Welcome! This year the Anthony Bean Community Theater and Acting School celebrates15 years of excellence in the performing arts.

The Anthony Bean Community Theater (ABCT) was established in Spring 2000 to meet the growing demands of New Orleans area residents seeking a quality, culturally diverse, performing arts venue. The theater also met the needs of individuals seeking to learn the art of acting, set design and theatre management. In recent years, ABCT has become a vehicle to enter New Orleans' booming "Hollywood South" film industry.

ABCT is unique in that it is not only a major theater production company, but a year-round, open enrollment acting school serving both adults and children with an eclectic group of courses designed to meet the basic needs of individuals seeking careers in stage and screen acting, set design and theatre management.  

ABCT believes that the arts have the power to transform people's lives. Our Mission is simple: "to inspire those we serve through the magic of the arts."  The Hallmark of ABCT and that which separates us from "all the rest" is - diversity.  ABCT proudly presents the most diverse theater schedule in the New Orleans area.  Our programing fare includes, the classics; Shakespeare, August Wilson and Tennessee Williams as well as popular drama (Reflections and Misery), comedy (Jar the Floor, Steal Away), and musicals (The Color Purple, Simply Irma and The Phyllis Hyman Story). Most importantly, ABCT mounts original plays such as I'd Rather Be Rich and Say Amen, and showcases our talented kids in perennial favorites: Cats, The Wiz, High School Musical and 504.  

The goal of the ABCT Acting School is to provide an intense, high quality learning and performing opportunity in an atmosphere where young people are encouraged to set goals, take risks and view mistakes as an avenue for learning. ABCT opens students up to the greatness that lies within them and creates an awareness that the Arts are a constructive vehicle of personal expression.

Anthony Bean Community Theater boasts a full professional portfolio including video DVD Productions and an ABCT clothing line. In addition to children and adult acting classes, ABCT offers a youth theater, an after-school program, and the Anthony Bean Community Theater City Choir.  During the summer months, working in conjunction with the New Orleans Recreation Department Commission - ABCT also operates a summer day camp.

We at ABCT wish to express our sincere gratitude for your ongoing support over the past 15 years and we urge you to purchase your PASS for the upcoming season. Thank you for your ongoing support. We look forward to seeing you at our next production.

Come and celebrate our Anniversary and you will agree.

"ABCT IS MORE THAN THEATER

IT'S CULTURE!"

Back ABCT! Be a part of the Anthony Bean Community Theater and Acting School! ABCT is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and all contributions are tax deductible. Donate today and keep the arts alive and exciting in our community!

2011-09-09 00:00:00.0

Written by August Wilson, Directed by Anthony Bean and starring some of New Orleans finest talents. Will Williams, Harold X. Evans and Donald Lewis.

New Orleans. LA. August 28, 2011…The Anthony Bean Community Theater presents Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson’s acclaimed first play, Jitney, is the 1970’s installment of his renowned cycle of 10 plays depicting African-American life in the 20th Century. Jitney tells the stories of the men working in a Pittsburgh taxi station where tensions run high as the city threatens to shut down the company.

Jitney, a drama that includes the natural comedy of real life, takes place in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the setting of Mr. Wilson’s cycle of plays on the Black American experience in the 20th century. The action happens in the late 1970s in a worn-down “gypsy cab” station where men hustle to make a living as unofficial, unlicensed taxi drivers. The ongoing, underlying tension comes from two principal sources: the threat that the makeshift taxi company may be shut down by the city and the explosive relationship between Becker (Will Williams), who runs the cab company, and his son, Booster (Sam Malone), who has just returned from serving a 20-year prison sentence. The talk among the characters forms a rich urban symphony that swirls around the cab company. One’s personal business is always on public parade, as the men kibbitz, criticize and retell local dramas revolving around two seemingly eternal themes of economic anxiety and the armed truce between men and women.

The cast also consists of veterans who make up a who's who in this stellar ensemble. Will Williams plays Becker. Harold X. Evans plays Doub, Donald Lewis, Jr. portrays Fielding, Al Aubry portrays Turbo, Steven Burke portrays Shealy, Sam Malone portrays Booster, Desmond Ables portrays Philmore and Codi Gayles as Rena.

Starring
Will Williams