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!

2012-11-09 00:00:00.0

Written by August Wilson and directed by August Wilson,Scenic design by John Grimsley, lighting design by Donna King, and costumes by Wanda (Ms. B) Bryant.

The Anthony Bean Community Theater is proud to be closing its' 2012 season with this production by the great American playwright August Wilson. Seven Guitars is filled with the funny, sweet, mythic qualities of Wilson's best work. And the director, Anthony Bean is so pleased to direct a stellar cast in this epic story of love and yearning. The Anthony Bean Community Theater is proud to be closing its' 2012 season with this production by the great American playwright August Wilson. Seven Guitars is filled with the funny, sweet, mythic qualities of Wilson's best work. And the director, Anthony Bean is so pleased to direct a stellar cast in this epic story of love and yearning. Starring veteran actors Gwendolyne Foxworth, Will Williams and Roscoe Reddix. August Wilson is best known for his History or Pittsburgh Cycle, a series of 10 plays with one play set in each decade of the 20th century. This cycle, comprised of a play for each decade of the 20th century, has garnered numerous prestigious awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes of five nominations and nine Tony Award nominations for Best New Play. Seven Guitars was the 6th play of this cycle produced on Broadway. This will be Anthony Bean Community Theater ninth production of a play by August Wilson, a poet-turned-playwright born and raised in Pittsburgh who literally changed the face of American theatre. As the most produced playwright in the 1990s, his prominence gave rise to many African American stage actors. This play is a celebration of the community, but also explores the struggles of individuals in their search for the American dream. At the core of the play is a way money serves as a tragic weapon against the souls of these characters. The lack of it, the want of it, and the treatment of others based on it. Seven Guitars speaks in a spirited, sexy, poetic way about how money and related concepts of success and happiness shape the identity of the characters and in turn our American identity. Seven Guitars won a New York Drama Critics Circle Award and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award, and Drama Desk Award.

Seven Guitars is set in May of 1948 in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Penn., where Wilson was born and raised, and all of the action takes place in the backyard of a house shared by several of the characters in the play. The play centers around Floyd Barton, a blues guitar player on the threshold of success. Influenced by the narrative structure of a short story by Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges, Wilson crafts this story as a memory play and we begin after Floyd's funeral and then flashback to events leading to his death. Throughout the play, characters battle with questions of ambition, love, death, heritage, faith, and individual as well as cultural legacies as all of them struggle to achieve their dreams and find their place in the world.

Starring veteran actors Gwendolyne Foxworth, Will Williams and Roscoe Reddix. The cast also includes veteran actors of the ABCT stage- Al Aubry, Coti Gayles, Giselle Nakhid and newcomer Sean Beard.

Starring