ACT in the 70s was building a significant audience, growing to nearly 10x the size of its first season,
and beginning to outgrow its first home in lower Queen Anne. The 70s also saw the beginning of a
major ACT Tradition: The Falls adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
productions
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1979
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Man and Superman (1979)
This romantic comedy tells the story of two rivals: John Tanner (a wealthy, politically-minded intellectual who values his freedom) and Ann Whitefield (a charming, scheming hypocritical young woman who wants Tanner as a husband). Once Tanner realizes that Miss Whitefield is hunting for a spouse (and that he is the only target), he attempts to flee from her, only to find out that his attraction to Ann is too overwhelming to escape.
Fanshen (1979)
“Fanshen" means, literally, “to turn over”-to fashion a new life. This uniquely constructed play is an authentic and lucid account of how the people of Long Bow village in China came to terms with the communist revolution and created a new world. The life of the entire village bubbles briefly before us as the inhabitants, preoccupied with the monumental struggle for land, find time to reflect on more fragile human values: the duty of any one person to himself and to his society.
Otherwise Engaged (1979)
With his wife away, Simon Hench, successful publisher and avid Wagnerite, is looking forward to a long listen to his new record of "Parsifal". But the sex problems of his lodger and his brother's desire to share his anxiety turn out to be the beginning of a string of interruptions.
Holy Ghosts (1979)
Holy Ghosts peers inside the close-knit confines of a small fundamentalist church in deep Appalachia -- a favorite setting for noted late playwright Romulus Linney (Sand Mountain, Gint, Heathen Valley). The action centers on a man named Coleman (accompanied by his charming lawyer) chasing after Nancy, the wife who has deserted him and taken up with preacher Obediah Buckthorn and the Amalgamation Holiness Church of God. The characters and rituals the men uncover among the congregation are so odd, interesting -- and oddly appealing -- that suddenly any outcome seems possible.
The Water Engine (1979)
In the 1930s, Charles Lang invents an engine that runs using water for fuel. But when he tries to get it patented, he is first offered a ridiculously low amount. When he refuses, he is suddenly several people are pressuring him to sell. The big oil companies don't want the competition. Now he has to try and keep them from getting his idea, and somehow get it published.
An ingenious two-for-one, a classic morality fable of greed and social conspiracy wrapped in a radio play.
The Fantasticks (1979)
A young man and the girl next door have parents who have built a wall to keep them apart. The youngsters nevertheless contrive to meet and fall in love. Their parents, meanwhile, are congratulating themselves, for they have erected the wall and staged a feud in order to achieve, by negation, a marriage between their willfully disobedient children. Altogether, it’s a rueful and disarming lighter-than-air romantic musical fantasy. As the longest running musical on the American stage, it comes back to ACT’s stage after 12 years by popular demand. You’ll hum, you’ll whistle, you’ll hardly ever get out of your head such songs as “Try to Remember,” “They Were You: and “Soon It’s Gonna Rain”