Anton in Show Business, a satire about theater and the people in it, will be at the Forum Theater Tuesday through Saturday.
This week, the Division of Theater is putting on Anton in Show Business, a play that is a satire about the making of a play.
“It’s both a love letter and poison-pen letter to the American theater,” said Dennis Delaney, head of the professional director training program and director of the play. “There are very funny things about actors, directors, critics. …There are a lot of wacky characters and parodies.”
Set during a production of an Anton Chekhov play in Texas, Anton in Show Business looks at several archetypes in theater, focusing on three very different actresses who cover the spectrum of stereotypes.
The play will be in the Forum Theater in the Radio-Television Building, Tuesday through Saturday.
Though the play is a satire about theater, Delaney and actress Rachel Mock said those not involved in theater can still relate to its message. It’s not an in-crowd mentality, Delaney said.
“It’s about people dealing with everyday struggles of doing what they want to do,” said Mock, a third-year graduate actor who plays Casey, an actress who has done many Off Broadway productions. “You deal with funding cuts, people critiquing you. It just happens to be couched inside a play within a play.”
This is the second time Mock has been in the play, and she added that though the play pokes fun at stereotypes, the cast has strived to find the truth in the characters and situations and not just fall into the easy traps of being a hokey comedy.
Kelli Wanamaker, a junior studying theater performance who plays Lisabette, said she enjoys the play because while it pokes fun at theater, it also discusses the importance of doing theater.
“In theater, there’s this wonderful sense of community and intimacy between people, which is even harder to do nowadays,” Wanamaker said. “Sometimes you need a medium like theater to drive home these messages.”
Delaney said the show has been on his radar for a while and he wanted to do it because of the opportunities it presented with an all-female cast. In the play, eight actresses play 15 roles, some of which are men.
Delaney said he added something at the end of the play to drive home the issue of how women must contend with men in power, adding the play also heavily tackles the issue of gender.
Meanwhile, the actresses are just having fun getting to be in a rehearsal space full of women. Mock said it’s like a slumber party all the time.
Anton in Show Business is a style project, which is part of the MFA directors curriculum that requires surrealistic and imaginative aspects in plays. Style projects are smaller productions so seating is always limited. For this show, Delaney said he followed an alley configuration, in which two platforms were built on the Forum Theater stage, creating a very intimate actor-audience interaction.
“It’s one thing when sitting in the regular seats, but there are literally moments when you’re a foot and a half away from the actors,” Delaney said. “It makes for a very different experience.”
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