About Us :
Anchorage Community Theatre's goal is to enhance the quality of life culturally for the community by providing a season of locally produced, exceptional theatre and year-round education and training for both children and adults. ACT provides a variety of opportunities for all, from beginner to professional, to learn the art and craft of theatre both onstage and backstage and in our Education and Outreach Program
History :
Over fifty two years ago, a group of Alaskans got together to satisfy their love for the theatre. From their commitment was born Anchorage Little Theatre, the forebear of Anchorage Community Theatre. In 1953, Mary Hale, Lorene Harrison, and Frank Brink—three of Anchorage's most prominent and active participants in the arts community—conceived the idea of establishing a training ground for performers.
The Alaska Community Theatre was the hub of theatre in the territory. The school they envisioned later came to being under the auspices of the Anchorage Community College Theatre Workshop.
There followed the golden years of amateur theatre in Alaska—Boris Karloff came and mesmerized Anchorage audiences in Arsenic and Old Lace, Theresa Wright broke our hearts in The Dark at the Top of the Stars, Lee Sullivan enchanted us in Brigadoon, and Will Rogers, Jr. aroused mirth and nostalgia in Ah, Wilderness!
Karloff, who came, saw and conquered Alaska, was in turn conquered, and donated his professional fees to the theatre world of Anchorage. From his gift came the equipment used to establish the newly independent Anchorage Community Theatre when it moved into the old quonset hut on Minnesota Drive, for many years, the home of ACT.
