Budget woes force Symphony cuts

The Spokane Symphony has announced several cost-cutting moves to deal with its budget woes:

• The cancellation of next season’s Symphony on the Edge concerts. These are the informal concerts held at the Knitting Factory nightclub.

• The cancellations of the Chamber Soirees in Post Falls and one of the two Family Concerts.

• A 20 percent salary cut, in the form of a four-day workweek, for the administrative staff over the next four months. The 401(k) match will also be dropped. Even the two conductors, Music Director Eckart Preu and Resident Conductor Morihiko Nakahara, have agreed to cuts.

• A change in a previously announced soloist. The symphony’s own Mateusz Wolski will perform a Beethoven violin concerto in place of guest artist Philip Quint.

• Changes in the previously announced season’s repertoire, including Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 in place of Stravinsky’s “Petrushka”; Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp in place of Schoenberg’s “A Survivor From Warsaw”; Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 instead of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10; Bizet’s “L’Arlesienne” instead of Janacek’s Sinfonietta; and Richard Strauss’ “Don Juan,” Wagner’s Venusberg music (Bacchanale) and Franck’s Symphony in D minor instead of the previously announced “Rivals and Prophets” program.

These changes were made to save on music rental and extra musicians.

Details of other repertoire changes, including significant changes in the Casual Classics series, are available at www.spokanesymphony.org.

The recession has hit nonprofit arts organizations hard. The symphony ended the 2008-2009 season with a 5 percent budget deficit.

These changes were necessary to “achieve a balanced budget for 2009-10,” said Executive Director Brenda Nienhouse.

Interplayers update

We have a wealth of Interplayers news, beginning with the fact that it will now be officially known as Interplayers Professional Theatre, or IPT.

In its previous 28 years, the theater company has been variously known as the Interplayers Ensemble, Interplayers Theatre and just plain Interplayers.

Also, it has hired Reed McColm, one of Spokane’s most respected actors, playwrights and directors, as its new artistic director.

McColm recently unveiled the new season:

• “Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune,” by Terrence McNally – A comedy-drama about two lonely people on a one-night stand. Sept. 17-Oct. 3

• “Doubt: A Parable,” by John Patrick Shanley – The 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning play about possible abuse in a Catholic parish. Oct. 22-Nov. 7

• “Underneath the Lintel,” by Glen Berger – A one-man comedy featuring McColm as an obsessive Dutch librarian who finds a book overdue for 113 years. Nov. 25-Dec. 12

• “Honky Tonk Highway,” by Richard Berg and Robert Lindsey Nassif – A country-western musical. Jan. 28-Feb. 13

• “Art,” by Yasmina Reza – The 1988 Tony-winning comedy-drama about the nature of art, last seen at Interplayers in 2000. March 11-27

• “Eleemosynary,” by Lee Blessing – A drama about mother-daughter connections. April 15-30

• “Psychopathia Sexualis,” by John Patrick Shanley – A wild farce about a groom with an unusual secret. May 13-29

Call (509) 455-PLAY for season tickets.

‘Tap Dogs’ and Lightfoot

The Best of Broadway series has announced two new add-on shows:

• “Tap Dogs,” the Australian tap dance extravaganza, Sept. 28, INB Performing Arts Center.

• Gordon Lightfoot, the Canadian folk legend, Oct. 13, INB.

Tickets are on sale now only to Best of Broadway subscribers, who have been sent a special password.

They go on sale to the general public on Friday for Lightfoot and July 31 for “Tap Dogs,” through TicketsWest outlets (509-325-SEAT, 800-325-SEAT, www.ticketswest.com).

Off to the Fringe Fest

Allison Standley, a 2005 Mead High School graduate, is heading off to the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival with her production, “The Grind Show.”

She describes it as “an allegorical twist on the American circus, where a character’s worst fears are the main attraction.”

Standley and her fellow artists with the TBA Collaborative developed the show over the last two years in Seattle. They’ll head to Scotland in August, where they will perform the show for 26 days.

Meanwhile, Standley spent the early part of the summer as an ensemble member in “The Producers” at the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre.

‘Steppin’ Out Spokane’

“Steppin’ Out Spokane,” a locally produced arts-and-entertainment TV show, has switched from KQUP to KGPX.

KGPX is Spokane’s ION network station, seen on cable Channel 8 and over the air and on satellite on Channel 34.

The show airs Saturdays at 5:30 p.m. and repeats on Mondays at 1:30 p.m. and Fridays at 11:30 p.m. This weekend’s episode featured an interview with the blues great Robert Cray.

Ansel Adams alert

If you’re headed in the direction of the Columbia Gorge this summer, here’s an exhibit worth checking out: “Ansel Adams Masterworks,” Maryhill Museum of Art, Goldendale, Wash., through Sept. 13.

Adams was the acknowledged master of the black-and-white nature photo. This exhibit includes 47 photographs, billed as “a succinct representation of his life’s work.”

Tappin’ Travolta

Ellen Travolta, who stars as the veteran diva Mona in the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre’s upcoming “Dames at Sea,” reports that she is “tapping her feet off” in rehearsals for this ’30s musical spoof.

Travolta, who made her Broadway-touring debut in 1961, is a relative tap novice. But she reports that she is having a great time, trying to keep up with a cast that is mostly young enough to be her children or grandchildren.

Let’s put it this way: It doesn’t seem that long ago that the show’s other female lead, Darcy Wright, was playing the lead role in “Annie” in Coeur d’Alene.

“Dames at Sea” runs July 23-Aug. 2. Call (800) 4-CDATIX.