After 4 decades, New Candlelight Theatre's flame still burns strong

Delaware’s first dinner theater has reached middle age.

The New Candlelight Theater was born in a converted Ardentown barn 40 years ago and, despite its modest beginnings, has stayed afloat through the rough and choppy world of live theater.

When Wilmington High School friends Julian Borris and John O’Toole founded Candlelight in the run-down barn that once housed the summer stock Robin Hood Theater, neither realized exactly what they were getting themselves into, O’Toole recalled.

“Twenty-four-seven – we were doing it before they ever coined the expression. It was a labor of love,” he said.

With little to no capital, they ripped out seats and replaced them with used tables and chairs, then built a lobby and installed air conditioning and heating as revenue rolled in, he said.

The community quickly embraced the little dinner theater, O’Toole said, and Candlelight began producing five shows each year.

That’s not to say it was easy to make money, recalled O’Toole’s wife, Lena.

The theater struggled in the 1980s. With the beach resort boom starting, Candlelight watched its audience flee Arden for Rehoboth, she said. In those years, the theatre dropped its caterer to cook its own dinners, and the theater endured by pinching pennies.

The O’Toole’s retired in 2000, and Candlelight changed hands, and was eventually purchased by Bob and Jody Miller in 2003.

It was a homecoming for Bob Miller, who had his onstage start at Candlelight at age 15.
His goal was to increase the professionalism at Candlelight so he shifted the theater’s focus from community to equity, which allows it to bring in professional actors.

But the biggest challenge today remains a simple numbers game – it doesn’t have enough seats to make a profit, he said.

“As a producer, the ugly side of the business is keeping the doors open,” he said.
Candlelight went nonprofit in 2006, which allows the organization to apply for grants that supplement ticket sales, Miller said.

The theater is still evolving to expand its audience base, said Artistic Director Chris Alberts. They will put on six shows next year instead of five, he said, and hope to sell more tickets earlier in the runs to offset some costs.

The pace at Candlelight has always been frantic, he said, but next year they will open a show on Saturday and begin auditioning for the next on the following Monday. That break-neck pace keeps everyone on their toes, he said.

The fact that the theater is still reinventing itself is a testament to its longevity, Alberts said.

“There’s something about live theater you can’t get from movies,” he said. “It is for the moment. Anything can and does happen on any given night.”