I cannot stress this enough: do not work at A.C.T. of Connecticut. This theatre is operated by individuals whose leadership style is authoritarian, dismissive, and, at times, openly hostile. If you’re expecting a supportive, respectful, or even minimally functional workplace, you will not find it here. Many people arrive at ACT with an immediate sense that something feels “off.” Unfortunately, that instinct tends to be correct—and the experience typically deteriorates over time. It's telling that ACT struggles to retain production staff season to season; for many, it's a “one-and-done” experience. Two key individuals must be addressed: the AD and the PD. The AD is, without question, the most controlling and insecure leader I’ve encountered in my career. His management style is toxic—marked by condescension, erratic demands, and a complete disregard for work-life balance. Rehearsals often stretch late into the night, with expectations of overnight responses and revisions. Basic human needs like rest are clearly not a concern. The PD, unfortunately, enables this behavior through a combination of neglect and contradiction. In my experience, she routinely dismissed or ignored serious concerns about staff treatment—claiming she hadn’t seen relevant emails or overheard problematic interactions. Despite a lack of understanding of production workflows, she insists on constant updates, creating a bizarre dynamic of micromanagement without meaningful engagement. Compounding the dysfunctional leadership is inadequate pay and a culture that devalues its artists and staff. In all honesty, you'd be better off working with a passionate community theatre than subjecting yourself to the environment at ACT of Connecticut. This is not about my personal experience—this is about protecting others from a workplace that fails on every fundamental level: respect, communication, fairness, and basic decency.

I know you may want to take this job for the sake of performing, but please - my therapist said I have never seemed more stressed. I was constantly on edge and afraid of being singled out and bullied because that happened every day. I felt like I had to be in line and be perfect or else. There will be other jobs. I promise.

One of the worst jobs I’ve ever had. The "creative leadership" at this theatre is a joke. They are unkind, disrespectful of your time, talent, energy, efforts - they're vindictive and just flat out mean. Any other creative (director, music director, choreographer) knows exactly how these people operate. Even if these creatives are nice to your face, you must remember: they are complicit in watching this theatre constantly abuse you and will NEVER stand up for you. They are just as scared as everyone else of these "leaders”, all in the name of having a little gig. They benefit from your abuse. The gag is the production quality is great, the theatre is intimate and clean, the shows sell out with wonderful crowds, the cast was nice and talented… But it all drips down from the top. I would have abandoned ship after the first week if I had any other life raft to jump on. COMMUTE/HOUSING: Even if they have housing (which they do - a lot of it) they won't give it to you unless you live exactly 50 miles or more away from the theatre. For NYC: Being in upper Manhattan or on the West Side at all, you're around 40+ miles from the theatre. So, they have you commute in a mini-van with up to 7 cast members DAILY. A cast member drives the van and can make an extra $10. Early mornings, usually leaving by 9:30am. 11am-7pm rehearsals where they will call you whether you will be used or not (saw cast members called all day from the city who were never used. They sat there. All day.) and if you're lucky you're home by 9pm. When you arrive to rehearsal they expect "excellence" and your "very best" - How can you give this when you're constantly being mistreated and battling exhaustion? However inconvenient or bad you think the drive to-and-from might be? It's worse. They DID provide housing for the duration of TECH rehearsals and Friday/Saturdays for the matinee weekend… but they force you to vacate that housing and go back to the city on the 1-3 days off, while the other actors/tech being housed get to stay. They even said you could leave things in your room to come back to, but forced folks back to the city, citing saving money on "utilities". Let's also note they do this at the end of a tech day, so after you're finally released at 10pm after a long tech week, you'll get home to the city by 1am … hopefully. Also, management went poking in our rooms without warning when we weren't there throughout the contract. MONEY They don't budge on negotiating for anything more than minimum. AEA is low, Non-AEA is even lower. Bottom line, housed or not: IT'S NOT A LIVABLE WAGE. They won't reimburse you for ANYTHING that isn’t their idea first. Yet they treat you as if you should be eternally grateful for the job. You’ll be lucky to make anything close to $490 after taxes, etc. BACKSTAGE We had fine Stage Management/Crew/Team Backstage. The costume department, while the kindest people in the building, were very messy. Always forgetting changes, losing costume pieces, laundry not done … Got a callback in the city? You’re not going. They will hold it against you for the rest of the run if you even ask. You have almost a month of rehearsal, and they act like it's "not enough time" from Day 1. Staff at the theatre knows that the folks who run the show are corrupt and unkind. When it's brought up, a knowing look is given, but everyone is visibly too scared to speak up. Young interns ask "are all theatres like this?" ... What a FUN place to work ... The resident MD steam rolled over the actual MD for the production. They will come in a few times a week to demote them to rehearsal pianist as he berates the cast and curses up a storm. “I’m mean, but you’re gonna get it. You’ll think I’m an [censored], but you’ll thank me later. Again. Again. Again. No. Wrong. Again. Attack that note like a [censored]. Don’t be scared of me.” He’ll single you out and push you in the name of being “perfect”, you’re lucky if he learns your name. An actor was very sick for 3 days and went on for the tech process. They had a sore throat and could hardly sing. By doing this, they put everyone else at risk of getting sick for the run. While this was ultimately the actor’s decision, the creatives could have stepped in and said “no” for the betterment of the actor and those around them. Instead, they encouraged the actor to push thru and let the understudy sing the role on mic while the actor marked their place... for TECH. The actor said they were “scared” of what might happen if they didn’t do it … This is how they treat people. Seeing names like Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz, Christian Borle, Tom Kitt, and more on the “artistic advisory board” is disheartening. Is this what “professionalism” is to them? Isn’t it wild that there is still so much I’m leaving out? FINAL WARNING Management pulled a veteran actor aside during rehearsal to chastise them for telling a fellow cast member about what they negotiated for their contract. Management walked into the theatre and pulled the actor into the hallway, told the actor they "should have used more discretion" and called the actor's AGENT to report their "behavior" ... While management eventually apologized, the damage was done. This is how they treat someone who has done multiple shows for them. How will they treat YOU?

The reputation this place has for having a revolving door in terms of employees speaks for itself. No one with any kind of self respect for the work they produce would, or even should, stay here for very long. The demands from the creative team are outrageous at best and downright delusional at worst, especially given the fact that they treat every rehearsal like it’s tech week starting day 1. There’s a strong “my way or the highway” mentality that everyone is meant to bow down to, specifically towards the AD, that turns the work environment very toxic very quickly if his demands aren’t met within the next twenty seconds. There’s no room for error, no sympathy for extraneous circumstances, and no peace. The biggest issue? Upper management loves to boast about having open communication so we can “all solve problems together”; what this really means is the AD needs to be cc’d on every single email on the off chance they can “save the show” by bringing in personal items from home or attempting to do some kind of build that is frankly outside of their skill set based on what I’ve seen them do during my tenure. Please don’t work here. Save yourself the trouble. The housing isn’t worth it. The pay for SURE isn’t worth it. And whatever credit they promised you isn’t worth it. There are better theaters that can offer what this place does and more, and they won’t treat you like scum for missing 1 out of the 15 emails they sent in rapid fire succession. Good luck out there

Horrible experience, will never work here again. Save yourself the hassle and audition for a local community theatre instead.

I’m good off another stint here.

Not fun

I might as well have been an indentured servant. I got brought on just as their show season ended so instead of learning how a professional theater works, I had to do all the things the managers deemed beneath them: cleaning the carpet, wiping bird poo off the windows, emptying dehumidifiers, etc. a lot of passive aggressive comments too. one time, there was a garbage can that fell over into the bushes and the manager took a picture, printed it out, and handed it to us to go pick it up instead of, y'know, doing it themselves. the artistic director was also never there. in the four months I was there, they only came in about three times. And what was really annoying was that all this cleaning stuff would be done in the about an hour or two but I was still scheduled to be there another six hours and there'd be nothing else to do. Yet they'd get mad that I would just be standing around. I'm pretty sure I did an inventory check four times a week because that's their go to task for you. If this is what all professional theaters are like, forget it.

toxic work environment, bad pay, daily 3 hour commute. actors deserve better if the creatives expect such "excellence"

Nightmare. Nuff said.

I had a very positive experience here. Are the higher ups intense? Yes. Do they create VERY high quality productions because of that intensity? Also yes. They want and expect excellence. Understudies are basically ignored until after opening, so learn your shit independently. Costumes, lighting, sound, production elements were all fantastic. Gorgeous, clean new theatre and dressing rooms. Also they give you free food and wine all the time, definitely a bonus.

The theatre is amazing. The creative teams are stacked with a whose who! The pay leaves something to be desired but its close to NYC. You rehearse and commute daily to CT. The staff is amazing. The productions are top notch.