New Rigby Theater Co. gives Tucson teens creative space

It’s high school theater season, a great time to see what could be the future of theater in America if these young actors, directors and backstage kids have their way.

On the northwest side, Marana High School is mounting the musical “Honk” March 12-14.

Salpointe Catholic High School is putting on Judi Miller’s “Phantom of the Soap Opera,” a comic reimagining of “Phantom of the Opera,” Fridays-Sundays April 4-13.

And the southeast-side Empire High School is bringing the musical “The Lightning Thief” to the stage with four performances March 6-8.

Meanwhile at Tucson Mall’s Catalyst Creative Collective on Saturday, March 1, and Sunday, March 2, a handful of Tucson teens will bring to the stage “Bruisers,” the second production from Jacob Toole’s months-old Rigby Theater Company.

“Bruisers” is a song cycle created by local teens who were asked in an open invitation last December to write a song based on the “values or ideals they want to cling to from their youth as they move on from it,” said the company’s founder Toole.

Toole said the goal was to shed light on the “unique insights (young people) gained from their childhood” and see where they want those insights to take them in their lives.

“We each have our bruises, and we each carry on bruised, and we try to appreciate the good things surrounding us and the good things we’ve learned,” explained Toole, who launched Rigby Theater Co. last year to give young actors, playwrights and theater kids a chance to stretch their imaginations beyond their school theater programs.

“Bruisers” deals with “hysterically funny moments and people being so appreciative of the world around them and the privileges that they were given,” he explained of some of the 10 works that make up the theatrical song cycle. Some songs also deal with “people who have really struggled and are trying to sort of artistically share what they’ve gone through and how it strengthened them as people, which I’ve just found remarkable to work with.”

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Toole opened submissions from Dec. 1-Jan. 31 and selected 10 works by students as young as eighth grade through seniors in high school. Rigby Theater music director Ben Teller, a Salpointe classmate and Toole’s best friend, worked with the songwriters on arrangements.

Toole is credited with writing the book and lyrics for the title work; Teller wrote the music.

“Bruisers” is a follow-up to the nonprofit Rigby Theater’s inaugural production of “Young Playwrights Showcase” last October when they did staged readings of the student-written plays “Caroline Lane” and “Spiral.”

Toole, who got into theater in his freshman year at Salpointe, has acted with several local theater companies including Rogue Theatre, InnerVoice Studio and Arts Express Theatre. Toole said he is in the cast of Arts Express’s upcoming production of the musical “Kinky Boots” April 25-May 18.

He launched Rigby Theater Company, named after a family dog from his childhood, to give young people a creative space they could control. High school theater programs control what content students can present, which Toole said inhibits their creative and artistic growth.

“I think that the place where we really can grow as artists is work that is controversial and work that leaves us a little bit vulnerable,” he said. “Vulnerability is where we grow. So I created this space sort of to fulfill what I feel is that niche that hasn’t really been explored yet, at least here in Tucson.”

Rigby Theater Company highlights student-written works that “are not often given the stage that they really do deserve.”

“These writers are absolutely fantastic,” Toole said. “I think it’s been really lovely being able to work with those writers and being able to promote their work, provide scholarships for them, which has been great, and also just creating a space that is ours and solely ours as students.”

Performances at Catalyst Creative Collective, 4500 N. Oracle Road in the Tucson Mall, will be at 7 p.m. Saturday and 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $14 through rigbytheater.com.