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The Acting Company is a professional theater company that tours the United States annually, staging and performing one or two plays in as many as fifty cities, often with runs of only one or two nights. Drama critic Mel Gussow has called it "the major touring classical theater of the United States." Based in New York City, The Acting Company also sponsors several educational programs for middle school and high school students.
The Acting Company was founded in 1972 by John Houseman and Margot Harley. Houseman, a distinguished actor and theater producer, was then the head of the new Drama Division of the Juilliard School. Loath to see the first group of actors disbanded upon graduation from Juilliard, Houseman and his Juilliard colleague Harley founded the "Group I Acting Company" as a non-profit corporation in New York City to provide employment and make use of their talents. The name was changed to "The Acting Company" after a few years as the original group I actors were replaced by graduates from many acting conservatories. From its beginnings, the Company toured extensively. As Margot Harley explained in a 2004 interview, "We knew perfectly well that in order to keep them together we had to tour, because nobody would come and see, over a long period of time, a young company in New York. And touring is historically a great training ground for an actor."
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