Business partners Young and VanDerKarr are the creative minds behind Café 21 Theatre. They have five productions planned this year in its second season at Franca’s Real Italian Restaurant. Their goal is to be able to open their own cabaret style space in three or four years.

"I can see our future theatre space: A New York Cabaret style space for the Houston Clear Lake Bay Area, a luncheonette, piano bar area next to a black box space with stage and small tables” Lanier says.

Franca's Real Italian Restaurant is the perfect venue to work out the startup of Café 21 Theatre. "We build an audience here at Franca's before moving into our own space where we would bring cabaret style performers and theatre and continue to produce dinner theatre comedies at Franca's; a win-win situation for us and for Franca." He says.

In 2003, Young and VanDerKarr collaborated on a successful fund-raising dinner theatre show and he approached her with his idea. The result was Café 21 Theatre. The first production at Franca’s last June brought in decent crowds to the restaurant’s 50 seat banquet room and gave Young and VanDerKarr the impetus to plan a more ambitious season this year.

Young says there are no major obstacles in presenting a dinner theatre-style production, although he uses a minimalist approach to set design and lighting. The challenge comes for the actors.

As for avoiding the dreaded tinkling coffee-spoon distractions, Young and VanDerKarr have worked out the dinner presentation with the restaurant so that the dessert and coffee are not served until the play’s intermission.

“This is not Mystery Dinner Theatre” says Young. “We present classic, popular and new comedy play productions in a theatre setting.”