Solid Gold Spokane Civic Theatre Approaches Its 50th Year Of Award-Winning Excellence

Just about 50 years ago, a group of local theater lovers formed a committee and created the Spokane Civic Theatre. By February 1947, this committee had rented a movie house, hammered together a minimal set and staged its first production, “Tom Sawyer,” a children’s show.

What would those founding members say today if they knew that the Civic had built its own theater? Was judged one of the best community theaters in the country? Has become one of the premier cultural institutions of Spokane?

Well, let’s just ask them.

“Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the professional organization that the Civic Theatre now is,” said Grace Gorton Peck, 89, director of that first production of “Tom Sawyer.” “And if someone had told me that they would own a building just for the production of stage plays, I would have said (incredulously), ‘Uh-huh.’ “

A surprising number of founders will be in the audience on Friday for the opening of “Fiddler on the Roof,” the theater’s 446th production.

On reflection, Peck and the other founders, including Betty Tomlinson, Virginia Peterson and Dorothy Darby Smith, have plenty to be amazed about. Today, the Civic’s budget is $487,000 per year, which puts it in the top 20 community theaters in the country. It has 1,800 subscribers and a yearly attendance of 35,000. The theater routinely stages 12 shows a year, with sets by a professional resident set designer and costumes designed by a resident professional costume designer (two of its six full-time staff members). All are performed in a mortgage-free building that comes complete with rehearsal rooms, set-building shops, costume shops and a small second stage for more intimate productions.

Clearly, the Civic that opens its season on Friday bears little resemblance to the Civic of 50 years ago.

Rebirth of community theater

In 1946, the founders were merely trying to resuscitate community theater in Spokane, which went dormant when the Spokane Little Theatre shut down because of World War II.

At the same time, another group was trying to start the Spokane Children’s Theatre.

“So all of these Civic people were itching to do a play and had no place to do it in, and the Children’s Theatre needed a play to do in their space,” said Peck. “So the Civic Theatre presented ‘Tom Sawyer’ as their gift to the newly organized Children’s Theatre.”

A few months afterward, the Civic did a one-act Noel Coward play, “The Astonished Heart,” at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral. Buoyed by the success of these shows, the group hammered out a deal to rent the Post Theater and stage its first three-show season. The first play was “State of the Union,” a political comedy-drama by Lindsay and Crouse.

Here are some excerpts from the first Civic Theatre review, as printed in The Spokesman-Review on Oct. 2, 1947:

“The Spokane Civic theater was born last evening at the Post in a gala first-night atmosphere. … There were big bouquets of flowers in the lobby, the Musical Art Trio in the pit, young girls in evening gowns giving out programs and a capacity audience. … Not only the players of the Spokane Civic theater should be congratulated for the pleasing evening they gave their first audience, but to the entire organization which brought the theater into being. It was a big task, not only to set the play rolling, but to get the big audience.”

Big audience, indeed. The Post Theater was a 1,400-seat movie house, and the Civic Theatre routinely sold it out in those early days.

“It was quite a glamorous evening for people,” said Tomlinson, who later went on to become Civic’s longtime executive director. “It was the place to go to be seen.”

If you missed one performance, you missed them all. The theater was so big, the Civic did only one performance of each show. That was just as well, considering the contortions the players had to go through with each performance.

“Let me tell you, it was an experience and a half,” said Smith, the female lead in “State of the Union.” “We’d have to go in at midnight (after Sunday night’s last movie) and put up our set, and get all of the furniture and stuff on. Then the cast came in at 7 a.m. and we’d have rehearsal, and then we’d play that night.”

It was opening and closing night all rolled into one. Smith can still remember waiting for her first entrance in her first Civic play and being “so excited” that she could barely stand still.

Entrances could be even more exciting at Civic’s other space, a little church annex the group rented on South Denver Street near Liberty Park. They used it mostly for set-building, but in summers they performed one-acts there.

“You couldn’t get from one side of the stage to another without going out the window, going outside and climbing in the window on the other side,” said Tomlinson.

They eventually had to leave that space after neighbors complained. One man wrote the city and said people hammered until midnight, threw bottles and rubbish around, and even worse, rehearsed plays 12 feet from his bedroom window.

Everybody’s a critic.

Bringing on the stars

A big change for the better occurred in 1957, when the Civic moved from the Post Theater to the Riverside Theater.

The Riverside no longer showed movies, so the Civic had the place to itself. Plus, the set crew could hammer all night long.

The Civic changed in other ways about that time. For one thing, it started bringing in name stars.

John Carradine starred in “The Winslow Boy” in 1958; Edward Everett Horton starred in “Reluctant Debutante” in 1959, and Billy Gilbert starred in “I Like It Here” in 1960.

“It was just the thing people were doing then, a lot,” said Tomlinson, who commented that the novelty soon wore off.

The Civic soon went back to its main mission, which was to provide an outlet for the best local amateur talent. It has stayed with that philosophy to this day, except for a flurry of star-billing during the summer of Expo ‘74, when it brought in Bob Denver for “Star Spangled Girl,” Mercedes McCambridge for “The Glass Menagerie” and Barry Sullivan for “Born Yesterday.”

Another big revolution occurred in 1962 with the debut of “The Boy Friend.” It was Civic’s first musical.

“Stan Williams came along about that time, and he was into musicals,” said Tomlinson. “We just weren’t into musicals (before that). We didn’t have the personnel.”

Soon, the Civic was doing one musical a year, then two, and now it’s up to four or five a year.

Building a permanent home

But even this wasn’t the true revolution. That didn’t occur until 1967, when the present building was completed. It all came about because of volunteers, the same unstoppable force that has fueled the Civic from the beginning. (As a community theater, all of the Civic’s actors and most of its crew members are unpaid volunteers.)

In this case, the key volunteer was a man who had never acted, never directed - and never wanted to.

“I got interested from the financial standpoint, because I could see that’s where they needed help the most,” said Firth Chew, 83, theater lover and certified public accountant with LeMaster and Daniels.

He became chairman of the building-fund drive, a job which seemed futile at the time.

“It was a pretty big order, and I think I was the only one in town, along with Betty Tomlinson, who thought we’d be able to do it,” said Chew. “Yet we were successful to the extent that we raised $400,000 or $450,000 and built the first phase of the theater without a mortgage.”

The second phase, a three-story structure that included the costume shop, scene shop and a small “black-box” studio theater, was completed in 1972. The studio theater now carries the name Firth Chew Studio Theatre.

“I like to tell people the most pride I get is to see that building jammed with people, busy both upstairs and downstairs,” said Chew. “I get a great thrill out of that.”

Of ghosts and other oddities

The Civic people loved their new building, but they also knew how important it was to take part of the old building with them. In a theatrical tradition as old as Shakespeare, they swept dust from the stage of the Riverside, carried it across town and sprinkled it on the new stage. It was supposed to bring good luck and prosperity.

It may have also brought George, too. Like every good theater, the Civic has a ghost.

George, a friendly enough ghost, is said to occasionally send a flash of lightning across the stage when nobody is in the light booth. He also has a habit of flushing the men’s toilet when nobody is in the men’s room.

Over the years, the Civic has accumulated its share of anecdotes involving accidents, animals and actors.

Here’s a sampling:

During one pitch-black scene in “Wait Until Dark,” lead actress Susan Smith fell clean off the stage. Shaken but unhurt, she groped her way back on stage and never missed a line.

An actress once climbed a ladder to deliver a line, panicked and wouldn’t come down. She couldn’t be rescued until intermission.

One audience member used to attend every comedy and laugh so hard at everything that even the actors could not keep their composure. One actor started laughing so hard that he had to leave the stage, the first comedy ever marred because of too much laughter.

A 6-year-old actor playing a kangaroo in “Peter Pan” was supposed to nudge the other animals awake. Instead, he went up to the lion, kicked it and gave it a loud “raspberry.” He did the same to the ostrich.

Then he went to the front of the stage, gave the audience a raucous raspberry, and just before he walked off, another raspberry for good measure. After a lecture from the director, he never did it again, even though his brother offered him $5 if he would.

Usually the performances were less eventful, but that doesn’t mean less eventful artistically. Over the years, the Civic has performed Shakespeare and Shaw, Sophocles and Moliere, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams.

The Civic has received its share of critical praise, beginning modestly that first season when the Spokane Daily Chronicle complimented “Blithe Spirit” by saying, “The players made remarkably few mistakes considering the great amount of dialogue they had to memorize.”

A more straightforward expression of critical approval came in 1989, when the Studio Theatre’s production of “Getting Out” won two regional theater festivals and eventually the national competition of the American Association of Community Theatre. The play represented the United States at the World Amateur Theatre Festival in Monaco.

Expanding in the ‘90s

The biggest change in recent years came in 1991, when Tomlinson retired after 30 years as executive director. John G. Phillips was hired, which in itself was testimony to the status of the Civic.

How many other community theaters could hire an executive director fresh from one of the premier theaters in the nation, the American Repertory Theatre in Boston? For his part, Phillips was impressed with the Civic’s community support and its healthy endowment fund.

Today, the Civic has its own playwright-in-residence program, resulting in the publication of 10 new plays. It conducts classes for children and adults, and it sponsors the Playwrights Forum Festival.

The main mission is the same as ever: to create a spark between performers and audience. This year’s 50th anniversary season deliberately looks back at some of the high points in Civic history and attempts to re-create or improve on them.

“Fiddler on the Roof” was first produced at the Civic in May 1972 and again in May 1983. All of the other mainstage shows this year, except “The Secret Garden,” are also repeats: “Deathtrap” (first done in 1982); “Romeo and Juliet” (1968); “The Miracle Worker” (1963 and 1977); and “The Fantasticks” (1968 and 1982).

The Civic is celebrating its anniversary Friday night with a gala opening, which is already sold out. An anniversary celebration dinner is also planned for next March.

But as usual, the real celebration will take place every performance night, when performer connects with audience.

Way back in October 1947, that first-ever Spokane Civic Theatre review contained the following sentence: “The success of last night’s performance should establish the theater as a valued cultural asset for the city.”

Who knew how right that would be? , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 4 Photos (1 Color)

MEMO: These 2 sidebars appeared with the story:

1. SPOKANE CIVIC THEATRE MILESTONES Feb. 1947 - First production, “Tom Sawyer.” (Under the auspices of the Spokane Children’s Theatre). Oct. 1947 - First full season at the Post Theatre: “State of the Union,” “Blithe Spirit,” “Ten Little Indians” and “Mr. Pim Passes By.” 1957 - Moves from Post Theatre to Riverside Theatre. 1958 - John Carradine stars in “Winslow Boy.” 1962 - Produces first musical, “The Boy Friend.” 1967 - Grand opening of new home on North Howard with “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” 1972 - Three-story addition completed, which includes the Firth Chew Studio Theatre. 1974 - Bob Denver stars in “The Star-Spangled Girl.” 1989 - Judged “Best in America” by the American Association of Community Theatre and chosen to participate in the World Amateur Theatre Festival in Monaco. Sept. 27, 1996 - Opens 50th anniversary season with “Fiddler on the Roof,” its 446th production. - Jim Kershner

2. CIVIC THEATRE LINEUP On the main stage: “Fiddler on the Roof,” Sept. 28-Nov. 2. “The Secret Garden,” Nov. 22-Dec. 15. “Deathtrap,” Jan. 10-Feb. 1. “Romeo and Juliet,” Feb. 21-March 15. “The Miracle Worker,” April 4-26. “The Fantasticks,” May 16-June 14.

At Firth Chew Studio Theatre: “Vesta,” Oct. 18-Nov. 9. “Mama Drama,” Jan. 24-Feb. 15. “Going to See the Elephant,” March 7-29. “Buried Child,” April 18-May 10. For ticket information, call 325-2507.