partial 2006-07 season for Spokane Interplayers Ensemble

next season at Interplayers:

September: William Inge's *Bus Stop,* starring Ellen Travolta and Jack Bannon
We're at a diner 30 miles west of Kansas City during a blizzard. It's 1 am. Grace, the diner's owner (Travolta's role?) and Elma are waiting for the bus from Topeka. The bus spills its occupants: Cherie (the Marilyn Monroe role), Dr. Lyman (drunk and lecherous English prof, who develops a thing for Elma), Carl (the bus driver, who has a thing for Grace), Bo (an impulsive young cowboy) and Virgil (an old ranch hand who tries to keep an eye on Bo). Will Bannon play Carl, or Virgil, or Dr. Lyman?
Travolta says they'll bring in "a director from L.A." and that "some casting will be done here, and some there."
She also said that "I approached Interplayers on this [as opposed to the reverse, presumably] and that "I've wanted to do this project for years."

The Woman in Black (A Ghost Play), adapted by Stephen Malatratt from the novel by Susan Hill
An eerie story of a solicitor who's been sent to wind up the affairs of the deceased Mrs. Drablow — a recluse from the "marsh country" whom the locals believe, along with her house, to be cursed. Two actors play multiple roles.

Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, by Richard Alfieri
ran 28 performances on Broadway in October 2003 -- starred Mark Hamill and Polly Bergen (cast of two)
A foul-mouthed, temperamental middle-aged gay man arrives each week at a strait-laced older woman's condo in St. Pete, Fla., to teach her the tango, waltz, swing, etc., and they argue and resolve a lot of issues.

Ruthless
a musical comedy about musical comedies, directed by Troy Nickerson
A mousy suburban housewife has a 3rd-grade daughter who's a song-and-dance sensation. Throw in lots of references to *Gypsy* and *All About Eve* along with an ambitious schoolteacher, a venomous personal assistant and a theater critic who does Ethel Merman impersonations (how cliche -- now Tallulah, _there's_ a woman a man would be willing to do up his hair for ...) -- anyway, sounds like lots of mega-campy fun.


Notes from the season-announcement reception this afternoon in the Gellhorn Gallery:
Board chairman Tom Varljen got off the best joke, saying, "We _are_ a nonprofit organization, but this year, we went out of our way to make that happen."
It was great to see a lobby jam-packed with Interplayers supporters -- great to see Bob and Joan Welch present and welcomed -- great to see that Interplayers really is going to have a 26th season.
Varljen announced that next season will go back to including seven plays, that some readers' theater and other events will also be sprinkled about the schedule, and that "we've got to make this more cost-effective, so we'll be dropping some preview performances, because we need to go for the revenue."
Varljen also warned that the theater has not yet gotten the rights for "Woman in Black,* *Dance Lessons* or *Ruthless.*
As for the other three plays in this proposed seven-play season, "interim artistic director" (so announced here) Wes Deitrick says that they haven't obtained the rights for those, either -- want to keep it secret for now, but will announce the other plays "sometime around the opening of *Laughter on the 23rd Floor* on April 27.
Troy Nickerson and George Green have been cast as the leads in *Of Mice and Men* (June 1-24).

Interplayers also has a fund-raiser/auction coming up on Saturday, April 22.