The Actors Center of San Francisco is a professional acting studio serving actors of all levels. Beginners can have a serious introduction to dramatic acting and prepare to go on to conservatories, universities or a professional career. Professional actors can use ACSF classes to hone their craft while between jobs. Method Acting techniques are a departure point at ACSF, who do not adhere to any single 'method' as the only way train an actor. ACSF seeks to uphold professional industry standards established in New York, Los Angeles and London, and to help students discern the difference between regional community theater acting styles and the naturalism required for success in the professional world of film and theater acting. ACSF believes that stories focused on truth, beauty and the search for meaning have a wide international audience, and hopes to inspire the next wave of professional film and theater artists to understand the ancient soul of the actor's art in order to restore and heal the human spirit.

180 Capp Street (at 17th Street), 2nd Floor, San Francisco   www.shelleymitchell.org

CounterPULSE provides support and resources for low-income and emerging artists, serving as an incubator space to create socially relevant, diverse, grassroots art and activism. CounterPULSE is the new name for 848 Community Space, which has played a unique and significant role in the SF performance community since the early 90's. No other single space has supported a comparable breadth of performance, queer art, improvised dance, cutting edge lit and word, and contemporary ritual. 848 hosted the first performances or premieres of many of SF's most exciting and successful dancers and choreographers (from Potrzebie to Pearl Ubungen, new works from Robert Henry Johnson to Krissy Keefer, and full company concerts from Scott Wells to Jess Curtis/Gravity). CounterPULSE retains 848's classic slogan: "we have done and will continue to do almost anything." After 13 years of providing a venue for cutting-edge art and performance on Divisadero Street, 848 has found a new home. The new venue, CounterPULSE, continues 848's tradition of providing space and resources for innovative, experimental performance, while also housing CounterPULSE's media projects: Shaping San Francisco and the Radical Media Clubhouse.  

1310 Mission Street (at 9th Street), San Francisco www.counterpulse.org

Intersection for the Arts is San Francisco's oldest alternative art space (est. 1965) and has a long history of presenting new and experimental work in the fields of literature, theater, music and the visual arts, and also in nurturing and supporting the Bay Area's cultural community through service, technical support, and mentorship programs. Intersection provides a place where provocative ideas, diverse art forms, artists, and audiences can intersect one another. At Intersection for the Arts, experimentation and risk are possible, debate and critical inquiry are embraced, community is essential, resources and experience are democratized, and today's issues are thrashed about in the heat and immediacy of live art.  

446 Valencia Street (between 15th and 16th Streets), San Francisco   www.theintersection.org

The LAB is an interdisciplinary arts organization that supports the development and presentation of new visual, performing, media and literary art. The LAB assists artists in the creation of new work and showcases work of the highest quality by emerging and underrepresented experimental artists. Founded in 1984 by a group of interdisciplinary artists, The LAB has earned a reputation as one of the foremost presenters of experimental art in the country. Critics, audiences, artists, and other organizations look to The LAB to find some of the most important work by today's emerging artists. The LAB presents more than thirty live events and four to six solo and group exhibitions per year. The LAB serves a vital role in the art community because it provides comprehensive support for emerging and under-recognized professional artists.

2948 16th Street (at Capp), San Francisco www.thelab.org

Locus Arts is an all-volunteer organization of Asian American artists and arts supporters dedicated to promoting community and consciousness through the arts. They are currently incorporated and under the fiscal sponsorship of Asian Improv aRts. Locus Arts is a space that showcases the music, theatre, performing, literary and visual arts of the Asian Pacific American community. They believe in pan APA artists and inclusive audiences, a community supporting artists and the artists supporting a community, a physical space for creative collaboration and face-to-face connection. Locus Arts seeks to nurture and cultivate young emerging APA artists by providing a physical space to develop, rehearse, perform and display their works.

Space 180, 180 Capp Street (at 17th Street), 3rd floor, San Francisco www.locusarts.org

The Make-Out Room is a live music venue and performance space offering the best djs, dancing and live music the Bay Area has to offer. Since 1996 the Make-Out Room has been showcasing diverse talent in a festive atmosphere of local art and intoxicating spirit.

3225 22nd Street (between Mission and Valencia), San Francisco www.makeoutroom.com

Poetry Flash is dedicated to providing the widest possible access to poetry and literature. Unique in format and in community support, Poetry Flash is an important communication forum and vehicle for generating audience and interest in literary issues and events. Poetry Flash publishes quality reviews, poems, interviews, essays, and trade, submission, and award information for all creative writers, poetry and fiction. Poetry Flash also carries the most comprehensive listing of literary events in the West: the Calendar is an indispensable guide to the literary scene in all of California, and offers Southwest, Pacific Northwest, and selected national event listings. Although poetry is the editorial focus, interviews with novelists and writers of experimental fiction are featured. Poetry Flash , an essential tool for writers, publishers, and readers, has built community through literature for twenty-seven years.  

1450 Fourth Street, #4, Berkeley www.poetryflash.org

Located in the historic Mission District of San Francisco, the ornate and stately Victoria Theatre was built in 1908 as a vaudeville house, and is now a city landmark and the oldest operating theatre in San Francisco. After a year of reconstruction, the theatre was refurbished from top to bottom and now is restored to its original intent and grandeur. Viewers can see everything ranging from locally produced original plays, concerts, film festivals (the theatre has video, 16mm and 35mm with Dolby Pro Logic Surround Sound), musicals, international performing companies and many other kinds of performances. Several filmmakers have used the site to shoot their films. Many personalities have performed at the theatre through its long and colorful history, including Whoopi Goldberg, Bill Irwin, Donald O'Conner, Mae "Come up and see me sometime" West, and many others.

2961 16th Street (at Capp Street), San Francisco www.victoriatheatre.org