Anton in Show Business

A savvy, savage backstage comedy.

Jane Martin's Anton in Show Business, a hit at the 24th Humana Festival of New American Plays and the winner of the 2000 American Theatre Critics/Steinberg New Play Award, takes you backstage in a fast-paced and remorseless look into the world of theatre. An all-female cast performs multiple roles (including men) in this uproarious comedy about a self-centered television actress, a jaded New Yorker and an enthusiastic ingenue brought together for an ill-fated production of Anton Chekhov¹s The Three Sisters in San Antonio, Texas. Anton skewers incompetent producers, idiot directors, surgically beautified actors, crass sponsors, self-important critics, and even such sacred topics as multiculturalism, and satirizes, celebrates, and challenges the importance of theatre as an art form today.

In the 25-year history of the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville, playwright Jane Martin has secured an enviable position. More plays by Martin have been introduced at the prestigious festival than by any other playwright. But who is this person who has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize? Where does she live and work? And, most curious of all, is she really a woman? For more than 20 years, ATL has kept the playwright's identity secret. The elusive playwright is generally believed to be Jon Jory, the man who, after a long and successful reign, recently stepped down as producing director of the Actors Theater of Louisville . "Ms. Martin" first came to national attention for Talking With, a collection of monologues premiering in the 1982 Humana Festival. Ms. Martin's Keely and Du, which premiered in the 1993 Humana Festival, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in drama and won the American Theatre Critics Association Award for Best New Play in 1996. Ms. Martin's work has been translated into Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Russian and several other languages.

Performances of Anton in Show Business were November 2-24, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm, at Actors Workshop, 40 Boylston Street, Boston.

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Director...................Danielle Fauteux Jacques
Asst. Director...................Thomas Benton
Stage Manager...................Mike Lucek
Set Designer...................Linda Amsler
Costume Designer...................Jenn Russell
Tech. Director...................David Rodrigues
Running Crew...................Katarina Morhacova
Running Crew...................Lynda Harkins
Running Crew...................Ellen Green Dolan
Co-House Manager...................Liz Kurtz
Co-House Manager...................Karin Delgado
Photography................Danielle Fauteux Jacques