Who We Are

ACTNOW! is dedicated to building confidence and character in young people, primarily adolescent girls. In our core program, the ACTNOW! staff helps players create their very own short movie in the course of one day. The players select a site, invent a story, create characters, improvise scenes on camera and screen the result within 24 hours.

In 1955, David Sheperd revolutionized American comedy as the original producer of professional improvisational theatre that launched the careers of Elaine May, Mike Nichols, Alan Alda, Shelley Berman, Alan Arkin and many others. That theater, COMPASS, marked the beginning of the Saturday Night Live type of humor. He has since developed many other formats that have positively impacted society, one of which inspired the Canadian Improv games and has been used in over 350 Canadian high schools for over 30 years. David is the creator of MOVIExperienceTM which is the basis for ACT NOW! David’s role in producing professional improvisational theatre in Chicago earned him the nickname “father of improv.”

DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER AND VIDEO BIOGRAPHER
Carlyn Saltman has a Master's degree in Documentary Filmmaking from the highly selective National Film and Television School in London, England, and a B.A. in History from Mount Holyoke College. While on staff at Johns Hopkins University's School of Public Health, she produced videos with health messages for African audiences in collaboration with local specialists. She filmed her first cultural documentaries in Africa in 1982. Carlyn's style is marked by an unobtrusive photojournalistic approach that brings together the cinematic storytelling of an artful eye, an open heart, and a curious mind with state-of-the-art technical standards. In addition to other honors, two of her films are included in the Smithsonian Institution's collection.

Leslie Mason is a film/video producer and camerawoman who has been working in the industry since 1983. Her experience includes national public television specials and a wide variety of promotional and educational videos. Her true love is documentaries. Pearl Harbor: Surprise and Remembrance, narrated by Jason Robards was produced for WGBH’s “American Experience” series, and commemorated the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Eco Adventures in Brazil followed an eco tour into the Brazilian Amazon jungle. Our Health, Our Futures documented critical health issues for teenage girls at Smith College’s Summer Science program. She currently lives and works part- time in Vieques, Puerto Rico with her husband Dave, and two teenage Puerto Rican kitties, Yogi and Casey

V. Haddad has been working with ACTNOW! since the summer of 2006. Since then she has coached two MOVIExperiences, On The Line and Cooking Up Trouble. V's work with the organization has been primarily focused on both social outreach and the juvenile justice system. She has been the head coach for the work that ACTNOW! is undertaking in partnership with Unlocking the Light, a state funded program which puts artists in residence within the walls of juvenile prisons throughout the state. V is a playwright, actor, musician and director and when not working with ACTNOW! she is busy producing works of her own including, A Nite on the Town, a 20-min music show which she composed and performed in the spring of 2007 and In Honor of the Goddess, a ceremonial music/dance piece in honor of the Goddess of Love, which had it's debut in August of 2008. V is currently working on a solo album and a graphic novel which she hopes to have out into the public sphere within the next year.

Anne Lorda is a trained MOVIExperience® Coach. She is also the former Director of Sisters Inc, a mentoring program for girls. She is a candidate for a Masters in English Literature and has taught children of migrant workers in a church-run state program. She has also taught values of realization, meditation and yoga to prisoners through UMass. She studied improv with John Duvalier in Rowe. She is fluent in Spanish.

Ed Asner

Shelley Berman