Carey Perloff News

New York's OBIE Award-winning Epic Theatre Ensemble (Zak Berkman, Melissa Friedman, Ron Russell, Founding Executive Directors)

The American Conservatory Theater Master of Fine Arts Program presents Rebecca Lenkiewicz's new play Her Naked Skin, directed by California Shakespeare Theater Artistic Director Jonathan Moscone.

New York's OBIE Award-winning Epic Theatre Ensemble (Zak Berkman, Melissa Friedman, Ron Russell, Founding Executive Directors)

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) is proud to announce that Tony Award-nominated actor Manoel Felciano has joined the A.C.T. core acting company for the 2009-10 season.

San Francisco's cutting-edge Cutting Ball Theater opens its 10th season with Eugène Ionesco's comic masterpiece THE BALD SOPRANO, in a new translation by Cutting Ball Artistic Director Rob Melrose.

Black Box Theatre presents a one-of-a-kind Halloween experience with the World Premiere of THE CREATURE by Trevor Allen. Rob Melrose directs this new play featuring James Carpenter* (The Creature), Gabriel Marin* (Victor Frankenstein), and Garth Petal (Captain Walton). The design team includes Cassandra Carpenter (costumes) and Cliff Caruthers, who has created an original soundscape for the production. THE CREATURE plays October 23 through November 7 (Press opening: Sunday, October 25) at Thick House (1695 18th St., between Carolina & Arkansas) in San Francisco. For tickets ($20-30 sliding scale) or more information, the public may call (415) 401-8081 or visit thickhouse.org.

Audiences had the first opportunity to see Seana McKenna and Roberta Maxwell in Timberlake Wertenbaker's new translation of Jean Racine's masterpiece Phèdre on Thursday, August 6, as the play began previews at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's intimate Tom Patterson Theatre.

New York's OBIE Award-winning Epic Theatre Ensemble (Zak Berkman, Melissa Friedman, Ron Russell, Founding Executive Directors)

Heather M. Kitchen, now in her 14th season as executive director at American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), will step down from her position at the end of August 2009. Ms. Kitchen will remain available to the company through the end of this year as a consultant and adviser during the transition process. The A.C.T. Board of Trustees is forming a search committee to conduct a comprehensive search for Ms. Kitchen's successor.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) launches its exciting 2009-10 season with the U.S. premiere of the runaway U.K. hit, Kneehigh Theatre's groundbreaking production of Noël Coward's Brief Encounter, adapted for the stage by Emma Rice from the words and music of Coward.

New York's OBIE Award-winning Epic TheatreEnsemble (Zak Berkman, Melissa Friedman, Ron Russell, Founding Executive Directors) has announced its 9 th Anniversary Season of new works: the world premiere of Mahida's Extra Key To Heaven by Russell Davis, and the New York Premiere of Passion Play by Sarah Ruhl. Also scheduled is Shakespeare Remix MacBeth a collaboration with Epic's unrivaled After School Shakespeare Program at Chelsea High School.

The American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) has been awarded a $1 million grant over three years by The James Irvine Foundation to develop a new program of study as part of its Master of Fine Arts program. A.C.T. was one of four organizations to receive funding as part of the Irvine Foundation's Arts Innovation Fund (AIF), which helps the state's premiere arts institutions to develop innovative ways to deepen audience engagement in the arts in California.

Jo Schuman Silver, producer of Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon, announced last night the three Bay Area high school winners of The Steve Silver Foundation & Beach Blanket Babylon 'Scholarship for the Arts.' The event featured an opening performance from several past recipients of the 'Scholarship' as well as the cast of Beach Blanket Babylon.

Marker Seven, an award-winning boutique interactive agency proudly announced it received an Award of Excellence in the 15th Annual Communicator Awards for its work managing the organization and design of San Francisco's prestigious American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) website.

San Francisco's cutting-edge Cutting Ball Theater closes its 2008-09 season with one of Samuel Beckett's funniest and most personal works for the stage, KRAPP'S LAST TAPE. Cutting Ball Artistic Director Rob Melrose helms this witty, poignant look at the choices one man makes and how the paths left untaken come back to haunt him.

The Elliot Norton Awards, which recognize excellence in Greater Boston theater, celebrated their 27th anniversary on Monday, May 11, at Harvard University's Sanders Theatre. The awards honored the season's best work in Boston's theaters (from April 2008 to March 2009).

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) announces the final show of its 2008-09 season: Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo, staged by acclaimed director Rebecca Bayla Taichman (world premieres of Theresa Rebeck's The Scene and Mauritius and Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone). This new spellbinder by the master playwright who also penned Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and A.C.T.'s The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, is a meticulously calibrated and dangerously brutal look at relationships intimate and unexpected. The story opens with Peter, a tweedy book editor, and his wife, Ann, whose everyday conversation takes an unexpected turn into dangerously personal territory. It's the kind of conversation that can drive a husband out for a walk-to Central Park, where Jerry, a desperate outcast, awaits. An unforgettable pairing of Albee's original The Zoo Story with a freshly penned prequel, At Home at the Zoo (formerly titled Peter and Jerry) bares its teeth to threaten the delicately balanced world its characters inhabit. Artistic Director Carey Perloff has put together an all-star artistic team on this production, featuring Tony Award-nominated actor Manoel Felciano (Ragtime at The Kennedy Center, A.C.T.'s Rock 'n' Roll, and Sweeney Todd on Broadway) as Jerry and scenic designer Robert Brill, who received a Tony Award nomination last week for his work on Guys and Dolls on Broadway. Hailed by critics as 'a thoroughly satisfying package of jagged-edged provocation' (Newsday) and 'an essential and heartening experience' (The New York Times), Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo plays at A.C.T. June 5-July 5, 2009. Opening night is Wednesday, June 10, 2009, at 8 p.m. Tickets-starting at $14-are available by calling A.C.T. Ticket Services at 415.749.2228, or at www.act-sf.org.

Jo Schuman Silver, producer of Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon, announced today the selection of nine Bay Area finalists for the Steve Silver Foundation and Beach Blanket Babylon 'Scholarship for the Arts.' One winner in each category will be presented with a check for $10,000 towards their college education.

The Elliot Norton Awards, which honor excellence in Greater Boston theater, celebrate their 27th anniversary on Monday, May 11 at Harvard University's Sanders Theatre. The awards spotlight the season's best work in Boston's theaters (from April 2008 to March 2009).

A.C.T. Young Conservatory proudly presents Bright Young People: The Words and Music of Noël Coward, a brilliant, buoyant tribute to one of the greatest theater artists of all time. This world premiere revue showcases everything you love about Noël Coward-the songs, the wit, the style-with scenes and music from his greatest hits, such as The Vortex, Design for Living, and Hay Fever, as well as lesser known gems, some of which haven't been produced since the 1920s.