ACT continues to grow and change, increasing and strengthening its presence as a home for bold,
provocative voices in theatre, and challenging audiences with works both old and new. In 2015, ACT
celebrated its 50th anniversary and its 40th year of A Christmas Carol.
productions
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2013
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Assisted Living (2013)
Joe Taylor, a retired actor, moves into a prison-turned-elder-care facility shortly after the demise of Medicare and discovers a community of loveable, irascible inmates hell-bent on bucking the dehumanizing system in which they have landed. Together, this band of aging misfits rediscovers purpose and dignity in the face of a system mightily stacked against them. A delightful, world premiere comedy with bite from Seattle native Katie Forgette, that dares to confront the issue of aging in America.
Grey Gardens (2013)
Little Edie is a dazzling socialite on a downward spiral into a life of illusions and hoarded junk. Just exactly how did Jackie Kennedy’s cousin end up living in a decaying 42-room mansion full of cats? First captured in a cult-hit documentary, this true-story-turned-musical will take you on an unforgettable journey.
Set in the East Hampton mansion of the Beale family, Grey Gardens, and based on the cult-hit documentary of the same name, this award-winning intimate musical follows the spectacular decline and fall of Edith Bouvier Beale, a relative of Jacqueline Kennedy, and her daughter “Little Edie” from a glamorous life of cocktails and house parties to a penniless existence of bizarre co-dependency in the shambles of their once-splendid home.
Other Desert Cities (2013)
The public and private mythology of an iconic Republican family is challenged when their "black sheep" liberal daughter announces that she's planning the publication of a memoir dredging up a pivotal emotional crisis in their shared past. Playwright Jon Robin Baitz, author of The Substance of Fire and creator of the hit series Brothers and Sisters, compellingly examines the many faces of truth and the tangled ties that bind in this incendiary Tony Award-nominated drama.
Rapture, Blister, Burn (2013)
When Catherine, a 40-something, single, and highly successful academic returns to her hometown to take care of her ailing mother, she reconnects with her college roommate and best friend, Gwen, now a stay-at-home mother and housewife married to Catherine's old flame. Both women, coveting each other's choices, attempt to find the happiness and fulfillment they lack by travelling a very bumpy road not taken, with surprising and hilarious results. This fast-paced, witty comedy by Gina Gionfriddo explores the continuing fallout and evolution of the feminist movement.
Middletown (2013)
In his whimsical, contemporary spin on Thornton Wilder’s classic comedy drama, Our Town, Will Eno brings neighbor and stranger together, mining the metaphysical and the mundane in the everyday lives of the citizens of Middletown, aka everytown USA. At the heart of this sweet, disturbing, and immensely moving journey beats the tender, tenacious human struggle for connection and meaning in this mystery we call life.
Sugar Daddies (2013)
ACT welcomes the great Sir Alan Ayckbourn to direct this American premiere of his 2003 “comedy of dark intentions,” about a naïve young student who rescues an old man dressed as Father Christmas from a hit-and-run driver and brings him back to the London flat she shares with her sister. As he showers her with gifts in a manner beyond polite gratitude and she accepts them in a way that begins to alter her personality, they embark on a dangerously Faustian game of mutual fantasy. They play roles in which no act can be taken at face value, no one is quite who they seem, and no good deed goes entirely unpunished.