ACT Consultant Services was established in 1977 by theatre consultants Chris Baldwin and John Coffey. It is now based in Cambridge and specialises in the design of medium-scale mixed use arts centres. Chris is a member of the Society of Theatre Consultants, Association of Lighting Designers and the Association of British Theatre Technicians.

A practising theatre consultant of 30 years experience, Chris was trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and, after working at The Royal Court and at Farnham, joined Theatre Projects Consultants in 1969. Chris took responsibility for projects in England, Wales, Spain, Nigeria and Mexico before leaving to establish the partnership ACT Consultant Services with John Coffey.

In parallel with ongoing theatre design work in the UK and overseas during the late seventies, Chris was appointed project manager for the creation of Wyeside Arts Centre in mid-Wales. His experience of community arts was further developed through his subsequent period acting as the Arts Centre Administrative Director after its opening in 1978. Hands-on production experience during the 1980s continued when Chris and John took on the responsibility for the technical management of major European Touring Productions of A Chorus Line, Bubbling Brown Sugar and 42nd Street.

Over recent years, Chris has developed the design and the Employers Requirements documentation for several clients building arts centres, including recently the London Borough of Barnet, Qatar National Theatre and the Borough of Wellingborough. He has provided the specification and design of all specialist theatre services for new theatres in Wrexham, Nottingham, Northampton, Wolverhampton, Trinidad and Cambridge. Chris has also been involved in the refurbishment of theatre spaces in Berlin, Oporto, Frankfurt, Abergavenny, Builth Wells and Aberdare. He has carried out Building and Technical Equipment Condition Surveys for theatres in Milford Haven, Ipswich and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Alongside his design work for theatres, Chris's keen interest in lighting has brought him commissions to design the lighting provision for galleries in Newtown, Cambridge, Cardiff and Oxford. He has also sought a close working relationship with artists working with light and their funders, to effect a safe, cost-effective and engineered solution to unique lighting design and operational challenges.