ATC Theatre
theatre in the UK
Actors Touring Company (ATC) is a British touring theatre company based in London, founded in 1978 by artistic director John Retallack. Matthew Xia has been led the company since 2018.
History
Actors Touring Company (ATC) was founded in 1978 by John Retallack, who was also the company's inaugural artistic director. Other former artistic directors have included Mark Brickman, Ceri Sherlock, Nick Philippou, Gordon Anderson, Bijan Sheibani, and Ramin Gray.
Since 2007 the company has toured internationally and throughout the UK.
In November 2018, after dissatisfaction with Gray's leadership had led to his departure (after a formal warning relating to complaints of "inappropriate verbal conduct"), Matthew Xia was appointed artistic director. Xia focused on changing the direction and governance of ATC; to this end, he established a new board and relocating the headquarters from the Institute of Contemporary Arts to Brixton House, which had recently opened as a theatre. These moves were intended to better align with the vision and values of the company. Xia's first production with the company was Amsterdam, by Israeli writer Maya Arad Yasur, at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, London, in autumn 2019.
Description
Actors Touring Company (ATC)
The company pursues a policy of internationalism — making theatre collaboratively with artists from abroad, as well as with the voices of the global nations with the UK.
Awards and nominations
ATC received Olivier Award nominations for the productions of The Brothers Size with the Young Vic and Ivan and the Dogs with Soho Theatre.
The company won an Olivier Award for the production of Gone Too Far!
The public source identifies “ATC Theatre” as theatre in the UK. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Theatre and theatre.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 1, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4654601. Authority coordinates are 51.527, -0.076. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1978, 2018, 2007 and 2019.
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This entry incorporates text from “ATC Theatre” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.