SAN FRANCISCO: American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) has announced the appointment of Mark Jackson as the company’s new Studio A.C.T. director. Jackson succeeds Nick Gabriel in the role.
Studio A.C.T. is the company’s training program for students 19 and up of all backgrounds. The acting technique classes include Shakespeare, scene study, musical theatre, and stage combat.
“Mark Jackson is an award-winning playwright and director, an experienced actor, and a wonderful teacher,” said A.C.T.’s conservatory director, Melissa Smith, in a statement. “We are thrilled to have him come on board as the director of Studio A.C.T. and believe his years of artistic and educational experience, along with his many relationships in the Bay Area arts community and beyond, will elevate the visibility and reputation of the program.”
Jackson served as the artistic director of Art Street Theatre in San Francisco from 1995 to 2004. His plays have been developed at A.C.T., Capital Stage, Cutting Ball Theater, English Theatre Berlin, EXIT Theatre, Magic Theatre, Playwrights Foundation, and Z Space. Jackson has been a company member of Shotgun Players since 2010. He’s been a resident playwright of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, where he was awarded the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Honorary Fellowship. Other awards and honors include the German Chancellor Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award, a Magic Theatre/Z Space New Works Initiative commission, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie Award. Jackson holds a M.F.A. from San Francisco State University, where he has taught. He’s also taught at A.C.T., Berkeley Repertory School of Theater, California Institute of Integral Studies, Mime Centrum Berlin Germany, University of San Francisco, and Universität der Künste Berlin, among others.
“In addition to directing productions for the M.F.A. program, I’ve taught in all the A.C.T. Conservatory programs at one time or another, so I’m very excited by this opportunity to explore how Studio A.C.T. might become even more integrated into A.C.T. as a whole, as well as into the local arts scene,” said Jackson in a statement.
