Still ‘Together,’ 20 years later

“Together Again for the First Time” fits into a popular genre: the holiday family reunion comedy.

Yet for Interplayers, this production is anything but typical:

•The play was written by local actor and playwright Reed McColm.

•It has been produced about 40 times by amateur and student groups – but this is its professional premiere.

•This stage version opens a month after the DVD release of the movie version, which was co-written by McColm. The movie, starring David Ogden Stiers (“M*A*S*H”) and Julia Duffy (“Newhart”), also premieres on the Lifetime Channel in three weeks.

The play is anything but typical for another reason. When McColm wrote it 23 years ago, his playwriting instructor told him that a comedy should always start calm and get increasingly zany.

“So I was cocky and arrogant, and I said, ‘I’ll write a play that’s exactly the opposite of that,’ ” said McColm. “… I put all the chaos up front, and all the calm at the end.

“But it turned out well for me. I can’t seem to get away from this play. (Laughs) Everywhere I go, this play dogs me.”

This is the first time in all of those 23 years that McColm himself has appeared in the play. Director Jack Bannon and Interplayers artistic director Karen Kalensky convinced him to play Max, the father, which is the part played by Stiers in the movie.

“I never thought of myself as Max,” said McColm. “I was Roger (one of the sons). But here I am, the right age to play Max. It’s funny how you can morph into a role.”

McColm laughed and added, “Now, I’m wishing I had written a grandfather into it, so I could play it in the future.”

“Together Again for the First Time” is a blended-family reunion story.

Audrey, played by Kalensky, and Max have just gotten married. Audrey has two sons and Max has three daughters, all of high school/college age. They meet for the first time at Christmas. Complications and miscommunications ensue.

Holiday family reunion comedies are not exactly rare. For instance, there was “The Family Stone,” a 2005 hit starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson. That was also about a quirky family gathering, but McColm said this show is different in several important ways.

“ ‘The Family Stone’ has three things we don’t: money, sex and politics,” said McColm, who jokingly calls his play “ ‘The Family Stone’ for the red states.”

“It’s certainly family-friendly,” he said. “This family has its problems, both communicating and otherwise. But they are struggling through and solving these problems in ways that should be familiar to Spokane.”

The play is set in Spokane, even though McColm had never lived here when he wrote it. He and his family lived in Edmonton, and he essentially picked an American city that was likely to have snow, which was part of the plot line.

“I had been here for Expo ’74 and always liked it,” said McColm.

He moved to this area several years ago and now lives in Post Falls – as do many members of his family, who may or may not be depicted in the play.

“My family has been very supportive – although they would certainly own and disown various characters,” he said.

The Interplayers cast includes Damon Abdallah, Thomas Stewart, Jimmy Pendleton, Christine Cresswell, Bethany Hart, Maggie Wicken and Micah Hanson.