten rows in the balcony to build a stabilizing wall. So how do you seat subscribers in the same spots when those seats are gone?

Mark and his "Fun-o-Meter" Pin. Photo by Elspeth Sweatman.

What do you love about theater?
I’ve always been amazed by the productions we do here. When we did Angels in America, I saw each part six times. I saw The Black Rider five times, and Stuck Elevator three times. That’s a joy of working here: when I like something, I have the chance to see it again and again. And with theater, it’s never really the same show because the audience reacts differently each performance. When the lights go down right before a show starts, I feel like a little kid. My eyes get really big, and I get a big smile on my face because there’s something magic about a show happening live—what’s going to happen? I mean, I’ve read all the scripts and been to all the design presentations, so I know what’s going to happen. But there’s still a magic in the theater. I love that.

Want to interact with Mark? Subscribe to our 2020–21–22 season here or call 415.749.2250.

Leading with an Open Heart: An Interview with LeRoy S. Graham III

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 22:53:00 +0000

By Claire L. Wong and Alejandra Maria Rivas

LeRoy S. Graham III was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up, he first got into the arts through dance and musical theater in school. He studied theater and psychology at City College of New York, and after graduating, explored acting outside of life as a student. He started auditioning for graduate acting programs at 25 and was accepted into A.C.T.’s MFA Program when he was 27.

“I felt like I knew what I wanted to go in and pursue that time,” he says. The thought of moving to San Francisco away from family was daunting at first, but he was drawn to A.C.T.’s training. “There’s the focus on developing the artist as a whole,” Graham says. “From the callback weekend I felt at home. I felt this could be the place for me for the next three years.”

LeRoy S. Graham III. Photo by Deborah Lopez.

What has your experience in the MFA Program been like?

One of the biggest things that I’ve gained from being at A.C.T is developing my voice and being able to advocate for myself. I still sit back and listen, but if something bothers me, I’ll definitely speak up about it. I’m always looking to do what’s right, how to get the institution to be more inclusive with the community.

I’m a very giving person and want to give so much of myself. I’ve realized that I did come to this place to gain an education. I now have a balance of being able to give but also keep some things for myself.

What’s your favorite part of the Program?
Sky Fest. Sky Fest is about creating the things that you really want to do. My first year, third-year student Kadeem Ali Harris got a bunch of the Black male students together for a project called Black Masculinities. That was pivotal for me within the Program, because I got a bunch of brothers, you know? We created something that we’re still talking about mounting after we’ve all graduated.

My second year I did John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Playing Lenny was a challenging but heartfelt experience. And then this year I was in By the Way, Meet Vera Stark with one of my classmates I’d never acted with. Sky Fest creates opportunities where you get to call the shots.

Eddie Ewell (A.C.T. MFA 2020) and LeRoy S. Graham III in A.C.T.'s MFA production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (2019). Photo by Alessandra Mello.

Who inspires you?
My mom. She had me when she was 22 years old. She had to navigate feeding me, feeding herself, finding apartments, keeping a job. She sacrificed a lot to make sure that I had. That’s inspiring. I do what I do because I want to, but if and when I do reach the heights that I want to reach, my mom is definitely going to reap the benefits.

What is your dream role?
Somebody who seems very put together but is really complex. I want to talk about mental health. I want to play a character that is dealing with trying to navigate what daily life is like, but has this big internal battle.

Do you have a personal artistic mission statement?
Success is not given, but earned. And it should be done in your own way. In any form of creative outlet, specifically within acting, if you do it with a passionate heart, then it’s a success. In anything artistic, I always want to lead with an open heart and open arms. I hope to embrace those who speak my language. And even those who don’t—if you can just nod in recognition, then I’ve done my job.

Check out A.C.T.’s MFA Program Class of 2020 here.

Snail Slime and Other Secrets: 'Great Leap' Actors Reveal Their Pre-Show Routines

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 20:55:00 +0000

By Annie Sears

Being an actor means a lot of preparation: researching the play’s context and analyzing character motivations, attending costume fittings and spending hours in blocking rehearsals. Another important prep step not often revealed? Pre-show skincare.

Stage makeup is heavier than day-to-day makeup, often causing allergic reactions, breakouts, and dryness—which nobody wants, especially someone who stands under stage lights every day. So how are actors in The Great Leap (running through March 31 at The Geary) making sure their faces are stage-ready?

BD Wong (playing Wen Chang) is a fan of hyaluronic acid. Sounds a little scientific and sterile—like something you definitely do not want soaking into your skin, right? It’s actually entirely natural. Our skin cells produce hyaluronic acid on their own, but we could all use a little extra to even skin tone and decrease the appearance of lines and wrinkles. “It makes it possible for this character to be 24 years old at the beginning of the play,” joked BD.

Pro tip: He uses Neutrogena’s Hydro Boost hydrogel masks. You can get those at your local pharmacy!

Actor BD Wong wearing a hyaluronic acid mask before he performs on the Geary stage. Selfie courtesy BD Wong.

You won’t find all of Ruibo Qian’s (playing Connie) skincare products on the shelf. She mixes her own toner and face oil. The personal toner follows a double-cleansing and precedes something with a bit of an ick factor: snail mucus and bee venom serum. The snail slime decreases dark spots, and the bee venom nips breakouts in the bud. She puts a sheet mask over those serums while she covers her tattoo. Fifteen minutes later, she applies a ceramide moisturizer and seals it all with her personal face oil. After that sinks in, it’s time to smear on the stage makeup.

Actor Ruibo Qian getting ready in her dressing room, where she has a humidifier running constantly.

BD Wong and Ruibo Qian appeared in Lauren Yee's The Great Leap as part of A.C.T.'s 2018–2019 season. To help us continue to tell stories, click here to support A.C.T.

Preparation and Play: An Interview with Jeff Wittekiend

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 15:59:00 +0000

By Claire L. Wong and Alejandra Maria Rivas

Before moving to San Francisco for A.C.T.’s MFA Program, Jeff Wittekiend had lived in Texas his whole life. He grew up outside of Austin in Burnet (population 6,000), studied theater at Baylor University in Waco, then moved to Dallas to continue acting. “I was doing bigger and bigger regional shows, working on my craft, observing people in the world,” he says. “I was trying to figure out what kind of artist I wanted to be.” After deciding to hone that artistry in graduate school, he made the journey to San Francisco. Wittekiend recently graduated from A.C.T.’s MFA Program, and we spoke with him about his experiences.

Jeff Wittekiend. Photo by Deborah Lopez.

What inspired you to pursue A.C.T.’s MFA Program?

When I came to the A.C.T. callback, I felt good about the teachers I met and the classes we had during that weekend. I got to see A Thousand Splendid Suns when I was here. It was a book I’d read in high school and just adored, and I was pleased to see it brought to life onstage so powerfully. A lot of things over that weekend had an impact on me; when I got in I was so thrilled.

How have you developed in your artistry over the last three years?
We’ve studied under people with such a high degree of expertise and experience and taken in a lot of different perspectives. We’ve been able to try things on in a place where failure is not only okay but kind of encouraged, to try something and fail at it, and see what can be mined out of that. That’s been valuable. I feel very equipped and eager to go try my hand at shows out in the world.

Jared Corbin (A.C.T. MFA 2020) and Jeff Wittekiend in the 2018 A.C.T. MFA production of The School for Scandal. Photo by Alessandra Mello.

What do you spend the most time on besides acting?
My wife and I got involved in triathlons about five years ago. I love it. I enjoy the discipline of it and the accomplishment. And it’s a great excuse to get outside and spend time together doing something we both enjoy. I’ve done several sprint triathlons, Olympic distance, and last summer I did my first half-Ironman. It was the hardest physical thing I’ve ever done, but I felt great afterward.

What advice would you give to someone considering a career in the arts?
Break it down into the smallest manageable steps. Doing one thing at a time has been really valuable for me, without trying to get ahead of myself or playing the comparison game. There’s always something you can be doing: another class you can take, or a movie you can watch, something that can provide inspiration and material to apply to your own work.

Jeff Wittekiend (center) in Baylor University's 2012 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Photo by Stan Denman.

Who inspires you?
I admire people who can create a congenial atmosphere in a rehearsal room and who are professional, dedicated, and prepared. People who have a good time, who encourage other people to have a good time, and who allow others to appreciate the joy of acting. It’s called a play. This is supposed to be fun. [Laughs]

What’s your favorite part of the Program?
My classmates. We’re super tight. Everybody has each other’s back. I feel very safe with them, I believe in them as artists, I trust them as people. I really enjoy working in a company, where a group of artists work on multiple projects over a long period of time. You get to know people’s different communication styles and emotional needs, their foibles and the little things that annoy them, and you learn all that in a way that makes it efficient and rewarding to work together. Being able to watch them change and grow—and have them help me change and grow—has been beautiful. I’m really gonna miss that.

Check out A.C.T.’s MFA Program Class of 2020 here.

Producing Live Content in the Age of Uncertainty

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 17:23:00 +0000

By Beryl Baker

Since San Francisco’s shelter-in-place order went into effect on March 19, A.C.T. Digital Content Producer Beryl Baker has been keeping busy. In addition to turning live productions of Gloria and Toni Stone into streamed films and editing A.C.T.’s InterACT-at-Home videos, Baker also produced Spring Forward, the smash-hit virtual fundraiser that helped sustain our artistic and education and community programs. Baker shares tips on how to produce a successful, virtual, live event in a pandemic.

Baker at work with her cat Lily. Photo by Beryl Baker.

Find out what technology can do for you
Talk or reach out to video production experts and trust their advice. Dig deep into understanding what is and isn't possible. Most people don’t realize that technology isn't as ahead of its time as we’re told. While FaceTime and Google Hangouts exist, those are patented products produced by two top tech companies: having video be sent out and received live requires incredibly fast data processing. Comparing a phone call to a FaceTime call is like comparing a gif to a feature-length film.

Hardwire your signal
We've never been so vulnerable to user error or poor signal. We’re almost entirely dependent on personal laptops, smart phones, and household wifi. Which brings me to my next point . . .

Pre-tape, pre-tape, pre-tape
Pre-tape as much as possible and limit exactly what you want live. You’ll want to test everything. You must be able to rehearse switching between the live and non-live segments over and over again.

No one does anything alone
If you can, anticipate that you don't just need someone with a laptop to play host—you need an entire crew of folks to make that person look good. This was our technical team for Spring Forward:

A live stream Board Operator
A Stage Manager
A Production Assistant (PA) dedicated to carrying messages between the host of the show and the production team
A PA dedicated to contacting outside guests
An events staff member keeping track of the night's programming
One or more people running social media feeds
A backup Board Operator with the show pre-loaded onto their computer, in case of technical failure

There was a moment in our live show when we couldn’t reach a donor to deliver a personal thank-you. With the help of our PAs, stage manager, and board operator, we were able to connect with an alternative donor and keep the show going. Theater people are smart and adaptable; we think of how everything could go wrong and then put redundancies in place. Through collaboration and flexibility, we were able to pull through some unexpected moments.

The live entertainment industries are facing an uncertain time, and we are being asked to make what were once strictly in-person affairs purely digital. And we have to do it all remotely! This transition is challenging, but with the appropriate tools and mindset, you can do it. Good luck!

Click here to watch a recording of Spring Forward, A.C.T.'s first-ever virtual fundraiser.

The Full Her: An Interview with Dinah Berkeley

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 16:59:00 +0000

By Claire L. Wong and Alejandra Maria Rivas

Dinah Berkeley (she/they) grew up in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb outside of Chicago. After graduating from Ohio University, Berkeley studied in a professional training program at Actors Theatre of Louisville, then moved to New York for a few years. There she became involved with mime, physical theater, and clown, and joined the Broken Box Mime Theater troupe. Berkeley’s focus narrowed to sharpening her acting skills, and after auditioning for graduate programs, she came to A.C.T.

Dinah Berkeley. Photo by Deborah Lopez.

Can you describe your experience being in the MFA Program?

It’s challenged me about what kind of artist I want to be, how I want to present myself. What kind of work I want. I’ve had to be open to things that I might feel resistance to and trust that if I do the work and if it’s not serving me, I can put it aside. But I won’t know that answer until I commit to fully trying.

What’s your favorite part of the Program?
Sky Fest hands down! Having a space and two weeks to delve into our passion projects is one of the most special times of the year. Sky Fest makes A.C.T.’s MFA Program stand out. If you’re interested in writing, directing, and being an actor, you’re able to do all those things. It’s important to know how to produce your own work, and Sky Fest is a little incubator for that.

Dinah Berkeley in the A.C.T. MFA Creative Movement Project (2017). Photo by Alessandra Mello.

Who inspires you?
I’m a big mover and dancer. Pina Bausch’s work completely blows my mind and was one of the first dance things I was introduced to. In high school, I saw James Thiérrée’s Farewell Umbrella (Au Revoir Parapluie) at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. It’s the story of a family who are broken apart by a storm then have to find each other. It was physical, acrobatic, and image-based, with some opera. I’d never seen theater that wasn’t a couch and a stage. It blew up my perception of what theater could be.

What kinds of roles excite you?
Anyone who’s got a wild life but is also wildly misunderstood. [Laughs] Or who’s viewed as a villain. The Medeas of the world. Or Constance in King John. After Constance’s son dies, she doesn’t get to process everything. We don’t see her again. I want the full her. Women who actually get to process onstage, as opposed to offstage.

I’m interested in telling queer history and queer women’s stories. I love stories that say: queer people and women have always existed just as fully and presently as men. Bryna Turner’s Bull in a China Shop, for example.

Matt Monaco (A.C.T. MFA 2020) and Dinah Berkeley in the A.C.T. MFA 2019 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Photo by Alessandra Mello.

Do you have a personal artistic mission statement?
One thing I think about a lot is that the heart is a muscle and it has to be exercised regularly to be used at its fullest capacity. Also, the distance between all of us is so small. We have special experiences that make us who we are, but if anything had been different, I could be this woman who lives in a castle or that man who lives on the street. That’s so important as an artist to honor and feed your humanity. And feed your demons. Oh my gosh, feed your demons. Feed them love and compassion. But feed them.

What advice would you give to someone considering a career in the arts?
Own who you are and bring that to your art. If you’re someone who struggles with something, if you have anxiety or depression, if you talk a certain way, if you look a certain way, use it as your art. When you accept those things about yourself and use them—that’s when you’ll thrive.

Check out A.C.T.’s MFA Program Class of 2020 here.

It Wasn’t a Party—It Was a Riot

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 16:35:00 +0000

By Beryl Baker and Livian Yeh

San Francisco Pride is turning 50 this year amid a global pandemic and worldwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism. In response to questions about the upcoming virtual celebration and rally, San Francisco Pride board president Carolyn Wysinger expressed support of the protesters and highlighted the especially vulnerable Black trans community. “Stonewall was started by a Black trans woman. Stonewall was a defense of Black bodies,” says Wysinger. “In honor of this, San Francisco Pride will use this moment to lift up and center our Black LGBTQ+ community members.” The woman Wysinger referred to was Marsha P. Johnson, a Black transgender activist and performer credited with throwing the first brick at Stonewall. As the saying goes, Pride didn’t start as a party—it was a riot, and members of the LGBTQ+ community have long fought back against police harassment and discrimination.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, the transgender and gender nonconforming community are especially vulnerable against fatal violence. In 2019, advocates from the organization tracked at least 27 deaths of transgender or gender nonconforming people in the United States, and found the victims were mostly Black transgender women. In 2020, at least 15 transgender or gender nonconforming people have been killed by violent means.

The more invisible we make a community, the more vulnerable they become. At A.C.T., we understand the power of the arts in challenging perspectives, bringing unheard voices to the forefront, and uplifting those who have been most vulnerable. We also know the arts and media can just as easily uphold stereotypes, exclude voices, and make light of historical trauma. Representation literally saves lives, and here is a list of Black trans artists and arts organizations you can support:

Art Hoe Collective

BGD Press Books

Black Trans Femmes in the Arts

Southern Fried Queer Pride

The Star Fruit Project

Artists and citizens alike have the power to break the cycle of Othering and bring underrepresented voices to the forefront. As Marsha P. Johnson said, “You never completely have your rights, one person, until you have all your rights.”

Some other organizations to support:

Black Visions Collective

Black Trans Travel Fund

Black Transmen Inc

Brave Space Alliance

Center for Black Equity

For the Gworls

Homeless Black Trans Women Fund

House of GG

The Knights & Orchids Society

The Marsha P. Johnson Institute

The Okra Project

Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project

Trans Women of Color Collective

Further Readings:

Nina Simone on freedom and fear

Violence Against the Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Community in 2020

Screaming Queens | KQED Truly CA

Laverne Cox’s Disclosure

Remembering San Francisco's Compton's Cafeteria Riot

Jennifer Bielstein Joins Mayor Breed’s Economic Recovery Task Force

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 19:00:00 +0000

By Simon Hodgson

Congratulations to A.C.T. Executive Director Jennifer Bielstein for her appointment to San Francisco’s COVID-19 Economic Recovery Task Force. “We are looking for ways to keep businesses and organizations afloat and prepare San Francisco for recovery,” says Mayor London Breed. “This Task Force will help us get there.”

Jennifer Bielstein. Photo by Kevin Berne.

Bielstein is one of a select group of arts and culture leaders joining the task force. Given the diverse economic challenges facing San Francisco and the Bay Area, the Task Force draws its talented members from many areas: elected officials, representatives from multiple unions, city planning administrators, Chinatown community leaders, prominent local business owners (representing many sectors including the restaurant and construction industries), chamber of commerce leaders, as well as executives from California-based multinationals including Google, Gap, and Salesforce.

A.C.T.’s executive director is well suited for this participation—Bielstein brings 25 years’ experience of civic collaboration. Nationwide, she is the president of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), representing 76 large regional theaters. She also has a wealth of experience working with business and community groups in metropolitan areas across the country. As managing director of the Guthrie Theater, she was a member of the Minneapolis Downtown Council Board of Directors. In Chicago, she worked for several major cultural organizations and played a leadership role in the region’s theater. And during her time at Actors Theatre of Louisville, she served on boards for downtown development, the chamber of commerce, and also for the arts.

City of San Francisco. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to represent the needs of the arts in our city’s recovery,” says Bielstein, “as well as help to lead our collaboration in being an essential part of San Francisco’s ability to rebound from this devastating crisis.” The arts are a critical part of Mayor Breed’s task force—at a meeting in May, Breed’s team shared data that showed the Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation sector was the hardest hit, with 54.5 percent job losses. Other sectors also heavily impacted include Food Services (48.2 percent), Other Services (54 percent), and Accommodations (40.8 percent).

Despite the challenges ahead, Bielstein is optimistic. “What makes me feel hopeful about the Economic Recovery Task Force is its diversity of perspectives and its focus on inclusion and representation. If we come back stronger, it leads to a more appealing San Francisco.”

Learn more about the task force here. Share your ideas for economic recovery by visiting www.onesanfrancisco.org.

Our Commitment and Resources to Anti-Racism

noreply@blogger.com (American Conservatory Theater) — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 21:03:00 +0000

Last week we shared a message with our community in response to the trauma our country and individuals are experiencing with the continued horrific and unnecessary deaths of Black people.

Over the past two years, A.C.T. has undergone tremendous change as an institution. We have owned and learned from our history, including significant input from a departing Black MFA faculty member in 2018, and recognize ongoing systemic challenges. We continue to evolve our organizational culture and work toward making meaningful changes that reflect our values of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI).

In our efforts to be an anti-racist organization, American Conservatory Theater is taking or committing to take the following actions:

Serving as community advocates by ensuring our programming reflects and represents the diversity of the San Francisco Bay Area community
Ensuring the diversity of creative teams (including playwrights, directors, dramaturgs, and designers) to better tell stories and making certain that actors do not carry the sole burden of representation
Committing to build a body of work on our stages and beyond that becomes the new American cannon, putting Black artists and artists of color at the center
Training and ongoing consultation so that our staff, faculty, students, and board understand systemic issues, as well as unconscious bias, microaggressions, intent vs. impact, cultural competency, and more
Engaging our leadership team in Intercultural Development assessment and training
Developing staff EDI Committee and Affinity Groups to ensure they offer a safe space for sharing, learning, and/or processing anti-racist competency
Work with experts in the field such as the Racial Equity Institute, ArtEquity through Theatres Advancing Social Change, Cochran Hadden Royston and Associates, Pillsbury House Theatre, and Theatre Communications Group
Increasing transparency across the organization through frequent company meetings, visibility into decision-making processes, and accountability for information sharing
Clear, ample, and safe reporting paths to bring concerns forward
Investing in infrastructure that will allow for expanded, intentional recruitment and retention efforts to help increase diversity of staff and leadership and become a more inclusive organization
Hiring a Manager of EDI to support our Director of HR and EDI in these efforts
Ensuring faculty are representative of the Master of Fine Arts student body
Continuing to provide anti-racism resources to internal and external stakeholders to do individual work
Sharing resources on how the community can take action and help make a difference

We acknowledge the work to achieve EDI—and more specifically, disrupting and dismantling anti-Blackness—is ongoing, and we are committed to being responsive and making positive changes to the organizational health of A.C.T. and the local and national stage through direct action and rigorous intentional care. We promise to listen, reflect, adapt, and participate in the change.

Thank you for holding us accountable.

#OpenYourLobby
We will open the lobby of the Strand Theater (1127 Market St.) on Tuesday June 9 from 10 a.m.–1 p.m. to offer a safe space for protesters participating in Kneeling 4 Justice Part 2—Memorial & Celebration of the Life of George Floyd at SF City Hall. Water, snacks, electricity, wifi, and restrooms will be available and our staff volunteers will be on site to help with social distancing protocol. Donations are welcome.

Resources

WHERE TO DONATE:
Black Lives Matter
Minnesota Freedom Fund
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
National Bailout Fund

TAKE ACTION:
Color of Change
Change.org (Black Lives Matter petitions)

SF BAY AREA RESOURCES:
5 Ways to Show Up for Racial Justice Today KQED
Bay Area Black-Owned Restaurants and Pop-Ups
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
Showing Up For Racial Justice Bay Area

EDUCATING CHILDREN:
10 Diverse Children's Books to Add to Your Library
Sesame Street "I Love My Hair"
English
Spanish
Your Kids Aren't Too Young to Talk about Race

MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES:
7 Virtual Mental Health Resources Supporting Black People Right Now

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Anti-Racism Resources for White People
National Ally Resource Guide
Resources for Anti-Racist Action
Scaffolded Anti-Racism Resources
Unicorn Riot