ACT Announces 40th-Anniversary 2006-07 Season

The American Conservatory Theater (ACT) at the San Francisco Geary Theatre, presents its season calendar for the 2006-07 40th-anniversary season.

 

Tickets for all productions are available by calling ACT Ticket Services at 415-749-2228 or online at www.act-sf.org. Ticket prices for productions at the Geary Theater are $12-$80; season subscriptions are currently available. Single tickets for all of ACT's 2006-07 presentations go on sale Sunday, August 6. Group rates are also available.  American Conservatory Theater is located at 415 Geary Street in San Francisco.

 

Travesties by Tom Stoppard
September 14 – October 15, 2006.  Opening September 20.
Directed by Carey Perloff, featuring ACT core acting company members René Augesen, Gregory Wallace, and Allison Jean White.  Expert linguistic craftsman and one of ACT's most beloved collaborators, Tom Stoppard has been adopted by Bay Area theater lovers as one of our own. This season, the Tony and Academy award winner directs his 1974 comedy Travesties, a vaudevillian romp through some of the greatest artistic and political debates of our times.  "The play begins with a simple enough historical premise: In the neutral oasis of Switzerland during World War I, James Joyce, Vladimir Lenin, and the Dada artist Tristan Tzara all happened to be at work in the same Zurich public library. Stoppard takes this historical coincidence and turns it into a madcap and ingenious portrait of what might have been an unforgettable and irresistible meeting of some of the most influential minds of the twentieth century," states press notes.

The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman
October 27 – November 26, 2006.  Opening November 1.
Directed by Laird Williamson, featuring Jack Willis and ACT core acting company member Allison Jean White.  "The Little Foxes showcases Hellman's unrivaled ability to throw her actors some of the meatiest roles in the modern canon and features the brilliantly manipulative anti-heroine Regina Giddens (a character the New York Times called 'that malignant Southern bitch-goddess' most memorably portrayed by Bette Davis in William Wyler's 1941 film adaptation)," states press notes.  "In Regina's wealthy family, the only thing that runs thicker than blood is cold, hard cash. Faced with a prospective business deal that could guarantee them even greater riches, Regina and her brothers scramble to secure the spoils for themselves-by any means necessary."

A Christmas Carol adapted by Carey Perloff and Paul Walsh
December 5 – 24, 2006.  Opening December 8.
Based on the novel by Charles Dickens, featuring James Carpenter as Scrooge with Music by Karl Lundeberg, Choreography by Val Caniparoli, and Directed by Carey Perloff with Musical Direction by Laura Burton.  Featuring new staging by Domenique Lozano.  Proclaimed "more lavish and enjoyable than ever" (KGO Radio) and "a Carol built to banish bah-humbugs for years to come" (Oakland Tribune), the nonsubscription presentation of Perloff and Walsh's adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol returns to ACT this holiday season, featuring new revisions and a new Scrooge. Join ACT for the redemptive tale of a cold-hearted miser who rediscovers the meaning of the Christmas spirit.

The Circle by W. Somerset Maugham
January 4 – February 4, 2007.  Opening January 10.
Directed by Mark Lamos.  "A forerunner to The Constant Wife, The Circle begins 30 years after the fresh-faced and vivacious Lady Kitty left her politician husband for his best friend. Still vivacious (but not quite as fresh-faced), the exiled lovers flounce back into town just as history is preparing to repeat itself by wreaking havoc on the marriage of Kitty's grown son, Arnold," states press notes.  "Will Arnold's straying spouse be influenced by her elders' impetuous example? And will anyone be able to tolerate another game of bridge with the insufferable Lord Porteous? With class, brassiness, and unmitigated wit, The Circle is Maugham's sly send-up of marriage, the leisure class, and the notion that young lovers never learn."

Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen
February 9 – March 11, 2007.  Opening February 14.
Directed by Richard E. T. White, featuring ACT core acting company member René Augesen in the title role.  "One of Ibsen's most controversial plays, Hedda Gabler explores the lasting urgency of the playwright's work.  In the wake of a tedious honeymoon, Hedda returns home to face her new married life-her lavish house, her tenuous wealth, the well-meaning interference of her in-laws, and, most terrifyingly, her own self," states press notes.  "Is Hedda a victim or an instigator? A master manipulator who destroys others out of sheer boredom, or the collateral damage wrought by unfortunate circumstances?"

After the War by Philip Kan Gotanda
March 22 – April 22, 2007.  Opening March 28.
World Premiere directed by Carey Perloff, featuring ACT core acting company member Steven Anthony Jones.  "When more than 100,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned by the U.S. government during World War II, San Francisco's bustling Japantown neighborhood suddenly became an urban ghost town. African Americans from the neighboring Fillmore district, rural whites from the Midwest, and other societal outcasts began to fill the vacant neighborhood. But what happened when the Japanese Americans came back?" asks press notes.  "Infused with the jazz rhythms of the neighborhood and the era, After the War portrays an unexpected grouping of characters, all of whom have one thing in common: the desire to find a place they can call home.  Radiantly hopeful in its characters' search for acceptance and heart-wrenching in its honesty, After the War is an urgent valentine to San Francisco and to the everyday people who have built this city with their lives, loves, and stories."

Blackbird by David Harrower
April 27-May 27, 2007.  Opening May 2.
In its West-Coast Premiere, heralded as both "a high-stakes thriller" and "spellbinding theater" by Variety magazine, "Blackbird begins when Ray, a middle-aged office worker, receives a surprise visit from Una, a woman with whom he was involved 15 years earlier. As Una confronts him about the true nature of their past, what emerges is a complex portrait of a relationship that blurs the boundaries between lust, love, and something far more sinister," describes press notes.  "Blackbird tackles its controversial topic with uncompromising honesty, surprising tenderness, and a riveting artistic tension that leaves audiences hanging on every word, every motion, and every ominous silence."

The Imaginary Invalid by Molière
June 7 – July 8, 2007.  Opening June 13.
World Premiere Adaption by Constance Congdon, directed by Ron Lagomarsino, featuring former ACT company member Rene Auberjonois and current ACT core acting company members René Augesen, Steven Anthony Jones,  Gregory Wallace, and Allison Jean White.  Tony Award winner (and multiple nominee) Auberjonois makes a triumphant return to ACT for The Imaginary Invalid, Molière's last and wildest comedy. "In this cheeky satire, an old hypochondriac named Argan believes in nothing and no one – except the dubious diagnoses his quack doctors keep delivering. A hysterical caricature of society's childlike devotion to the healthcare system – as well as a prescription for a fabulous evening of laughter."

Full-season subscriptions range from $101 to $570 and are now available. For a season brochure, please call ACT Ticket Services at 415-749-2250 or visit www.act-sf.org.  Single tickets for individual productions will be available beginning Sunday, August 6, 2006.