Theatre Profile

American conservatory of theater was founded in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania 1965. Since founders’ day of A.C.T, A.C.T has a lot of exciting history. Since there is a lot of history about American conservatory of theater I am only going t o talk about a few that was appealing to me.

• 1965, A.C.T had their first performance ‘Tartuffe” at the Pittsburgh playhouse in Pennsylvania and at this time A.C.T was recognized as a new resident theater company in Pittsburgh by the direction of William Bell.
• 1966, American conservatory theater moved to San Francisco and become one of two heavy weight contender.
• 1968 and 1969 A.C.T starts a student matinee program. A.C.T conservatory classes start to include community actors; also they start a summer training congress.
• 1979 A.C.T wins a tony award for theatrical achievement and excellence in repertory performance and actor training. 1995 under the new director Melissa smith renews A.C.T commitments to excellence in actor training and to the relationship between training, performance, and audience. The kresge foundation awards A.C.T a $750,000 challenge grant for the Geary theater, which became one of the largest awards ever given by the foundation to a regional theater.
• 2003 The A.C.T. Young Conservatory creates a new international link with Theater Royal Bath (TRB). The two-year program includes Bath commissioning a major American playwright (Jim Grimsley) and developing the play (War Daddy) in a two-week workshop at A.C.T.
• American conservatory theater mission is to strive to learn and explore an artistic for and also theater traditions which are their legacy A.C.T commits to the highest standard form of their creative work. The leadership director Carey Perloff shows A.C.T responsibility to conserve, renew, a reinvent the theater traditions. American Conservatory theater cultivates the art of theater through production, also on actor training, and also with deeply concentrates the community.

American conservatory is a school of arts to help student’s progress in their theoretical future. The A.C.T master of fine arts has produced different material for their students. The students go through a three year program. For the first year of being a student actor, students attend the Alexander Technique, physical theater, and a circus skills class. These three classes in the first year of student acting trains them for acting, voice, speech, movement, singing, text analysis, theater history, studies in the San Francisco cultural landscape, also special workshops like mask, t’ai chi, stage combat and improvisation.

The second year, A.C.T teaches the student actors art of acting in old English literature plays such as William Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Moliere. And the last year of attending A.C.T mainly focuses on the public performances. Each year the actor student attends helps them exceed in acting, from teaching them the history and extensive course work, to expanding and finding out their inner acting ability , to finding out what type of actor the student Is, and showing their ability to the public.

Other material that they produce is that they serve different type of internships for the students. The internship that A.C.T provides hands’ on training inside a professional theater, the student interns learn what drama means to the community and how enriched theater is to the community. A.C.T student interns attend graduate programs, worked in major regional theaters; also they manage the role of being directors, designers, and stage managers. Entering the intern program students will develop strength in their professional, skills, and abilities. Also for writers in theater they have script submissions, which means writers are greatly encouraged to express their theoretical ideas to A.C .T.

American conservatory theater appeals to me because they strive to help young actors succeed. I may not want to be an actor but reading their mission statement and what their goals are to do to help their students I would love to visit A.C.T. I love how well rounded A.C.T is they not only teach acting classes, but they also acknowledge students who want to become a director. They also encourage students to send in their idea scripts.

I really like how A.C.T teaches their students, they don’t rush or push, but yet they strive to help their students found the actor in themselves. The first year of A.C.T they teach them the history and composition of acting, they teach the basics and have out of the ordinary classes to teach them that you don’t always get the part that you are perfectly good at. The second year of A.C.T, the students learn to start performing into plays within the school, learning how well their skills are, also to improve their actor school. The last year which is the third year the students put everything they have learned together and show the community how well of an actor they have become. A.C.T really has their number one focus on getting their students to be successful.