Patience and perseverance are paying off for Augusta’s “Off-Broad Street” theater, as it has scheduled its first mainstage production since 2020. In May, Le Chat Noir plans to put on a production of “The Play That Goes Wrong” by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields.
“We went ahead and bumped it up to the end spot of the season,” said house manager Krys Bailey. “The season we didn’t have.”
Many businesses have endured profound disruptions over the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The case was no different for performance venues, like downtown Augusta’s Le Chat Noir.
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“I watched all of our fellows book plays, announce plays and then they canceled them,” said Bailey about how the pandemic effected the performance arts community. “They postponed and canceled them, postponed and cancelled, before everybody got COVID for Christmas.”
Le Chat Noir has been producing and staging plays and hosting events since 2006. Each year, usually beginning in the fall, eager theatre goers could look forward to a full season of melodramas, musicals and comedies, alongside monthly performance events of Schrodinger’s Cat, Le Chat Noir’s comedy improv troupe.
The 2019-2020 theatrical season was abruptly halted in March 2020. Renowned stand-up comedian Mark Normand had come to perform a show, with a full audience, on Wednesday night, March 11, 2020. By that Thursday, Le Chat Noir was closed.
“They were already starting to make those announcements,” said Bailey. “No gatherings of 50 or more. Then they started whittling that number down as we got closer to the weekend.”
Months later, establishments began slowly opening back up. Le Chat Noir cautiously opened its doors in July, but misgivings about COVID held sway over resuming play productions.
“With a play, it’s all hands on deck. Everybody’s got to be there,” said Bailey. “I’ve been really apprehensive about plays, because maintaining the cast rehearsal process would be a lot more of a challenge,” said Bailey, referring to the possibility of several cast members becoming ill at once.
In that interim, the theater’s production schedule consisted of Schrodinger’s Cat shows. Improvisational performers don’t have to memorize a script and can cover for each other easily. Bailey notes that two different groups of improv performers would be regularly rehearsing, and if someone was sick, or had to quarantine, other members of the troupe would be willing to pick up the slack.
“They were flexible and very responsible,” said Bailey.
The venue has also hosted whiskey-tasting events, rented the space out for the producers of the upcoming Mel Gibson film “Agent Game” and has begun hosting other stand-up comedy events. Saturday, Le Chat hosted a comedy business workshop taught by Billy Anderson, a stand-up comic originally from Augusta recording a comedy album there over the weekend.
Bailey also credited the CSRA Community Foundation for contributing funds to help keep the theater open with a general operating support grant, despite usually offering grants for projects.
“They said, ‘We understand it’s COVID, and nobody can really do a new project, so all the grants are going to be general operating support,’” said Bailey. “Meaning you just pay the bills. They kept us afloat.”
Le Chat Noir is located at 304 Eighth St. in downtown Augusta. For updates and information, visit its website at www.lcnaugusta.com.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business and community news with The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
