Valley Rep Director Creates Place To Play

Thursday was Alice Quinn’s wedding anniversary, but the Valley resident didn’t spend it at some nice restaurant sipping wine with her husband Jerry.

“No, I’ve got a rehearsal,” Quinn said. “It’s only two weeks until the opening. Maybe we’ll do something over the weekend.”

Such is life for the founder and executive director of the Valley Repertory Theatre, who is frantically working to get her actors and theater in shape before the 1995-96 season kicks off Sept. 22.

Running the volunteer drama group and maintaining its theater - a crumbling but cozy red brick building on the southwest corner of Pines and Sprague - is nearly a fulltime job for Quinn.

“I haven’t had a vacation in four years, or is it five?” said Quinn as she sat in a prop chair in the dimly-lit auditorium on her 32nd anniversary, talking theater with a visitor.

It’s probably five.

Since founding Valley Rep five seasons ago, the 50ish New York native has spent most of her time acting, directing or building sets for the group’s productions.

“I’ve done just about everything - everything you can think of,” she said.

If not for a decision to follow her husband west, she might be doing those things on Broadway instead of in the Valley.

Quinn graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City and was starting to make a name for herself in the East Coast theater community in the late 1960s.

But 25 years ago her family moved to Spokane, and that was that.

“I had a lot of opportunities back east,” she said. “However, I opted for family.”

Quinn dove into the local theater scene immediately upon arrival and has been hip-deep ever since, participating in the Spokane Civic Theater productions and traveling with a local touring company.

The family moved to the Valley 18 years ago, and she began a small drama group at St. Mary’s Church, directing a series of Broadway musicals.

Valley Rep sprang from that.

Her next goal is starting a children’s theater in what’s now a dusty storefront facing Pines.

“They’re the future,” said Quinn, who also encourages high school drama students to work with her group.

Her long-term goal is to establish the Valley Repertory Theatre as a cultural mainstay in the Valley.

“There is a need for this in the Valley,” said Quinn, who shows works of local artists in the lobby of the theater. “Not to take away from the Spokane groups. But it’s nice to have your own thing out here, too.”

Live theater also is an important part of the human experience, she said.

“Plays are written about true things, about real people, about real life,” Quinn said. “They’re mirror reflections of who we are. We can see ourselves through watching a play.”

It seems that Quinn surely can.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: Saturday’s People is a column featuring remarkable Valley people. To suggest subjects for future columns, please write The Valley Voice, 13208 E. Sprague, Spokane, WA 99216, or call editor Mike Schmeltzer at 927-2170.