This Black Cat could prove lucky as addition to Augusta theater scene

Soon, there will be a new cat prowling Augusta's entertainment scene.

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Le Chat Noir (The Black Cat), an intimate black box theater at the site of the old Capri Cinema at Seventh and Ellis Street, is scheduled to open June 2. Partners Doug Joiner, Richard Justice, Krys Bailey and Justin and Carrie Anderson are familiar in Augusta theatrical circles, each having worked with many local performing companies. They said Le Chat Noir is not a competition for established groups but an opportunity to fill a niche.

"This is not being offered," Mr. Justice said. "There's great theater at Fort Gordon (Dinner Theatre), great theater with the (Augusta) Players, really good stuff going on in Columbia County - but none of it is this. This is an alternative."

The theatrical space will seat 100 to 125 people. The storefront next door will serve as the lobby.

Mrs. Anderson said the goal is to make Le Chat Noir an off-Broadway-type theater off Broad.

"I think, working together, that's what this can become," she said. "When we started talking about this, we had all these great ideas for shows, for cabaret nights, for foreign films. Stuff you really need a smaller venue for."

The team believes that integral to Le Chat's success will be the varied interests and sensibilities each member brings to the project.

Mr. Joiner, for instance, admits to having a darker sensibility than Mrs. Anderson, who would like eventually to produce some small-scale musicals.

"That's one of the reasons we decided to do this," Mr. Anderson said. "We can do Doug's darker stuff or Richard's dramatic stuff and we don't have to rely on selling 2,000 seats in a single weekend. This is a theater that can support itself through exciting and edgy shows."

Mr. Anderson estimates that remodeling the space will take about a month and the first show, a production of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Wit, should be ready to run by early June. Mr. Joiner said Wit, an often dark comic drama about a woman's battle with cancer, is challenging for actors and audiences and is just the sort of thing Augusta should expect from the new venue.

"It really incorporates every element of what we're trying to do."

Reach Steven Uhles at (706) 823-3626 or steven.uhles@augustachronicle.com.