NEW PALTZ —
"In college plays, community stuff, arty nowheres-ville professional gigs like this, there is probably something called ethics, but up where the eagles fly and the wolves run, up where the American presidents screw the actresses, there is only power. The ethics thing is a little foggy. Power, on the other hand is clear, it’s clear, it’s understood. For a very short time, Lisabette, here in wherever-it-is, Texas, you will fly with an eagle." – Holly, Anton in Show Business
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 will be presented by the SUNY New Paltz Department of Theatre Arts, November 11-21 at Parker Theatre.
An all-female cast of seven performs multiple roles (including men) in a play that focuses on three women who are cast in a production of Anton Chekhov’s The Three Sisters in San Antonio, Texas. These include Casey, a jaded New York actress with 200 non-salaried roles on Off-Off Broadway under her belt, Lisabette, an enthusiastic Texas youngster ready to trade in a third grade teaching job for a fling in the theatre, and Holly, a sexy, successful TV actress who has been convinced by her agent that doing a classic stage play (where no one will see it) is her ticket to major movie roles.
Anton skewers incompetent producers, surgically beautified actors, crass sponsors, self-important critics, and even such sacred topics as multiculturalism. It concurrently satirizes, celebrates, and challenges the importance of theatre as an art form today.
Although Jane Martin has been the most produced playwright of the Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival of New American Plays, she has never made a public appearance, not even to receive awards from the American Theatre Critics Association for Anton in Show Business, Talking With, Jack and Jill, and Keely and Du. Nor has she made herself available for comment. For more than 20 years, Actors Theatre of Louisville has kept the playwright’s identity secret. Many critics speculate that the secretive Martin is actually Jon Jory, ATL producing director from 1969 to 2000. Others, who note that Martin explores issues of interest to women and creates series of monologues by female characters, propose that Martin is a pseudonym for Jory writing in collaboration with his wife, Marcia Dixcy Jory. The Jorys do not comment on the matter.
Anton in Show Business is directed by Anita Gonzales. It is presented November 11 – 21, 2004 with performances on Thursday through Saturday at 8pm, and Sunday at 2pm. Parker Theatre is wheelchair accessible and equipped with an assisted listening system for the hearing impaired.
Tickets are $16 adults, $14 seniors and students. They are available be by phone at (845) 257-3880 and online at www.newpaltz.edu/theatre.
Tickets and may be also purchased in person at Parker Box Office, located in Parker Theatre beginning November 1. Box Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to each performance.
The web address for this images that accompany this release is http://www.newpaltz.edu/news/images/anton2-72-10-04.html
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The State University of New York at New Paltz is a highly selective college of 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students located in the Mid-Hudson Valley between New York City and Albany. New Paltz is ranked 10th among the best public universities and 50th among public and private universities in the North that offer bachelor’s and master’s degree programs, according to the U.S. News & World Report’s rankings for America’s Best Colleges 2005.
Degrees are offered in the liberal arts and sciences, which serve as a core for professional programs in the fine and performing arts, education, healthcare, business and engineering.
