A.C.T.'s 2016 SUPERGALA! Raises Over $500K with Help from Jeremy Jordan

With the help of Tony and Grammy Award nominee Jeremy Jordan (Newsies on Broadway, NBC's Smash, CBS's Supergirl, and films The Last Five Years and Joyful Noise), and students from A.C.T.'s Master of Fine Arts Program and Young Conservatory, American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) raised over $500,000 at its 2016 Season Gala, SUPERGALA!, which took place on Thursday, April 14 at the historic Regency Ballroom in San Francisco. The proceeds from the Gala support A.C.T.'s actor training and arts education and community programs.

More than 220 guests attended this year's Superhero-inspired Gala, which began with a cocktail reception and a surprise performance of Bonnie Tyler's Holding Out for a Hero-performed by superhero-costumed students from A.C.T.'s Master of Fine Arts Program-followed by a special performance by Jeremy Jordan, featuring students from A.C.T.'s Young Conservatory. Following the performance, guests were treated to a lavish dinner provided by McCalls Catering & Events.

The evening's live auction featured several one-of-a-kind items, including performance tickets for A.C.T.'s upcoming musical The Last Five Years and dinner with the show's director Michael Berresse and stars Margo Seibert and Zak Resnick; an exclusive tour of Pixar Animation Studios; a walk-on role in A.C.T.'s annual production of A Christmas Carol; and more!

Led by Gala Co-Chairs Maria and Jeff Spears, the SUPERGALA! Host Committee included Whitney and Phil Arnautou; Pam and Larry Baer; Carol and Shelby Bonnie;Dan Carroll and Stasia Obremsky; Janet and Lloyd Cluff; Thao and Jerome Dodson;Michael G. Dovey; Linda Jo Fitz; Celeste and Kevin Ford; Ken Fulk; Nancy Sawyer Hasson and Kirke Hasson; Dianne and Ron Hoge; James C. Hormel and Michael P. Nguyen; Jeri Lynn and Jeffrey Johnson; Alan and Cricket Jones; Carol and Mark Lerdal; Marcia and Jim Levy; Heather and John Little; Nancy Livingston and Fred Levin; Alicia Nogales and Greg Little; Victoria and Dan Prendergast; Robina Riccitiello; Carla and David Riemer; Abby and Gene Schnair; Mary and Steven Swig;Ashley and Minott Wessinger; and Kay Yun and Andrew Neumann-Loreck.

Gala sponsors for the evening included Makena Capital Management, PG&E, and Wells Fargo, plus 4imprint, 32 Winds Winery, Acorn Winery, Alex and Ani, Anthropologie,Bent Creek Winery, Bliss, Cakebread Cellars, Christopher Elbow Chocolates,Diptyque, Fresh, Hotel Zeppelin, Just Water, Kaur Photography, Matchbook Wine Company, Michael Kors, Moleskine, Pixar Animation Studios, Sur La Table, The San Francisco Giants, The Terraces Winery; and Vera Bradley.

American Conservatory Theater is a Tony Award-winning theater and educational institution dedicated to nurturing the art of live theater through dynamic productions, intensive actor training in its Conservatory, and an ongoing engagement with its community. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Carey Perloff, A.C.T. embraces its responsibility to conserve, renew, and reinvent our relationship to the rich theatrical traditions and literatures that are our collective legacy, while exploring new artistic forms and communities. A commitment to the highest standards informs every aspect of A.C.T.'s creative work. The company opened its first San Francisco season in 1967. Since then, A.C.T. has performed more than 350 productions to a combined audience of more than seven million people and reaches more than 250,000 people through its productions and programs every year.

The A.C.T. Conservatory serves 3,000 students each year through its acclaimed actor training programs and represents an integral part of A.C.T.'s mission. Ranked as one of the top programs in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, the A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) Program functions as the cornerstone of the A.C.T. Conservatory, which also includes the Young Conservatory, the Summer Training Congress, Studio A.C.T., and San Francisco Semester. Elizabeth Banks, Benjamin Bratt, Annette Bening, Darren Criss, Anna Deavere Smith, Danny Glover, Elizabeth McGovern, Anika Noni Rose, and Denzel Washington are among A.C.T.'s distinguished former students. With its commitment to artistic excellence and to the relationship between training, performance, and audience, the A.C.T. Conservatory has moved to the forefront of America's actor training programs, while serving as the creative engine of the company at large. For more information, please visit act-sf.org/conservatory.

Each year A.C.T.'s multifaceted Education & Community Programs provide more than 10,000 students from the San Francisco Bay Area, many from low-income households, with access to live theatrical experiences through low- to no- cost Student Matinee (SMAT) performances of mainstage and M.F.A. Program productions, Will on Wheelstouring productions of Shakespeare classics, stimulating in-depth study guides developed for the classroom, and customized workshops led by master teaching artists. TheACTsmart Partnership Program offers free student matinee tickets and theater-based workshops at no cost to more than 40 public schools (including all San Francisco public high schools) and community-based organizations (CBOs) in the Bay Area serving low-income students who otherwise would have little exposure to the arts. A.C.T. has established year-long intensive residencies in three San Francisco continuation schools serving high percentages of socioeconomically disadvantaged youth (SDY) who have not experienced success in traditional comprehensive public schools; the schools are Downtown High School (76.4 percent SDY), Ida B. Wells High School (71.1 percent SDY), and Hilltop Special Services Center (for pregnant and parenting teens). A.C.T. also has residencies at Mission High School (77.5 percent SDY), Bessie Carmichael Elementary School (85.2 percent SDY), the Tenderloin Boys & Girls Club, and Access SFUSD: The Arc (serving developmentally disabled transition-age youth and adults). More than 50 percent of all students attending schools participating in the ACTsmart Partnership Program receive free or reduced-cost lunches. Back to the Source, A.C.T.'s acclaimed annual intensive institute for educators who use theater techniques to enrich their curriculum in the classroom, provides scholarships to Bay Area public school teachers reaching thousands of students each year. In 2014, A.C.T. launched Stage Coach, a new community-based, participatory theater program aimed at engaging San Franciscans in telling un- and under-told stories by supporting multigenerational audiences in the creation of theater. Programming includes stand-alone theatrical experiences at street fairs and festivals throughout the city, as well as ongoing residencies with partners in three San Francisco neighborhoods: Central Market/Tenderloin, Bayview-Hunters Point, and Mission/Excelsior. These partnerships allow us to re-center the stories and experiences of marginalized communities and provide multiple entry points into creative participation and expression at all ages. For more information, visit act-sf.org/education.

To post a comment, you must register and login.