Backstage Left

BACKSTAGE LEFT
An Artistic Recollection: A.C.T. 1974-1976

The edifice of the Geary Theatre in San Francisco

A remarkable theatre stands at the crossroads of Geary and Mason Streets in San Francisco, having opened its doors in 1910 as the Columbia Theatre. This event signified a brave new cultural chapter in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake: the reconstruction of the entire city after the devastating fire. Then in 1967 a shining new theater ensemble - the American Conservatory Theatre - arrived to inhabit that same edifice and thereby established their home in "The City by the Bay"...and in "The Summer of Love" no less.

The theatre company captivated the public with dynamic productions, launched one of the nation's finest actor training programs, and by 1976 had both purchased the historic theater and journeyed over the Iron Curtain to perform in the U.S.S.R. & Latvia as part of a cultural exchange. A.C.T. was awarded the Regional Theatre Tony Award in 1979.

Cultural Exchange - Tour to USSR 1976

Peter Donat in William Ball's celebrated production of Cyrano de Bergerac.

The A.C.T. productions of Cyrano de Bergerac and The Taming of the Shrew were masterstrokes beloved by audiences, filmed for Great Performances and broadcast on PBS. San Franciscans responded with plaudits for each of the repertory productions, directed by William Ball, Allen Fletcher, Edward Hastings, Laird Williamson, Joy Carlin, and annual guest directors.

The exceptional ensemble of actors and designers thrived under the structure of a rotating repertory, and the place was a beehive of creative activity. Backstage Left is a remembrance of this particular chapter in time and space (1974-1976) at the Geary Theatre. This large-scale memory project will result in a destination/repository, featuring a virtual library where the reader will find a collection of interviews, gazettes, essays and ghost stories that all shine a vivid light on one of America’s finest artistic institutions in the mid-20th Century.

Refulgence: "to shine very brightly"

Author Randall Stuart was an apprentice actor at A.C.T. in the 1970's and returned as a teacher & director at the Advanced Training Program in the 1990's. Fifty years after first stepping onto the stage set of A.C.T.'s Cyrano, Randall interviews members of the theatre company from that time, weaving together the recollections of a golden epoch that took place in a time when America was redefining itself on land, in outer space, and on theater stages throughout the nation.