Great Expectations

The Acting Company develops actors by touring professional theater coast-to-coast.

Founded in 1972 by John Houseman and Margot Harley with the first graduating class of the Drama Division of The Juilliard School, the Company has launched the careers of some 400 actors, including Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, Keith David, Rainn Wilson, Lorraine Toussaint, Frances Conroy, Harriet Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Hamish Linklater, Jesse L. Martin, and Kelley Curran, while bringing sophisticated theater to hundreds of communities across the country.

The Acting Company has performed for over 4 million people in 48 States, 10 foreign countries, on and Off-Broadway, and at leading resident theaters including the Guthrie, the Kennedy Center and New York City Center.

New works commissioned by The Acting Company include plays by William Finn, Marcus Gardley, Rebecca Gilman, John Guare, Beth Henley, Tony Kushner, Lynn Nottage, Meg Miroshnik, Ntozake Shange, Maria Irene Fornés, Marsha Norman, Samm-Art Williams, and Wendy Wasserstein among other notable playwrights. The Company’s education programs bring our award-winning workshop curriculum and in-school residencies to thousands of rural, suburban, and metropolitan schools each year.

Among many accolades, The Acting Company received the 2003 Tony honor for Excellence in the Theater, and recently won the 2019 Audelco Award for Best Play for its production of Nambi E. Kelley’s Native Son directed by Seret Scott