The next Artistic Director of the American Conservatory Theater, Tony award-winning director Pam MacKinnon doesn’t officially begin her tenure there until July, but she’s already getting deeply involved, and is looking forward to becoming part of the artistic community of the Bay Area.
There’s more about the announcement at the A.C.T. website.
“I’ve been a freelance director, so I have a 24 year career, hopping from project to project,” says MacKinnon. But that will be changing soon, as she takes the helm at A.C.T. in a few months. And it’s already begun, since the announcement was made last week. “It’s such a passionately busy place. And we’re in the throes of programming next season, so that’s a big part of it, but that’s truly only part of it.” She was meeting with the board, seeing the current production of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party, as well as two productions by M.F.A. students in A.C.T.’s Conservatory Program. “These passion projects that they’ve rehearsed for two weeks and then they put them up, so I got to see a couple of those. And then a lot of conversations about community outreach and development, and… so yeah, it’s a lot. And those are the three interlocking circles of this theater.” She sees the new job as an opportunity to expand what she’s been able to do going from theater to theater. “Some of it is deeply personal, wanting an artistic home. And wanting to think beyond the rehearsal hall, wanting to think in terms of making artistic marriages, and being a part of playmaking… but that isn’t necessarily the play that I should be directing. So you know, bringing artists together, challenging artists and creating work, but not simply in the hour to hour moment in the rehearsal hall.”
