American Conservatory Theater

A Hewlett Foundation grantee since 1983, the American Conservatory Theater (ACT) has positioned itself as a developer of diverse, contemporary works; a leading actor training conservatory; and a provider of education and literary programs. It presents seven main stage productions and fourteen Conservatory productions to more than 250,000 people annually, and its education programs reach almost 10,000 youth onsite and in Bay Area schools. In addition to the 1,000-seat Geary Street Theater that serves as its home, ACT recently opened an intimate, forty-nine-seat venue, The Costume Shop (in the company’s actual costume shop space), and is renovating a new, additional performance venue, the Strand Theater, in San Francisco’s Civic Center neighborhood. As ACT builds its physical presence in an effort to engage community and audience members more deeply, the new executive director (as of 2010) intends to focus on the organization’s capitalization needs to ensure this expansion advances to ACT’s mission and goals.