ANTON IN SHOW BUSINESS Up Next At Contra Costa Civic Theatre

Contra Costa Civic Theatre continues its live, in-person Main Stage season with an uproarious look at the state of the American theatre, Jane Martin's Anton in Show Business. Directed by CCCT's Executive Artistic Director Marilyn Langbehn and featuring an all-female cast playing multiple roles (including men), Anton in Show Business plays for 9 performances from March 4-20.

You don't need to know the works of Anton Chekhov, or theatre for that matter, to revel in this madcap comedy. A self-centered television actress, a jaded New Yorker, and an enthusiastic ingénue are brought together for an ill-fated production of The Three Sisters at a small but ambitious theatre in San Antonio, Texas. In the tradition of great backstage comedies, hopes are raised, egos are punctured, and dreams almost come true.

Anton in Show Business was a smash hit in its debut at the 24th Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actors' Theatre of Louisville and is the winner of the 2000 American Theatre Critics/Steinberg New Play Award. Variety calls it "simultaneously a love letter and a poison pen letter to the American theatre." It manages to skewer practically every category of theater person-incompetent producers, idiot directors, surgically beautified actors, crass sponsors, and self-important critics.

"Only someone who loves theatre with all their being could have written such a spot-on portrait of what it's like to be an American theatre artist," says director Marilyn Langbehn. "Even though the real identity of playwright Jane Martin is still unclear, whoever she is, she has given us the gift of a marvelously funny, truly poignant work, one that feels as fresh as when it was written more than 20 years ago."

Pseudonymous playwright Jane Martin, a Kentuckian, first came to national attention for Talking With, a collection of monologues premiering in Actors Theatre of Louisville's 1982 Humana Festival of New American Plays. Since its New York premiere at Manhattan Theatre Club in 1982, Talking With has been performed around the world, winning the Best Foreign Play of the Year Award in Germany from Theatre Heute magazine. Her other work includes Vital Signs, Cementville, Keely And Du (Pulitzer Prize nominee; 1994 American Theatre Critics Association Best New Play Award), Jack And Jill (1997 American Theatre Critics Association Best New Play Award), Anton In Show Business (2001 American Theatre Critics/Steinberg Principal Citation), Mr. Bundy, and Flaming Guns Of The Purple Sage. Good Boys premiered at Guthrie Theater in 2002. Flags was co-produced by Guthrie Theater and Mixed Blood in 2004, and her most recent work, Sez She, premiered at Illusion Theatre in April 2006.

Marilyn Langbehn (she/her)(director) is in her ninth season at CCCT. Productions for the company include Broadway Inside Out, Bright Star, All the Way, Ragtime, All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914, Cabaret, The Sound of Music, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)[revised], the world premiere of The Lost Years, and The Mountaintop, both of which began their lives at CCCT as part of the Reading Stage series. Her widely-acclaimed production of August: Osage County received Best Production and Best Director nods at the inaugural TBA Awards in 2014. She founded the Theatre's Reading Stage series in 2015 to showcase the work of women playwrights and playwrights of color. To date, the series has produced more than 20 works, including plays by Katori Hall, Theresa Rebeck, Cynthia Wands, Kimber Lee, Leah Nanako Winkler, Jiréh Breon Holder, and Inda Craig-Galván, and the world premiere of Langbehn's play, Running For My Life, about the January 6th insurrection.

The cast includes both veterans and newcomers to CCCT's stage: Trish Tillman (she/her) as Casey/Olga, Emma Attwood (she/her) as Holly/Masha, Alix Josefski (she/her) as Lisabette/Irina, Lena Sibony (she/her) as T-Anne, Dana Lewenthal (she/her) as Kate/Jackey/Ben, Scarlett Hepworth (she/her) as Ralph/Wikewitch/Joe Bob, Veneita Porter (she/her) as Andwyneth Wyore/Don Blount, and Dorothy Gray (she/her) as Joby. Ms. Attwood, Ms. Josefski, Ms. Sibony, Ms. Lewenthal, and Ms. Porter are all making their CCCT debut with this production.

The creative team includes Devon LaBelle (she/her), scenic and props designer, lighting designer; Madeline Berger (she/her), costume designer; and Daniel "Techno" DeBono(he/they), sound designer.

Tickets for Anton in Show Business are $35 for adults and $15 for youth up to age 16 and are available online at www.ccct.org. All performances take place in-person at the theatre, 951 Pomona Ave (cross street Moeser) in El Cerrito. Free parking is available in the adjoining lot and on the street.

COVID protocols: Masks and proof of vaccination and booster are required for everyone attending or working on in-person performances at CCCT. Detailed information on the theatre's COVID protocols is available on the theatre's website at www.ccct.org/safety and will be updated as necessary.

Celebrating its 62nd season in 2021-22, Contra Costa Civic Theatre (CCCT) embraces the idea that theatre is a vital part of a healthy community and serves its citizens best when it provides a welcoming home for all people who value the power of storytelling. Established in 1959 by Louis and Bettianne Flynn and a group of dedicated volunteers and under the artistic direction of Marilyn Langbehn for the past nine years, CCCT is proud to provide entertainment and education to the El Cerrito and East Bay communities that help it to thrive.

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