Downtown High School - "Lifelines in the Pipeline: Fighting Our Way Out"

A.C.T.’s Education and Community Programs Department and Downtown High School’s Acting for Critical Transformations Project present an original piece of theater written and performed by the students. This performance brings students’ learning, research, personal journeys, and perspectives to life at A.C.T.'s Strand Theater.

Can our education system break free from fostering a “school-to-Pr*son pipeline” and instead become a “school-to-liberation” pipeline? This semester, students in the Acting for Critical Transformations (A.C.T.) Project at Downtown High School investigated history, biological science, and statistics that reveal how a carceral mindset continues to shape schools—with or without police.Lifelines in the Pipeline: Fighting Our Way Out is inspired by this exploration and the students’ personal stories. Together, they transform their discoveries into original theater pieces and an interactive educational experience for the audience. Join us in freedom-dreaming beyond the system—as we expose the pipeline and imagine true educational alternatives together.

Limited audience capacity. RSVP now to reserve your seats!

Written and performed by students in Downtown High School's Acting for Critical Transformations Project

Directors: Sierra Gonzalez and Maurisa Thompson

Lobby Installations Director: Robert Coverdell

Co-Producers: Rebecca Ennals and Natalie Greene

Production Manager: Mike Anderburg

Stage Managers: Trinity Wicklund and Rylee Cagle

Choreographer: Antwan Davis

Lighting Design: Charlie Mejia

Costume Design: Anelisa Armijo Montoya

Additional support: Andre Douglass, Amanda Boesen, Lucy Gosline-Ratliff, Sendy Santamaria, 826 Valencia tutors and volunteers, Adam Mendez Jr., and A.C.T. Costume Director Jessie Amoroso.

Performances: Friday December 12, 2025 at 10 a.m. & 1:30 p.m. and Saturday December 13, 2025 at 1:30 p.m.

Location: The Rueff at A.C.T.'s Strand Theatre, 1127 Market Street, SF

Limited audience capacity. RSVP now to reserve your seats!

826 Valencia is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students from under-resourced communities in San Francisco with their creative and expository writing skills. Learn more about 826 Valencia at 826valencia.org.

Education & Community Programs support generously provided by Amazon, Bank of America, The Bernard Osher Foundation, Bill Graham Memorial Foundation, California Arts Council, Walter & Elise Haas Fund, Hearst Foundations, Laird Norton Family Foundation, The Kimball Foundation, Koret Foundation, Rawley T. Farnsworth Fellowship Fund, San Francisco Department of Children, Youth & Their Families, The Sato Foundation, The San Francisco Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Martin Tannenbaum/Gerald B. Rosenstein Estate, and U.S. Bank

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