Marco Barricelli and Senator Mark Leno to Receive Honorary Degrees from A.C.T.

A.C.T. Conservatory Director Melissa Smith announced today that honorary master of fine arts degrees will be conferred on longtime A.C.T. artistic family member Marco Barricelli and Senator Mark Leno, D-San Francisco. Barricelli currently serves as the artistic director of Shakespeare Santa Cruz and was a core acting company member at A.C.T. for nine years. He most recently received favorable notices for his appearance alongside Olympia Dukakis in last season's Vigil at A.C.T. Leno represents District 3 in the California State Senate, which includes Marin and portions of San Francisco and Sonoma counties. He has served the San Francisco community as an elected official since 1997, beginning his career as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for four and a half years and later serving as a representative in the California State Assembly (13th District) from 2002 to 2008. He has been a stalwart supporter of the arts and arts education throughout his career, and as one of the first openly gay political figures in the country, he has been a trailblazer for equality. Barricelli and Leno will receive their degrees at the graduation ceremony for the A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program class of 2011 on Saturday, May 21, 2011, at 10 a.m., at the American Conservatory Theater (415 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94108).
"Our biggest hope for our students is that they will become leaders in their field who will inspire the next generation of young artists, and both Marco Barricelli and Senator Mark Leno embody the kind of leadership that will inspire this year's graduates," said Smith. "As a teacher and a mentor, Marco has been instrumental in making our M.F.A. program into what it is today. He embodies the kind of actor that we hope our actors aspire to be, with his consummate talent, his rigorous mentorship of young artists, and his evolution into a well-respected artistic director." About Senator Leno's selection, she added: "We have spent a great deal of time with our students encouraging them to find and reveal to the world their most authentic selves, and as a civic leader Senator Leno has for more than a decade embodied and fought for everyone's right to be exactly who they are. He has also been a great champion for numerous nonprofits in our city, including A.C.T."

Senator Leno exclaimed: "Although I am not an actor, I am indeed a theater fan. Your recognition of me with this honorary M.F.A. will be treasured for a lifetime. I congratulate A.C.T. for its devotion and dedication to training our next generation of artists." Barricelli added: "I am immensely honored and humbled by this honorary degree. I am terribly pleased it is coming from A.C.T., as so much of my heart is with that particular theater and that particular conservatory. Besides, I never received a degree from my own training program at Juilliard, just a certificate saying I had completed four years of classes there. Finally having an honorary M.F.A. from A.C.T. makes me feel like an adult!"

Marco Barricelli, artistic director of Shakespeare Santa Cruz, has been an actor, director, and educator since 1982. After eight seasons with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he became an associate artist at A.C.T., where he directed and taught in the Master of Fine Arts Program. His A.C.T. performance credits include roles in Vigil, A Moon for the Misbegotten, The Real Thing (Bay Area Theatre Critics' Circle Award), Les Liaisons Dangereuses, The Three Sisters, American Buffalo (Bay Area Theatre Critics' Circle Award), Buried Child, For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again, The Beard of Avon, Celebration and The Room, Enrico IV (Dean Goodman Award), Glengarry Glen Ross (Dean Goodman Award), The Invention of Love (Bay Area Theatre Critics' Circle Award; Dean Goodman Award), Long Day's Journey into Night, Mary Stuart, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Rose Tattoo (Drama-Logue Award), among others. He has also worked on Broadway and regionally with Long Wharf Theatre, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Guthrie Theater, The Old Globe, and South Coast Repertory, among others. Television appearances include L.A. Law and a recurring role on the NBC series The Book of Daniel. Teaching acting has also taken him abroad to work with the Accademia Nazionale d'arte Drammatica Silvio D'Amico in Rome and the Prima del Teatro in Italy. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School.
Elected to the California Senate in 2008, Senator Mark Leno represents District 3, which includes Marin and portions of San Francisco and Sonoma counties. He is the first openly gay man elected to the state senate, and one of the first two openly gay men ever elected to the Assembly. Prior to his election to the Senate, he served six years in the California Assembly and four and a half years on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. While in the Assembly, Leno fought for better schools and access to higher education; a cleaner and sustainable environment; single-payer, universal, affordable, and quality health care; improved transportation; renewable energy; safer streets; and equal rights for all Californians. His AB 849 in 2005 and AB 43 in 2007 were the first two marriage equality bills passed by both houses of any state legislature in the United States allowing LGBT couples to marry.
A native of Wisconsin, Leno attended the University of Colorado at Boulder, then went on to become valedictorian of his graduating class at the American College of Jerusalem, where he earned his bachelor of arts degree. Leno also spent two years in rabbinical studies at The Hebrew Union College in New York. He is the owner of Budget Signs, Inc., a small business he founded in 1978 and operated with his life partner, Douglas Jackson. Together, the two entrepreneurs steadily grew their sign business until Jackson passed away from complications related to HIV/AIDS in 1990. This deep loss did not deter Leno. Instead, he redoubled his efforts in community service.
In addition to earning a 100 percent lifetime voting record with the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and the California League of Conservation Voters, Leno has been honored for his environmental achievements by San Francisco Baykeeper, Friends of the Earth, and Vote Solar. He has also won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, California Bicycle Coalition, California Public Parking Association, California Coalition Against Sexual Assault, and San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium, among others. He was the California Young Democrats' "Mentor of the Year," and received the "Lifetime Friend and Champion" award from the Harvey Milk Democratic Club. He was also given an "Award of Courage" from American Foundation for AIDS Research. Outside his capacity as elected official, Leno has been a tireless advocate for nonprofit organizations in San Francisco, frequently appearing to demonstrate support at events and lending a hand whenever possible. He was a statewide spokesman for the No on Prop 22 Campaign (the Knight Initiative) and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles in August 2000 and in Boston in August 2004. He has served on the boards of many local and national organizations, including the LGBT Community Center Project, Haight Ashbury Community Services, the American Jewish Congress, Mobilization Against AIDS, and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.
Past recipients of the A.C.T. honorary M.F.A. degree include Annette Bening, Benjamin Bratt, former San Francisco Mayor Willie Lewis Brown, Jr., former Theatre Communications Group Executive Director Ben Cameron, Grammy Award-winning musician Tracy Chapman, Olympia Dukakis, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts Dana Gioia, playwright John Guare, playwright David Henry Hwang, Bill Irwin, Seana McKenna, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Chairman Emeritus of the A.C.T. Foundation Alan Stein, Michael Tilson Thomas, Denzel Washington, and Charles Randolf Wright. Recipients of the conservatory's honorary degrees are selected by the Conservatory Committee, a subcommittee of the A.C.T. Board of Trustees. Selections are based on an individual's contribution to the advancement of the mission and educational goals of American Conservatory Theater and the arts in America.