ACT Now

Please note: copyright to ACT Now is held by WNET. All rights reserved. WNET is the premier public media provider of the New York metropolitan area and parent of public television stations THIRTEEN and WLIW21. ACT Now was originally produced by KQED for National Educational Television (NET) - the predecessor of WNET - and first aired in 1970. An unnarrated documentary film made by the KQED Film Unit about the American Conservatory Theater (ACT) in San Francisco. Includes scenes of ACT's Director William Ball and other actors training and teaching students at the theater on Geary Street in downtown San Francisco. They include: Peter Donat; John Schuck; Michael Learned; Ramon Bieri and Paul Shenar. Also features views of dance mime elocution and acting classes and opens with members of the company shown walking along Geary Street and into the theater. Cinematography is by Philip Greene and Fred Cohn. It should be noted that there is a significant loss of picture quality in the 16mm film print that was loaned to the TV Archive by Philip Greene due to chemical decomposition. Thanks to the Pacific Film Archive for confirming they preserve another print of this film.