Theater: New Utah company launches a production of 'Best Little Whorehouse'

Park City » Founders of the new Dark Horse Company Theatre aren't expecting to run to the bank with bags of money after producing "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," which plays through Sunday at the Egyptian Theatre. Tickets, after all, are just $13 ($10 plus service fees), for a show with a cast of 27 and a five-member live band.

But founders hope the show will help spread the word about the new company, launched in April by two couples who wanted to create jobs for actors in a tough economy.

"We'll be lucky to break even," said Daniel Simons, who founded Dark Horse with his wife, actor and musician Ginger Bess, and Jon Copier and Ali Bennett. "But as far as the expense of a new theater [company], that's what we could afford. Any money that we can potentially make and our ability to stay open is going to [depend] mostly on donations from people."

The youthful theater producers -- at 35, Daniel Simons is the oldest of the quartet -- hope to create a community of theater artists who will branch out into music, production and art work. "I have 15 to 20 years of experience, but still stupid enough to want to do it, I guess," he joked.

Dark Horse hopes to produce off-Broadway musicals that might feature edgier content than, say, another production of Utah's beloved "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." To mount the production, the new company has relied on lots of volunteer labor.

They're proud that every performer will receive some pay, a 1/3 split of the box-office take. Producers hope to eventually be able to afford professional Equity actors and to find space to produce shows in Salt Lake City, and possibly tour to other cities in the state.

Theater company founders jumped in to produce the show, with Simons directing "Whorehouse," while his wife directed the music before leaving town to take on a role with Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Copier is in charge of the set and technical direction.

Randy Barton, manager of the Egyptian Theatre company, said the staff was happy when Dark Horse approached them about renting the Main Street theater because of pre-existing relationships with the founders. "Theater is still a tough equation," Barton said, newly hired after the theater restructured its staff and severed its professional contract with the actors' union due to funding issues. "For both of us, it's a real labor of love to keep theater the main emphasis of the stage."

"We needed the space," Simons said. "They needed a show. So it was a nice marriage right away for us. Whether you're making money or not, people need to have something to turn to. Our intention is to breathe new life into a stale scene. Nobody expects the dark horse to come up from behind and win the race. It's not a theater term -- but that's where our name comes from."