There have been movies about plays. There have been plays about plays. Almost every single one of those was a comedy showing the craziness that results during the production of a play.

“Anton in Show Business,” the first play of the Sacramento State theater season, is no different.

The play satirizes the world of theater with such characters as Casey, an off-Broadway thespian who has performed in numerous productions for which she’s never been paid; and Holly, a TV star new to the stage seeking to gain credibility that she hopes will translate into lucrative film deals.

Director Nick Avdienko, a Sac State graduate student, speaks to things he really believes in while poking fun at the world of theater. One Sac State student, upset with the play’s vulgarity, walked out during the production.”It was too vulgar to get its point across,” said Rachel Ballistry, a freshman pre-nursing major. “It assaulted my senses.”

San Antonio, Texas, is the stage upon which the fun begins. Casey and Holly meet Lisabette, a drama major from the area who has spent the last three years teaching elementary school as they prepare for a production of Anton Chekhov’s classic “Three Sisters.”

Troubles abound for the three women as a string of odd directors, an unscrupulous corporate grant-maker, an overwrought producer and an annoying critic with a habit for interruptions become headaches that seem to not go away.

All the roles in this play, even those that may seem more suited to men, are given to women. A cast of seven women play 14 different roles in the Sac State production. As Jane Martin, the author of the play, told “The City Beat,” the lack of male actors in her play was an effort to rectify a scarcity of roles for women.

Undertones in the play seem to parallel the undertones in the play-within-the-play, Chekhov’s “Three Sisters.” The desperation of the three main characters is mirrored in their production.

Avdienko picked this particular play because it dealt with why people do theater, he said.

This can be seen in the final monologue by Lisabette, where she expresses the hope that something magical always might happen in the theater.

“What d’ya think? (It) could happen. Maybe. Maybe not,” she says. “Well, you came tonight anyway.”

The feeling portrayed is one of the optimism that many people approach life with, a feeling often mixed with feelings of not quite believing that success is possible. They are feelings that convey what Avdienko describes as “the madness that we face” in theater.

“We’re insane, but this is what we have to do,” he said.

The play will run from Oct. 19 to Oct. 23. Tickets are $15 for general admission and $12 for Sac State students and staff. The Wednesday, Oct. 19 showing offers a run of the play at 6:30 p.m. with discounted ticket prices. The tickets for that showing are $8 general and $5 for students and staff.

Jenna Hughes can be reached at [email protected]