"The busiest, big-hearted, low budget theatre in San Diego..." -- Union-Tribune

6th @ Penn Theatre Presents

DeAnna Driscoll * (Holly) was most recently seen at The San Diego Rep. in Miss Witherspoon. Previous to that she starred as the Old Woman in Ion Theater's The Chairs. She won the KBPS Patte Award for "Outstanding Performance of 2005" for the one-woman show Bad Dates at the San Diego Rep., and was also featured in the award-winning Jesus Hopped The "A" Train at Lynx Performance Theater. DeAnna won the 2004 Critics Circle Award for "Outstanding Female Performance" for her role as Grace in The Old Globe's production of Bus Stop. Other favorite roles include: Patricia in Sight Unseen, the numerous roles she played in Cloud 9 and Regan in King Lear. DeAnna recieved her training at the National Shakespeare Conservatory in NYC and is proud to run the drama department at High Tech Middle School.*Actors' Equity Member

Robin Christ** (Casey) is delighted to return as an Associate Artist to Sixth at Penn where she was last seen in Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean. Previously at Sixth at Penn: Hecuba, Iphigenia at Aulis, Amelia Earhart: Lost and Found, State of the Art, Oedipus at Colonus and Reckless. Local credits also include: Cygnet Theater: Bug, Las Meninas, New Village Arts: Sailor’s Song, Ion Theatre: Punks, NCRT: Romeo and Juliet, Sledgehammer: Phaedra in Delirium, Chrylasis:Rapechild, (sic) and Richard III, Diversionary: Brave Smiles, A Bright Room Called Day, Backyard Productions: Experiment With an Air Pump, Stone Soup: Tongue of a Bird. **6th @ Penn Associate Artist

Aimee Janelle Nelson (Lisabette) is pleased to make her 6th at Penn debut as Lisabette in Anton in Show Business. Recent credits include: Hay Fever, Bedroom Farce (Moonlight Stage Productions), The Shape of Things (Carlsbad Playreaders), The Tin Soldier (North Coast Repertory), Red Herring and The O'Connor Girls (Scripps Ranch Theatre). Some other favorite credits: Dancing at Lughnasa, Talking With, and Steel Magnolias. Aimee also enjoys playing violin, and recently played for West Side Story and I Do, I Do. Very proud of her beautiful new nephew, Aimee would like to say: I love you, little Deige!

 Patricia Elmore Costa (Kate, Ben, Jackey) is a professional actor, director, producer and writer. In 1985 she founded the San Diego Actors Theatre, a non-profit professional theatre company and has been its Artistic Director and driving force for over 20 years. Most recently, she was Show Director/Producer and was with the Guest Talent Programs division at Disney Entertainment Productions. Currently, she is a professor of theatre and communication arts for the San Diego Community College District. Patricia has directed and acted in projects with the Old Globe Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, North Coast Repertory Theatre, Diversionary Theatre, SOHO, Sixth @ Penn Theatre, Common Ground Theatre and of course for the San Diego Actors Theatre among others. She is delighted to be returning to 6th @ Penn Theatre for Anton in Show Business after having played the warrior, Meneleus in Ajax two seasons ago. Always for Joseph, Matthew and Nicholas.

Kelly Lapczynski (Ralph, Wikèwitch, Joe Bob) appeared on the 6th@Penn stage during a visit to San Diego a couple of years ago: it was the first (now defunct) Instant Theatre. Since then she has relocated to San Diego and was most recently seen in the Scripps Ranch production The O'Conner Girls. A native of Nashville, Kelly recently finished her 100th production with her directorial debut, the original script The Last Supper.

Morgan Trant (Joby) Morgan was last seen in The Fritz Blitz festival in Vicki and Bubbles as Vicki. Other San Diego credits include Pistachio Stories with The Resilience of Spirit Festival, Flowers of War with Challenge Theatre, The Grapes of Wrath with Ion Theatre, Ajax and Antigone with 6th at Penn, Amadeus with the La Jolla Stage Company, and Othello with the San Diego Women's Repertory Theatre. She is delighted to be working with such a wonderful cast and would like to thank her family and friends for their support.

Cashae Monya (T-Anne, Andwyeth, Don Blount) is a senior at Coronado School of the Arts and is very proud to be apart of her first production at 6th and Penn. She has been an active member of San Diego Junior for the past two years and has been seen in shows such as Peter Pan, To Kill a Mockingbird, Madeline’s Christmas, Aladdin and The Wiz. For which, she won a National Youth Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actress of the Year. She would like to thank Wendy , Mamma B, Mr. Maher and Ms. Wagner for believing and aiding in her success in both theatre and school. She would also like to say “I LOVE YOU” to her Granmie who has taught her the value of hard work by being the hardest working woman she has ever known. ENJOY!

Julia Hoover (Understudy/Dresser 1) feels very fortunate to work with this cast of genuine and beautiful women. It will be her first experience at 6th at Penn and she truly values every moment. Julia was last seen on stage last winter in the Diversionary Theatre’s Writers Workshop. Last summer, Julia, attended BADA (British American Drama Academy) where she had the opportunity to perform and study with some of Theatre's most dynamic actors. And, last winter, she FINALLY graduated from San Diego State with BA’s in Theatre and Psychology while appearing in various productions such as Othello, Stop Kiss, Octavia and The Vagina Monologues. Thank you to Jason, Mom, Dad, and Lindsey for your encouragement, support and love.

 Jamie Lloyd (Dresser 2/Gate Manager/Costume Designer) This is Jamie's theatre costuming debut at 6th @ Penn and she is thrilled to be working with the fabulous director and cast of talented man and women of this production.  Jamie has made and put together award winning costumes for over 10 years and volunteers and entertains children and adults with her characters, Mary Poppins, Lucy and Marilyn Monroe.  Jamie is a San Diego Jr. Theatre alumni, dances 1940's swing style and takes Improvisation acting classes with Dave Fenner.  She has appeared in Moxie Theatre's production of "Fall" and 6th @ Penn's reading of "Buried, the Sego Mine Disaster".  

 Selena Wood (Dresser 3 & Other Roles) Selina's first production was at the young age of four in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and since then she has been a part of over 200 musical and theatrical productions all over the world. Selina has preformed in such places as Bali, China, Canada, Alaska, Oregon, San Diego and different parts of Los Angeles. Along with performing Selina has also worked on set design and construction, costume design and has directed two productions. Some of her favorite roles include Wendy in "Peter Pan", Frenchy in "Grease" and Lilly in "Annie". Selina is Currently a senior in high school and plans to graduate early. In the future she plans on getting her degree in education and opening her own performing arts school. A big thank you to my family, Mom Dad and Katie, Ali Bretches and the rest of the MET family, and to DeAnna and the cast and crew from Anton.
 

Production Staff

Dale Morris (Director/Producer/Sound Design) is an actor, director, and playwright. He is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and Actors Equity Association. His play A Hundred Birds was awarded the Pattè Award for Outstanding New Play in 2007. He is the founder of 6th @ Penn Theatre and the San Diego Theatre Scene weekly Newsletter that has over 6000 subscribers; a founding member of Grassroots Greeks; and the producer of nine Greek tragedies as well as many other shows at 6th @ Penn. As an actor, his local appearances include: 6th @ Penn: Glengarry Glenn Ross, dir. by Jerry Pilato and Bryan Bevell; Middle-Aged White Guys, dir. by Ralph Elias; The Sum of Us, dir. by D. Lay; …A Young Lady From Rwanda, dir. by Claudio Raygoza, Antigone & The Children of Heracles, dir. by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg; A Prayer for My Daughter, dir. by Robert May (Patte’ Award – Best Ensemble), Lyceum Theatre: A Raisin in the Sun, dir. by Claudio Raygoza; Quentin Crisp Theatre: Fit To Be Tied dir. by Gayle Feldman; NCRT: The Elephant Man, dir. by Sean Murray; An American Daughter, dir. by Rosina Reynolds. Fritz: Escape from Happiness and Unmerciful Good Fortune, dir. by Karin Williams. Sledgehammer: My Marriage to Ernest Borgnine dir. by Bryan Bevell; Diversionary: Execution of Justice.  Film: The Streetsweeper, American Daughter, Point Blank, Not Once But Twice and ’Til Death Do Us Part. TV: Fashion House, Silk Stalkings, the O. J. Trial Re-Enactment and Angel Street. Other roles: Oliver in Return Engagements (Aubry Award); Harold in Orphans, Jerry in Zoo Story, and Sir Wilfred in Witness for the Prosecution. Prior to obtaining 6th @ Penn Theatre in 2001 Dale was a property manager in several states operating large residential apartment complexes. In 2002 6th @ Penn became a 501 (c) (3) non-profit arts organization and Dale became its producing artistic director.

Faeren Adams (Assistant Director) was born in La Jolla and grew up in Encinitas. She has been doing theatre since she was 6. Favorite roles include Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at MiraCosta College, Esperanza in If the Shoe Fits at Coronado Playhouse, and Candy in Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love with the Tehama Street Players. She has lived in South Korea & Ecuador, is a member of The Plutonium Theatre Company, and loved being part of this production.
 

Cat McEvilly (Stage Manager) is the resident Stage Manager at 6th @ Penn and is happy to be a part of this wonderful show.
 

Mitchell Simkovski (Light Designer) Mitchell has been designing lights for 6th @ Penn and other theatres for many years and is please to be back.  He is also 6th @ Penn's Technical Director.  As well as being a husband and father he is also an accountant.
 

Valentine Viannay (Mural Painter) An accomplished muralist and faux finisher, Valentine Viannay has an enduring love of drawing and an insatiable desire to capture beauty wherever it is found. In Valentine Viannay's paintings, she favors intangible emotions over realism.  Viannay expresses the spontaneity of her subconscious, by creating abstract  visceral moments and exposing the vibrancy of color through the extensive use of opposites. -- This interplay unearths a certain depth to her work, where the transparency of specific layers allows for a meditative experience - evoking a correlation to the truths she has discovered  through yoga, as well as, her own spiritual meditations.  There is a journey in her paintings, by which the expression of positivity is honored above all.  -- Valentine Viannay was born and raised in Paris. At 19, She attended the Parson’s School of Art and Design in New York.  She went  to London to further her studies in set design at Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design in London, UK. -- Valentine now lives and works in San Diego, California since 2001.
 

Ian Radcliffe (Set Construction)
 

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.

C. Kish Review SDTS

Anton In Show Business

Jane Martin’s Anton In Show Business is a wild, humorous satirical farce that offers commentary about the state of modern theatre in America. It accomplishes this by employing three principal actors who are cast in the Texas Actor’s Express Theatre production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters. The play begins pointedly with an announcement: “American Theatre is in a shit-load of trouble” and goes on from there.

Director Dale Morris obviously communicated effectively the need for an accelerated pace and perfect, rigorous timing to his cast because there wasn’t one from the listing that didn’t deliver on this mandate.

The storyline has Holly (DeAnna Driscoll) calling the shots on a casting call for a classical production of Three Sisters. She craves a more legitimate movie role that may allow her to keep her clothes on. She strongly believes being cast as Masha will assist the process and career goal. With her clout as a popular, arrogant, surgically-enhanced TV star, she demands the immediate casting of Lizabette (Aimee Janelle Nelson) and Casey (Robin Christ) over the objections of anyone in hearing distance.

The role of Lizabette is that of a sweet, close-to-brain-dead (exteriorly), wanna-be newbee actor who left third graders (as a teacher) to explore her dramatic inners on the stage. Nelson does fine work, nicely balancing naiveté with high-level perkiness.

Christ works successfully on her acting chops portraying a veteran actor of 200, non-paying, off-off Broadway productions. She finds the heart and the soul of Casey, allowing the audience to discover her middle-age humanity underneath piles of bitterness collected over the years through her service in the theatre.

But it’s Driscoll’s performance that held this non-stop whirlwind of woman-craziness together. She played Holly with such lovely directness, while managing to keep the ‘hard’ out of her portrayal. Her every move, gesture, and employment of the double-look was right on and damned near perfect. Driscoll has a voice that cries out ‘classic’ but she works it to play comedy with great ease and authority.

The audience was constantly fed at this theatrical smorgasbord with many non-stop minor roles including a lesbian producer, a male country singer, a gay costumer, a British director, a Slavic director, a theatre Board President, and even a Tobacco sponsor (See program for assignments).

Kelly Lapczynski does some standout work in many of her assigned roles, most especially, as the British director. Patricia Costa managed to pull off both the verbal and non-verbal antics of the creative personage of this backwoods Texas theatre as well as an aging Country/Western male singer. Cashae Monya, making her 6th and Penn debut, held her own as the Tobacco sponsor and other assignments. Rounding out the cast there’s Morgan Trant who played her role as a minor theatre critic from the audience, interrupting the actors by breaking down that fourth wall with questions that intentionally irritated both actors and audience alike.

In the end, after all the characters are pummeled, the value of the artist in an American culture is questioned and still left hanging out on the line for the audience to ponder. However you weigh the insightfulness of the playwright, the scales seem tipped to the actors in this production. They provided an evening of non-stop hilarity and made our funny bones ache in the process.

Anton in Show Business – 6th@Penn Theatre
Robert Hitchcox

Prolific playwright Jane Martin, who has written several plays about theatre, created this wonderful satire. Anton in Show Business is currently at 6th@Penn Theatre. The first question is just who is Jane Martin. She has never been seen. Could she be a pseudonym for the retired Actors Theatre of Louisville artistic director Jon Jory, where her plays are premiered? Nobody seems to know. What we do know is that she has written a host of popular plays over a 25–year period.

Anton in Show Business premiered in 2000. Artistic Director Kate (Patricia Elmore Costa) has commissioned popular TV star Holly (DeAnna Driscoll) to play one of the sisters in Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters. She hires Director Wikèwitch (Kelly Lapczynski) to direct and cast the rest of the show. He casts a tired off-off Broadway actress, Casey (Robin Christ) and, under duress, a Texan newbie, Lisabette (Aimee Janelle Nelson) as the other leads. All the casting was done in New York City for the Texas production.

A monologue by T-Anne (Cashae Monya) opens the production. Monya dominates 6th@Penn’s small space. I’m sure she could easily be heard a block away. She definitely got the audience in the mood for an extremely entertaining production. Anton in Show Business satirizes the trials and tribulations of a small independent off-off-off Broadway, off Manhattan Island, off New York State, off the East Coast theatre. It could easily be the story of most of the theatres in San Diego.

Financing and angels are crucial to keeping a small theatre in business. A recognizable actress or actor is a must. The selection of a play to bring prestige and audience to a theatre can be a make or break decision. A theatre is, like most artistic ventures, an institution with a myriad of sensitive egoistic people. The artistic director reminds all that she is a graduate of Yale and Harvard. The popular TV star who will do anything to advance her career, the off-off Broadway actress looking for a break-thru role, and a young, somewhat ditzy Texas blond overwhelmed by just about everything.

And it only gets better. The Angel is a tobacco industry big wig with his own agenda. Julia Hoover, Jamie Lloyd, and Selena Wood along with Costa, Lapczynski, and Monya, all play multiple roles. Lloyd also has the responsibility for the costumes which, along with excellent acting, easily establish each of the multiple characters.

Morgan Trant as Joby completes the cast, although never on stage, except for curtain call. She plays a disgruntled audience member complaining about everything, starting with comments about Lapczynski playing men’s roles, rather than hiring a man. Trant gave audiences a delightful voice.

Anton in Show Business, like The Royal Family and Noises Off, illustrates the problems, pains, joys, and general absurdities the make theatre so much fun and so bloody frustrating. Dale Morris’s direction of these ten lovely and talented actresses captures the essence of Martin’s satire. This is a theatre-goers must-see, for while it is a comedy, it speaks many truths.

Cast: Cashae Monya, Aimee Janelle Nelson, Robin Christ, DeAnna Driscoll, Patricia Elmore Costa, Kelly Lapczynski, Morgan Trant, Julia Hoover, Jamie Lloyd, Selena Wood

Technical Staff: Producer/Set Design Dale Morris, AD Faeren Adams, SM Cat McEvilly, Mural/Set Dressing Valentine Viannay, Light Design Mitchell Simkovski, Costume Design Jamie Lloyd, Window/Set Design Fran

Dates: Thursday thru Sunday, January 17 to March 2

Running Time: 119 minutes with a 15–minute intermission

6th@Penn Theatre 3704 6th Avenue San Diego, CA

Box Office Phone: 619 688-9210

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Anton at 6th @ Penn: A Theatrical Delight

by MARK GABRISH CONLAN

Copyright © 2008 by Mark Gabrish Conlan for Zenger’s Newsmagazine • All rights reserved

Anton in Show Business — that’s “Anton” as in “Chekhov,” by the way — at 6th @ Penn is a total delight, a great comedy that doesn’t break much new ground in its spoofing of the theatre business but manages an artful combination of the stereotypes and clichés that makes you laugh along the way until it builds to a surprisingly poignant ending. Premiered at the Actors Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky and credited to a mysterious author called “Jane Martin” — more on that later — Anton in Show Business tells the story of an ill-fated production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters at a theatre called “Actors Express” in San Antonio, Texas.

The three sisters themselves are played by an intriguing trio of actresses, two of whom are cast at an open audition in New York while the third provides the star power needed to get the show on in the first place. The star is Holly (DeAnna Driscoll), who’s trying to grow her career beyond the Sex and the City-style sitcom she’s on to establish herself as a Serious Actress so she can get film roles (maybe, she ruefully muses at one point, film roles that will actually let her keep her clothes on throughout). On a whim, she insists that two actors who are catching a hard time from an egomaniac British director (Kelly Lapczynski) be cast as her co-stars. One of these is Lizabette (Aimee Janelle Nelson), a Kristen Chenoweth-type Texas transplant who gave up a gig as a third-grade teacher to come to New York and try for stage stardom. The other is Casey (Robin Christ), a hard-bitten veteran performer and cancer survivor who’s all too aware that she’s been around so long the only role she can hope for is Olga, oldest and homeliest of the sisters.

The dramatis personae also include two more egomaniac directors, a Black militant named Andwyeth (Cashae Monya) who replaces the Brit and wants to throw out the Chekhov script and remodel the play as a racial melodrama; and Wikewich (also Kelly Lapczynski), a Polish émigré with a thick accent and an even thicker conception of the play which he isn’t sure his cast is able to “get.” There’s also a producer who has her own ego trip going — she takes up hours at rehearsal to discuss her own childhood — and Ben (Patricia Elmore Costa), a country-music star whom Holly is determined to seduce away from his wife and children just to prove she can. (In honor of this plot development, the first act ends with Hank Williams’ classic record “Your Cheatin’ Heart” played as the exit music.) Also in the mix is Don Blount (also Cashae Monya), the tobacco company executive who wrote the check to supply the financial backing for the production and who resents it when Casey goes on a tear about how his company is merchandising death — then begs him for another pack of cigarettes since she, a compulsive smoker, has run out.

Anton in Show Business is built around two gimmicks that add piquancy to its set of familiar “backstage” characters and situations. One is that it’s written for an all-female cast even though its characters are both men and women — and rather than being done subtly to make some sort of broader point about gender roles, the cross-gender casting is so obvious there isn’t even any attempt to make the women look credible as men when they’re playing them. The other is that Martin has answered all our possible objections to the play — that it’s too gimmicky, too stereotyped, too theatrical, too self-referential, too cut off from the world outside the theatre — in advance, by putting them in the mouth of Joby (Morgan Trant), a character who speaks from the audience and heckles the onstage characters at critical moments.

Yes, this play is self-referential; it not only is theatre, it’s about theatre and doesn’t pretend to be anything beyond what it is. It’s also aimed at an audience that truly cares about the theatre and its supposed decline. Nobody goes to a house like 6th @ Penn and watches plays in a space the size of a large living room if they don’t care about theatre itself on a level beyond their interest or attachment to any specific play. A company like 6th @ Penn finds its natural market niche among people who believe that, despite all the marvelous technological advances that have brought us movies, records, radio, TV and now the glorified home movies of Internet sites like YouTube, the best way to be entertained is still to have the people who are entertaining you right there before you “in fhe flesh,” as it were, breathing the same air you are and talking with nothing but the lung power God, nature or the gene pool gave them.

There’s a mystery surrounding the playwright of record, “Jane Martin,” by the way. Though she’s been writing plays since 1982, when the Louisville theatre premiered a series of her monologues under the title Talking With … , no one outside the theatre has ever seen, heard or spoken to her. She has never spoken in public or given an interview. No biographical details have ever been published and no photos of her are known to exist. She’s won prestigious awards and cash prizes for her work, but surrogates have always accepted the awards for her. One widely held belief is that “Martin” is actually Jon Jory, who was artistic director of the Actors Theatre in Louisville until he retired in 2000 after directing the world premiere of Anton (and whose father, Victor Jory, was a veteran actor in Hollywood whose best-known credits were as the overseer Jonas Wilkerson in Gone With the Wind and Helen Keller’s father in The Miracle Worker).

Jory has always denied it, saying, “Whoever writes these plays feels that they would be unable to write them if (their identity) was made public knowledge.” But after Anton premiered and showed an intimate working knowledge of small theatre and the perils of running one, some critics were more convinced than ever that “Martin” was either Jory writing solo or he and his wife, Marcia Dixey, in collaboration.

Nonetheless, whoever wrote Anton in Show Business can feel proud of how 6th @ Penn has staged it. The company’s artistic head, Dale Morris, has handled the direction personally and done a wonderful job maintaining the timing comedy needs to succeed. He’s also got some first-rate performances from his cast, especially Christ, who brings her hard-bitten, seen-it-all character to vivid life. Nelson as Lizabette is a bit too chipper for her own good — though at the end she sounds depths her previously (and deliberately) superficial performance haven’t led us to expect — and Driscoll has the charisma to convince us she’s the spoiled diva and the acting chops to make us feel sorry for her. Costa’s Ben, despite the on-purpose ludicrousness of her “masculine” get-up, also brings real pathos to the character.

The set, also designed by Morris, is simple but effective and is given scope by the marvelous murals by Valentine Viannay that hang on either side of the theatre, one representing New York and one representing Hollywood — with the San Antonio setting of the main action not only geographically but philosophically and ideologically “in between.” The technical team members keep their work unobtrusive throughout but Jamie Lloyd’s costumes and Mitchell Simkovski’s lights are simple, straightforward and sum up the characters. 6th @ Penn has picked a good script and done it justice, creating a production that everyone who loves theatre — especially small-scale independent theatre — should see.

Anton in Show Business runs through Sunday, March 2 at 6th @ Penn Theatre, 3704 Sixth Avenue in Hillcrest. Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. For tickets and other information, call (619) 688-9210 or visit www.sixthatpenn.com

PHOTO: Back row: Julia Hoover - Kelly Lapzcynski

Middle Row: Morgan Trant - Cashae Monya - Patricia Elmore Costa

Front Row: Robin Christ - DeAnna Driscoll - Aimee Janelle Nelson

Photo credit: Paul Savage, www.savages4hire.com

One way to spoof the downsizing trend in theater is to provide a minimalist set and actors playing multiple roles.

Another way is to aim satirical barbs at darned near everybody in or associated with the business - actors, directors, producers, critics, even audiences.

Jane Martin's Anton in Show Business does both. It plays through March 2 at 6th@Penn Theatre, directed by Dale Morris.

The plot has three actresses - TV star and headliner Holly (DeAnna Driscoll), the "queen of off-off Broadway" Casey (Robin Christ) and the blonde ingénue Lisabette (Aimee Janelle Nelson) - cast for a regional run of Chekhov's The Three Sisters in San Antonio. Along the way, they have to put up with myriad indignities including three insufferable directors - an impossibly snooty Brit, a black director who considers The Three Sisters another irrelevant play about white people (or is it another play about irrelevant white people?); and a Russian who calls himself Wikewitch.

The show is punctuated by inconvenient comments from Joby (Morgan Trant), a young woman in the audience, asking embarrassing questions and criticizing acting and directing trends.

"We used to get stories," she says. "Now we get 'interpretation.'
It's pernicious." Later she is exposed as (what else?) a critic.

Anton in Show Business is really a long in-joke about the theater biz and is thus better appreciated by those in the know. But the barbs fall on all equally, and Martin leaves us all thinking about the
following: self-involved actors, autocratic directors, complacent audiences, presumptuous critics, cynical corporation sponsors.

Martin's familiarity with the business and art of theater may be attributed to the widely held opinion that Jane Martin is really Jon Jory, former director of Louisville's Actors Theatre.

This script lends itself to extreme interpretation (there's that word again), and Morris does let his acting horses dash off unbridled, which tends to wear a bit. But I'll be darned if it isn't fun.

Anton in Show Business is a romp, good for an evening of giggles in the theater.

Anton in Show Business plays through March 2, 2008 at 6th@Penn Theatre. Shows Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.
for tickets call (619) 688-9210 or visit www.6atpenn.com.

Jean Lowerison
San Diego Gay and Lesbian Times
2/1/08 
 

It's an oxymoron in Jane Martin's serious comedy about the state, but hopefully not the future, of American theater. Three women, a rich TV star (Deanna Driscoll), an off-Broadway struggling artist (Robin Christ), and an ingénue-wannabe (Aimee Janelle Nelson) sign on for a production of Chekhov's Three Sisters in San Antonio. Throughout their process, from auditions to rehearsals, business keeps trumping, and squelching, art. In the end, like the Prozorov sisters stuck in rural Russia, the trio comes no closer to their dreams. Everything Jane Martin says about current theater is true: commercialism dominates, interpretations mediate texts, few roles for women. But the play is often more a vehicle for commentary, including an intrusive critic in the audience, than an involving story (which is Jane Martin's, aka John Jory's, ongoing complaint: in today's theater, concepts dominate, not stories). When they don't fuse with Chekhov's sisters, the characters are cardboard. It's a tribute to the 6th@Penn cast that they have some dimensions. At times shrill and heavy-handed (the night I was there the cast played big to a small audience), the production benefits from the three leads, especially Driscoll, who at times takes charge and creates humor out of nothing. The show's look is Our Town minimalism, within which Cashae Monya makes an impressive local debut in several roles.

Worth a try.

When: Sundays at 2 p.m. Thursdays at 8 p.m. Fridays at 8 p.m.

A Special Thanks to Michael Thomas Tower and his fine graphic work for the postcards and banner.

Official Photographer of 6th @ Penn Theatre