acta believe that theatre belongs to everyone, and everyone has a story to tell. acta creates a place where everyone’s story matters, where individual opinions and experiences count, and are valued by others. They enable communities to share their stories, and engage audiences who rarely attend theatre.

acta’s projects create positive change in individuals, raising aspirations and improving skills, confidence, self-worth & employability; their work enables people to work together, make theatre and have fun.

acta enables people to see theatre in a different way, specifically targeting non theatre-goers from the least engaged sections of the community, as well as introducing quality community theatre to existing theatre audiences. They make theatre which connects to these audiences, theatre which is relevant to, and reflective of, their culture and life experiences.

This connection is only achievable with a devising practice that allows the natural voice of participants to resonate through every performance. Participants use their own experiences and imaginations, their own words to connect with audiences and to create remarkable theatre.

acta engages people without privilege, who are not connected to the cultural life of Bristol – isolated older people; migrants, refugees and asylum seekers; vulnerable young people; disabled people; people living outside the City Centre.

acta creates new theatre across the City of Bristol – intergenerational and intercultural – with diverse communities, with all ages.

acta community theatre is one of the oldest ICAF partners. They performed shows in ICAF 2005 and 2008. At ICAF 2014 acta introduced the Malcolm-X Elders, a group of senior Caribbean women with whom acta had been working for many years.