Facade of A.C.T.'s Toni Rembe Theater, formerly the Geary Theater, at 415 Geary Street with American Conservatory Theater banners - San Francisco

A.C.T. Names Elizabeth Williamson Artistic Director, Starting January 2027

By Brian (Local SF Guide) · October 8, 2026

American Conservatory Theater has named Elizabeth Williamson its next artistic director. The company announced the hire on October 6, 2026, and Williamson starts on January 4, 2027, according to Playbill. She succeeds Pam MacKinnon, who led A.C.T. for eight years.

Williamson grew up in Berkeley and started her career at A.C.T., where she was an assistant director on The Constant Wife and Well. “I couldn’t be more honored to be coming home to ACT,” she said, as quoted by SFist.

Who She Is

Williamson has been artistic director of Geva Theatre in Rochester, New York, since 2022, and stays there through December 2026. Before Geva she spent nearly eight years at Hartford Stage in Connecticut as associate artistic director and director of new play development.

Most of her Broadway credits are as a dramaturg: The Inheritance, Some Like It Hot, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and Anastasia. SFist, citing the San Francisco Chronicle, reported that a national search led by search committee chair Barbara Messing selected her, and that she plans to program by the Royal Court Theatre’s motto: produce classics as though they’re new plays and new plays as though they’re classics.

She is the fifth artistic director in the company’s history, after founder William Ball, Edward Hastings, Carey Perloff and MacKinnon. MacKinnon won the 2013 Tony Award for directing Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

What It Means for Audiences

Williamson takes over in January, and the announcement did not say which productions she will program first. A.C.T. performs at two venues: the Toni Rembe Theater at 415 Geary St. near Union Square, and the Strand Theater at 1127 Market St. in Mid-Market. The box office number is 415-749-2228.

For more theater and arts dates this month, see our guide to things to do in San Francisco in October 2026.

Sources: Playbill, October 7, 2026; SFist, October 6, 2026; San Francisco Chronicle; A.C.T.

Photo: Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.