About ACTF

The American College Theater Festival (ACTF) is a national organization that exists to celebrate the educational and creative process of university and college theatre. ACTF promotes professional standards and provides students and faculty with opportunities to bridge the academic and professional worlds. ACTF honors achievements in diversity and excellence and encourages experiences in all areas of theatre.

Started in 1969 by Roger L. Stevens, the American College Theater (ACTF) is a national theater program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide which has served as a catalyst in improving the quality of college theater in the United States. The ACTF has grown into a network of more than 600 academic institutions throughout the country, where theater departments and student artists showcase their work and receive outside assessment by ACTF respondents. The goals of the American College Theater Festival are:

• To encourage, recognize, and celebrate the finest and most diverse work produced in university and college theater programs.

• To provide opportunities for participants to develop their theater skills and insight; and achieve professionalism.

• To improve the quality of college and university theater in America.

• To encourage colleges and universities to give distinguished productions of new plays, especially those written by students; the classics, revitalized or newly conceived; and experimental works.

Through regional conferences and the national festival, ACTF participants celebrate the creative process, see one another’s work, and share experiences and insights within the community of theater artists. The ACTF honors excellence of overall production and offers student artists individual recognition through awards and scholarships in playwriting, acting, criticism, directing, and design.

ACTF is a year-round program in eight geographic regions in the United States. Regional activities are coordinated through eight ACTF regional chairs and eight ACTF playwriting awards chairs. With funding and administrative support from the Kennedy Center, the regional chair coordinates all aspects of the response of productions on the local and regional level, and supervises regional-level ACTF conferences. The playwriting chair works with schools that have entered new and student-written plays by providing expertise in the development of new scripts–assessment specifically designed for a developing play–and by providing information on the numerous playwriting awards offered.

In January and February of each year, regional conferences showcase the finest of each region’s entered productions and offer a variety of activities, including workshops, symposia, and regional-level award programs. Regional conference productions are responded to by members for the ACTF national committee. These productions in consultation with the Artistic Director are eligible for National Awards at the National Festival.

Since its inception, ACTF has given more than 400,000 college theater students the opportunity to have their work critiqued, improve their dramatic skills and receive national recognition for excellence. More than 16 million theatergoers have attended approximately 10,000 festival productions nationwide.