Backstage Left

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

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 signified a brave new cultural chapter in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake. Then in the Summer of Love, a shining new theater ensemble, the American Conservatory Theatre, arrived to inhabit the edifice - The Geary - and thereby established their home in "The City by the Bay". The company captivated the public with dynamic productions, launched one of the nation's finest actor training programs, and by 1976 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.

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, many of them directed by William Ball, Allen Fletcher, Edward Hastings, Laird Williamson, and other guests. 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.

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 visiting the set of 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 stages throughout the nation.