American Conservatory Theater & Downtown Continuation High School Conclude First Year of ACTING FOR CRITICAL THOUGHT Project

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) Director of Education Elizabeth Brodersen announced today the successful completion of A.C.T.'s first-year partnership with Downtown Continuation High School-a project-based public school in the San Francisco Unified School District dedicated to serving teenagers who have not experienced success in traditional comprehensive high schools-and their new Acting for Critical Thought project.

As part of the theater's recently launched education initiative, throughout the 2011–12 school year A.C.T offered 70 students from Downtown High School weekly acting classes and instruction in the theater arts, as well as invitations to attend performances of A.C.T.'s entire season of mainstage and conservatory productions. In addition to reading relevant literature, studying social systems of oppression and identity, and using movement to explore the science of the human body, the students learned to write and perform their own monologues and short plays.

With one-on-one training and editorial instruction from volunteers at San Francisco's Mission-based 826 Valencia, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their writing skills, and inspiration and guidance from acclaimed playwright Octavio Solis, the students learned how to make important decisions about the publication of their own and their peers' work, including editing and formatting.

The culmination of this editorial collaboration is the soon-to-be-released book Arrive, Breathe, and Be Still, titled for the phrase the students' lead acting teacher (A.C.T. core Acting Company member Nick Gabriel) gave them to remember how an actor must arrive onstage prepared to perform a scene. The book-currently available for preorder on Amazon.com and available in bookstores nationwide starting in June-is published by 826 Valencia's Young Authors' Book Project, now in its tenth year. At the end of each semester, the monologues and short plays are performed for the Downtown High School community in A.C.T.'s Hastings Studio Theater; the spring semester exhibition will take place on Thursday, May 17, 2012.

Says Brodersen: "Studies have shown, again and again, that engagement in the arts is a powerful and effective means of helping young people develop creativity, critical thinking skills, confidence, and empathy. It's one thing to read that in a report and another thing entirely to watch teenagers step out onto a brightly lit stage for the first time and courageously tell their own intensely personal dramatic stories. It has been an honor to watch these students-most of whom had never experienced live theater before entering this project-discover new passion for learning and respect for themselves and each other while immersing themselves in the study of the theatrical arts. This year's partnership with Downtown High School and 826 Valencia has been a tremendous success and is an exciting model for future educational collaboration."

Says Solis: "When I engaged with these young playwrights in their class at Downtown High School, I realized how much I shared in common with them. I am struck by the bravery of their writing. Taking on the dual themes of resistance and resilience, they have composed a startlingly frank collection of scenes and monologues. There are speeches of lost love and broken hearts healed; testimonials about what it takes to reset your life when your GPA is 0.23; a brother's plea to his younger sibling to change his violent ways; a young woman's monologue about the shame she feels at not being 'Samoan' enough to her peers; and how language creates as many barriers as it does bridges. There are powerful scenes of young people coping with their complicated lives. It is so rare and wonderful when young people from such diverse backgrounds are given this chance to express their unique, and yet universal, experiences onstage. And now to see their work published is an even greater wonder."

Adds Downtown High School teacher Eunice Nuval, founder of the Acting for Critical Thought project: "Working with A.C.T. has been an integral part of our students' success: our students' commitment to the creative process and achieving their academic goals is reinforced by the high expectations of A.C.T. and our project curriculum. We are extremely fortunate to have such an opportunity to work with professionals in our community who are genuinely committed to public education and the arts, as well as the support of the Visual and Performing Arts Department of the San Francisco Unified School District."

American Conservatory Theater, a Tony Award–winning nonprofit organization in the heart of San Francisco, nurtures the art of live theater through Dynamic Productions, intensive actor training, and an ongoing engagement with its community. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Carey Perloff and Executive Director Ellen Richard, A.C.T. embraces its responsibility to conserve, renew, and reinvent its relationship to the rich theatrical traditions and literatures that are our collective legacy, while exploring new artistic forms and new communities. A commitment to the highest standards informs every aspect of A.C.T.'s creative work.

A.C.T. brings the benefits of theater-based arts education to the wider community, including more than 8,000 students a year. Central to A.C.T.'s education programs is the longstanding Student Matinee (SMAT) program, which over the past three decades has brought tens of thousands of young people to A.C.T. performances with low-cost tickets, Words on Plays teacher guides, and lively postshow discussions. A.C.T.'s intensive ArtReach program provides free SMAT tickets, teaching artist residencies, in-school workshops, and in-depth study materials to Bay Area public schools and after-school programs, bringing the experience of live theater directly into the classroom. In addition, each spring students in the A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program take a Shakespeare production on tour with Will on Wheels, transporting the words of the Bard to school auditoriums and public spaces in and around San Francisco. With the recent adoption of a new ten-year strategic plan that includes an ambitious arts education component, and the appointment of Elizabeth Brodersen as A.C.T.'s first director of education, A.C.T. is committed to nurturing the artists and audiences of the future while helping the diverse members of our extended community find inspiration in great works of classical and contemporary dramatic literature.

Lead support for A.C.T.'s Theater in Schools programs is provided by Bank of America, Bank of the West, Grants for the Arts, JPMorgan Chase & Co., National Endowment for the Arts, PG&E, US Bank, and Wells Fargo. Additional support provided by Bingham McCutchen, Deloitte, The Kimball Foundation, The Michelson Family Foundation, The Moca Foundation, National Corporate Theatre Fund, The San Francisco Foundation, The Sato Foundation, and Union Bank Foundation. A.C.T.'s participation in the Acting for Critical Thought project is made possible, in part, by a generous donation from Linda Kurtz.

To find out how you can support A.C.T.'s growing arts education programs, please contact Jonathan Frappier, Associate Director of Development, Individual Giving, at 415.439.2353 or jfrappier@act-sf.org.

Photo Credit: Marco Lorenzetti.

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