High drama

One of theater’s time-tested plot gimmicks is the cliffhanger. Spokane theater is smack in the middle of its own cliffhanger plot. The 2004-05 theater season begins with the protagonists (the theaters themselves) in various states of peril, mostly financial. In this new season, the audience will discover how – or even if – the heroes can pull themselves out of danger.

For theatergoers, the result looks more like wealth – as in a wealth of choices.

Anticipation is running high on a purely artistic level, with highlights such as a visit by the national tour of the “The Producers”; a local version of “Othello”; and a look at works by such acclaimed contemporary playwrights as Michael Healey, Steven Dietz and Sam Shepard.

Here’s an update as the new season gets under way:

“ Interplayers Ensemble – Spokane’s resident professional theater lost its producing artistic director, Robin Stanton, and its associate artistic director, Michael Weaver, amidst turmoil last winter.

A new, dynamic management trio is in place: artistic director Nike Imoru, director of marketing and development Kate Vander Wende, and executive director Tamara Schupman. Their job is to help Interplayers turn the corner financially.

“Things are looking up,” said Vander Wende. “New subscriptions continue to come in.”

Both subscriptions and sponsorships must improve this year for the theater to thrive. Season brochures have just been mailed out, and plenty is at stake on the response to this new season.

The most significant event will be the first: the return of co-founders Bob and Joan Welch to the Interplayers stage in “Painting Churches,” which kicks off the season next Thursday.

“People are very excited to see the Welches back in the theater,” said Vander Wende. “It feels like a real healing has taken place.”

The Interplayers auditorium will be dedicated in the Welches’ name in a special ceremony on Sept. 26, which will include a presentation of Libby Skala’s one-woman play, “Lilia.”

Four of the season’s seven plays will be directed by Imoru, who arrives with impressive worldwide theatrical and academic credentials. She will be at the helm for “Painting Churches,” “Dracula,” “Inspecting Carol” and “Othello.”

The latter (opening next April) will be the first Shakespeare play produced by Interplayers since 1995. If there’s a sure-fire crowd-pleasing hit in the bunch, though, it will probably be the Christmas backstage comedy, “Inspecting Carol.”

The season’s other shows will be Sam Shepard’s “True West,” John Ford Noonan’s “A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking” and a wild-card to be named later.

As for distinguishing themselves from the two other professional theaters (CenterStage and Actor’s Repertory Theatre; see below), the Interplayers folks feel they have one crucial distinction.

“Professional theater is a loose definition, but we are the only ones with an Equity contract,” said Vander Wende, referring to the professional theatrical union. “That’s how we can get actresses like Libby Skala from New York.”

“ Actor’s Repertory Theatre – When Michael Weaver and marketing director Grant Smith left Interplayers last season, they went on to launch this new professional theater, which began its inaugural season last week with “How the Other Half Loves” at Spokane Falls Community College’s 211-seat Spartan Theater.

The response has been gratifying so far.

“We had a great weekend and really happy audiences and good-sized houses,” said Weaver.

Yet Weaver isn’t blind to the challenges ahead. Starting up a theater is never easy. He said the financial challenges are “massive” now that the season is under way.

“Now suddenly we have 28 people or something on the payroll instead of just the two of us this spring,” said Weaver. “So raising money is incredibly important.”

Artistically, Weaver has positioned his theater as a “new voice, a different point of view, but connected to the past.”

“The old Interplayers tradition is the model we’re basing it on,” said Weaver.

That’s clear from the choice of plays. Both Alan Ayckbourn’s “How the Other Half Loves” and Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit” have been hits from the past for Interplayers.

Two others are contemporary plays with lots of buzz. The next production, “Dirty Blonde,” is Claudia Shear’s Broadway hit about the life of Mae West. Michael Healey’s “The Drawer Boy” is a funny and moving new drama-comedy that Weaver said is the most-produced play in regional theater this season. He said it’s about “friendship and camaraderie and art.”

The Christmas play will be “Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol,” a funny and satirical take on the Dickens tale, told from the point of view of Scrooge’s business partner.

“Tiny Tim does not appear,” said Weaver.

Weaver said ARt will combine both local and regional talent.

“I think it’s important that local talent be used, because we have people as good as anywhere in the world,” said Weaver.

Still, he jumped at the chance to hire Christina Lang of Boise to play Mae West in “Dirty Blonde” and Chad Henry from Denver to direct. Henry’s the former Seattle playwright and director who wrote the national smash “Angry Housewives.”

“It makes for an interesting mix,” said Weaver.

“ Spokane Civic Theatre – The city’s community-theater institution has been around for more than five decades, but never has it had a summer this tough.

The board of directors ousted longtime head Jack Phillips and two other staffers in May in what the board described as a strictly financial move. Emotions ran hot; key staffers and at least one board member resigned in protest.

The controversy affected both the volunteer pool and subscription sales. However, director of operations and marketing Deb McCandless said she thinks the theater is turning the corner.

“Emotions, for the most part, have settled down,” said McCandless.

The board has hired Jack Delehanty as interim artistic director while it conducts a nationwide search for a permanent hire. He and McCandless have made a concerted effort to calm the waters.

“We want to make sure that volunteers are valued and listened to, and that they truly have a voice,” said McCandless. “We’ve actually gotten a lot of volunteers back.”

Also, the theater had no trouble attracting actors to auditions for “Noises Off,” the backstage farce directed by Troy Nickerson which opens the season on Oct. 1.

The season, already announced before the management change, includes two big musicals, “Seussical” and “Hello Dolly!” and three plays: “What’s Wrong With This Picture?” by Donald Margulies; a newly revised version “The Diary of Anne Frank”; and “I’m Not Rappaport” by Herb Gardner.

The downstairs Studio Theatre continues its reputation for cutting-edge theater with George C. Wolfe’s “The Colored Museum,” a provocative look at African American culture; “An Evening of Avant-Garde Theater,” featuring short pieces by Caryl Churchill, Samuel Beckett and others; and Jason Miller’s “That Championship Season.”

“ CenterStage – This year-old professional dinner theater in the RailSide Center arts block on West First Avenue downtown was served with an eviction notice by its landlords early this summer. The case is working its way through the courts. CenterStage also faces significant financial challenges.

Yet the theater had an audacious reponse to all of this: It went bigger and even more diversified.

Artistic director Tim Behrens announced a six-show season beginning with the pioneer musical “Quilters,” opening Sept. 16, followed by “Voices,” a one-man show co-written by and starring Behrens about growing up in an acting family in New York and Hollywood.

Behrens also booked another nonmusical, “Rocket Man,” an Inland Northwest premiere by playwright Steven Dietz (“Lonely Planet,” “God’s Country”) in which the second act goes backward in time.

The other entries are more traditional dinner-theater fare: the musicals “Romance, Romance,” “Forever Plaid” and “Spitfire Grill.”

But CenterStage will also be offering an ambitious lineup of world music concerts, movie nights, comedy nights and Spokane String Quartet concerts. Behrens said he has just sent out season brochures which will give subscribers a chance to mix and match theater, world music concerts and string quartet concerts.

“You can choose anything you want, and they all include dinner,” said Behrens.

He said one of the things that distinguishes CenterStage is its commitment to local actors and musicians.

“We don’t audition in Seattle and Portland,” said Behrens. “We believe in the power of local artists.”

As for the looming threat of eviction, Behrens said: “I wouldn’t have done all of this if I thought we’ll have any problems.”

“ Best of Broadway – The slate of national touring shows is, in the words of WestCoast Entertainment vice president Jack Lucas, “one of the strongest lineups we’ve had in 17 years.”

It begins with a blockbuster: Mel Brooks’ raucous musical “The Producers.” This has been one of the most in-demand musicals in the country since it won a record 12 Tonys in 2001. It will hit the Opera House for eight shows beginning Sept. 21.

The other shows in the subscription series are Andrew Lloyd Webbers’s “Evita,” the great Gershwin musical “Crazy for You” and the all-dance show “Contact.” The add-ons are particularly noteworthy this season, including the Celtic extravaganza “Riverdance”; Frank Gorshin’s one man show about George Burns, “Say Goodnight, Gracie”; and one of the planet’s (and Spokane’s) all-time favorite musicals, “Les Miserables.”

And you might consider this all prologue for the biggest theatrical spectacle to hit Spokane, well, ever: “The Lion King,” which will play the Opera House for five and a half weeks next season, Oct. 28 to Dec. 4, 2005. Tickets will go on sale next February.

“ Lake City Playhouse – Coeur d’Alene’s community theater survived one financial crisis last winter. This summer, it has gone through a change in management and continued financial struggles. Artistic director Tracey Benson recently issued a plea for a “boost of confidence” from the Coeur d’Alene business community.

Meanwhile, the new season is loaded with proven crowd-pleasers, opening with “Harvey” on Sept. 10, followed by “Phantom,” “A Christmas Carol,” “Something’s Afoot,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Little Women” and “The Hobbit.”

Will all of these theaters survive to see a 2005-2006 season? Optimism remains high. And no matter what happens, it should make for high drama.