Third time’s the charm. Billy Arthur and Daniel Abadie co-founded the musical theatre arm of Next Company Theatre , which is using its first production, Rocky Horror Show, as a fundraiser to help get the company off the ground. The cast has been rehearsing out of Bodhi Yoga on Scott Street. Daniel Abadie and Billy Arthur are determined to get their new theatre company off the ground.
Late last year, the two founded A&A Theatre with a mandate to stage musicals.
At around the same time, another company launched, Next Company Theatre, founded by David Fancy and Bryan White.
The two companies were at the Courthouse Theatre last fall, when the Downtown Alliance for the Performing Arts, which they both belong to, announced its 2010/11 season. Next has as its mandate creating new works and what is called documentary theatre, depicting Niagara’s people, creatures and places.
Abadie, artistic director for A&A Theatre, said all four of them realized soon it might be better for the two companies to join forces.
“We really clicked and started collaborating,” he said. “We decided it was kind of stupid to have two new companies.”
And so, A&A merged with Next Company Theatre, becoming its musical division, with Abadie as artistic director of that side and Fancy the artistic director of the other.
This season’s launch represents the third attempt by Abadie and Arthur at launching a company, an effort which dates back some seven years. Abadie said the first attempts failed for financial reasons, as they were unable to build up the funds to keep it sustainable.
So they’re trying something different this time around.
Working with a cast and crew who are volunteering their time, they are mounting a production of Richard O’Brien’s camp classic Rocky Horror Show, using it as a fundraiser. Abadie said many of the people involved have done the show together in the past, so they’re familiar with it and each other.
Apart from being familiar, the show is cheap to produce, Abadie said.
“It’s more of a campy show where you don’t need expensive costumes,” he said.
The rest of the season is as follows:
• That Woman: a sex play, by David Fancy. Courthouse Theatre from April 13-16.
• William Finn’s March of the Falsettos (a musical). Courthouse Theatre from June 23-26.
Rocky Horror Show runs at downtown’s Courthouse Theatre from Feb. 10-12, with performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and “midnight” showings Friday and Satuday starting at 11:30 p.m.
Tickets are $28 for seniors and students and $30 for general admission, with $50 dinner-theatre packages available for The Office.
For more information, call Brock’s Centre for the Arts at 1-866-617-3257.
