+ By touring smaller cities, towns and rural communities of America, the Company reaches thousands of people who have few opportunities to experience live professional theater.
+ By presenting superior productions of classic and contemporary plays, the Company builds a discerning national audience for theater, helping preserve and extend our cultural heritage.
+ By providing continuing opportunities for gifted and highly-trained young actors to practice their craft in a rich repertoire for diverse audiences, the Company nurtures the growth and development of generations of theater artists.
+ By commissioning and premiering important new works by America’s foremost playwrights, the Company fosters a theater tradition in which story-telling, language and the presence of the actor are primary.
+ By making the language of the theater accessible in performance, special classes and other educational outreach activities, the Company inspires students of all ages and helps them excel in every field of study.
The Acting Company has been fulfilling this singular mission since it was formed out of the first graduating class of the Juilliard School's Drama Division in 1972. Since then, it has traveled over 500,000 miles through 48 states and nine other countries, performing a repertoire of 77 plays for more than 2 million people.
Every year, The Acting Company engages an ensemble of the best-trained, most talented young actors available to perform classic plays and contemporary works in repertory. This enables the actors to gain invaluable experience and develop their craft. A roster of the Company's 263 acting alumni reads like a "Who's Who" of American theater. Lisa Banes, Frances Conroy, Keith David, Gerald Gutierrez, Harriet Harris, James Houghton, Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, Jesse L. Martin, Mary Lou Rosato, Derek Smith, David Ogden Stiers and Jeffrey Wright stand among America's leading actors and directors whose work in theater, film and television offers proof of the value and versatility of the repertory tradition.
The Company has built an impressive repertoire of classic works and modern standards by the premier authors of the European and American stages, from Gorky, Ibsen and Moliere to Brecht, Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams. In addition, the Company commissions and produces original works and adaptations by first-rate contemporary playwrights. This tradition of incubating important new work for the American theater spawned Alfred Uhry’s highly-acclaimed The Robber Bridegroom; Orchards, an evening of one-act plays based on Chekhov with contributions by Maria Irene Fornes, John Guare, David Mamet, Wendy Wasserstein and others; and Mud, River, Stone by African-American playwright Lynn Nottage. In 1998, Love’s Fire: Fresh Numbers by Seven American Playwrights, an evening of plays and music inspired by Shakespeare’s Sonnets, by Eric Bogosian, William Finn, John Guare, Tony Kushner, Marsha Norman, Ntozake Shange and Wendy Wasserstein, played to critical acclaim in both the United States and London.
From its inception, The Acting Company has offered innovative educational programs. Doing so makes our performances more accessible to young people, illuminates the core curriculum and helps build the audience of the future. We work with presenting organizations and local schools throughout the year to design and implement the most effective education and outreach efforts in the communities we visit.
From time to time, the Company collaborates successfully with other distinguished theaters across the country, sharing costs of new productions and gaining invaluable artistic input. Among these institutions are the Goodman Theater in Chicago, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, the Hartford Stage Company and Buffalo’s Studio Arena Theatre.
In recognition of its consistent level of excellence, The Acting Company has won several Obie Awards, Audelco Awards, the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and two Tony Award® nominations. The Company’s long-standing commitment to multi-culturalism is reflected in the diversity of its repertory, ensemble, staff, and audiences.
