An all star female cast might scare off some people, but Dana Giampiccolo, the director of “Anton in Show Business” and theater pedagogy graduate student, said her experience was anything but.
“Honestly, it’s very sisterly. There’s been no b**** fights, no diva trips. Everybody works together and they’re all supportive of one another,” Giampiccolo said. “It’s a casting thing, a little bit, but if one person had come in there with the wrong attitude it would have been totally different.”
“Anton in Show Business,” a collaboration between The Women’s Project and Shafer Street Alliance Laboratory Theatre, was chosen by Giampiccolo.
She said she was drawn to the play because it satirized “Three Sisters,” a classic play by Anton Chekhov, and even though the plot deals with actors trying to pursue theater at the turn of the century, a larger audience can identify with it.
“It’s fast paced and fun while also having a message, which I like,” Giampiccolo said. “It doesn’t depress your audience.”
Because the plot revolves around women in theater, it relates to The Women’s Project mission, said Elizabeth Popp, who plays Kate, Jackey and Ben. The Women’s Project was revived in 2008 after Popp noticed it was a student organization that fell by the wayside.
Its mission, she said, is to support women’s roles in theater and in theater production, because most of the lead roles and directing opportunities go to men.
Popp said, the biggest challenge she faced was playing these characters without overly-stereotyping them.
“It’s taking elements of a stereotype and making sure to not overdo them,” Popp said. “It’s not just a stereotype but a real person behind that.”
Assistant Director Walid Chaya said one of the cast’s accomplishments was growing into their characters and making them seem natural.
“I think if the show was poorly done, a lot of the characters would come off as stereotypes,” Chaya said. “(Dana) wants to make sure the cast sympathizes and understands the characters.”
Chaya also said he was honored to be a male who was part of “Anton in Show Business.”
“I kind of forgot that it’s an all girl cast after the first or second week. It doesn’t phase you,” Anton said. “I ignore the whole fa