in memoriam: Bob Welch

Bob Welch, co-founder of Spokane Interplayers Ensemble, died on Saturday, Dec. 23, of pancreatic cancer. He was 81.

A memorial service has been scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 27, at 11 am at St. Peter's Catholic Church, 3520 E. 18th Ave. on the South Hill. A reception will follow at 12:30 pm at the Rockwood South Retirement Community, 2105 S. Forest Estates Dr. The public is welcome.

A tribute will appear in the Dec. 28 *Inlander.*

www.365seattle.com

A challenge to local artistic directors: Why not join in on the six-week-old, 46-weeks-to go year-long nationwide production of Suzan-Lori Parks' *365 Plays*? The Pulitzer winner (for *Topdog/Underdog*) wrote a (short, usually a page or two) play every day from a year from Nov. '02-Nov. '03, and now chunks and week-long portions of the 365-play cycle are being produced all over the country, with theaters and community groups joining in all the time.
Check out www.365Days365Plays.com.
The book is available from Theater Communications Group books, tcg.org for $18
The "3 Constants" alone summarize much of theatrical art. Reading her plays is like taking a miniature course in how to write for the stage.

Searching the urban core

Actors Rep made an inquiry about the closed Safeway at Third and Maple, only to be told that the asking price was $4 million. ARt continues to seek a downtown location. Among others things, making such a move might allow the Smith & Weaver gun to fire off as many as seven productions a year.

Bobo out

Vacation. See ya in ought-seven.

"The Little Princess" and other changes at Lake City

Lake City Playhouse has updated its 2007 children’s season with the following changes:

‘The Little Princess’ will replace ‘Anne of Green Gables,' with Laura Little directing.
‘Alice in Wonderland ‘ and ‘Cinderella’ will both be two-week runs. The new dates are:

Alice - June 8-10, June 14-16
Cinderella - July 13-15, July 19-21

Curtain times for all children’s shows: 7 pm.
Visit: www.lakecityplayhouse.org

*Assassins* cast

*Assassins*
Spokane Civic Theater, Firth J. Chew Studio Theater
Jan. 26-Feb. 18
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by John Weidman
Based on an idea by Charles Gilbert, Jr.
Directed and choreographed by Troy Nickerson
Tickets: $18
Call: 325-2507
Visit: www.SpokaneCivicTheatre.com


The Balladeer - Andrew Ware Lewis
John Wilkes Booth - Patrick McHenry-Kroetch
Charles Guiteau - Patrick Treadway
Sara Jane Moore - Marianne McLaughlin
Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme - Abbey Crawford
Leon Czolgosz - Dougie Dawson
John Hinckley - David Gigler
Giuseppe Zangara - Gary Pierce
Samuel Byck - Matthew Harget
Lee Harvey Oswald - George Green
Emma Goldman - Amy Schoedel
The Proprietor - Thomas Heppler
Billy - Riley Gabbert
Ensemble:
Lacey Bohnet
Lei Broadstone
Sallie Christensen
Stuart McKenzie
David Williams
Christina Winn

*Barefoot in the Park* cast

Spokane Civic Theatre
Barefoot in the Park by Neil Simon
directed by Yvonne A.K. Johnson

Danae M. Lowman as Corie Bratter
Paul Villabrille as Paul Bratter
Robert Wamsley as Victor Velasco
Jean Hardie as Ethel Banks
Brian Lambert as Telephone Repairman
Peter Hardie as Delivery Man

Performances: Jan. 12-Feb. 3
Tickets: $18; $15, seniors; $12, students

*All My Sons* auditions Jan. 3-4

Spokane Civic Theatre Audition
All My Sons
by Arthur Miller
directed by Jessica McLaughlin

auditions: Wed.-Thurs., Jan. 3-4, at 6:30 pm
Prepare a one-minute contemporary monologue; improvisation exercises at audition; cold readings from the script
4 W, 6 M

Performances: Feb. 23–March 10

Visit: www.SpokaneCivicTheatre.com, "Auditions"
Call: 325-1413

A Reduced Christmas Carol

A Reduced Christmas Carol
Originally uploaded by Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

clockwise from left:
John Hart, Patrick Treadway, Maynard Villers, Reed McColm
at Interplayers, Dec. 13-23

Go holiday shopping, then stop in for a one-hour show with audience interaction -- just $10 for most adults and $2 for kids

Scrooge vs. the Stopwatch

Scrooge vs. the Stopwatch
Originally uploaded by Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

Spokane Interplayers Ensemble
directed by Ann Whiteman
Dec. 13-23
call 455-PLAY
visit www.interplayers.com
Tickets: $10; $8, seniors, students and military; just $2 for kids

cast for *Agnes of God*

at Actors Rep/SFCC, Jan. 12-27
by John Pielmeier
directed by Michael Weaver

Caryn Hoaglund (*The Underpants* at Interplayers, *Mrs. Warren's Profession* at ARt) as Sister Agnes
Kate Vanderwende (*Lysistrata* at the Civic) as Dr. Martha Livingston
Jane Fellows (*Wings* at Interplayers, *How the Other Half Loves* at ARt) as Mother Miriam Ruth

The 1985 Norman Jewison film, scripted by Pielmeier from his own play, starred Meg Tilly, Jane Fonda and Anne Bancroft. Bancroft and Tilly were nominated for Oscars along with the film's score, but none won.
On Broadway, Amanda Plummer, Elizabeth Ashley and Geraldine Page played the three roles.

Two-thirds of the cast lives in Spokane; Fellows lives in Montana.

criticize the critic!

Saturday, Dec. 2, at 6 pm, "Backstage to Broadway" — channel 11 over the air in Spokane, channel 114 on Comcast cable

Bobo as your host, with an actor (Levi/Pharaoh) and a dancer (dance captain/Apache Dancer) from *Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat* along with eight students from Gonzaga in the first 15 minutes, and then the company manager and stage manager in the second half. (They'd endured a nightmare: 11-hour bus ride from Seattle the day before; stuck six hours in Snoqualmie Pass; pulled into Spokane at 6 pm for a 7:30 show; held the show for 40 mins. before the curtain finally went up. And somehow, it was good, energetic show.)

Bobo wants to state officially and for the record that during the first rehearsal for "Backstage to Broadway" (dry mouth, visibly spitting, fumbling through notes, hyperventilating, stumbling over words, mispronouncing the easiest things) that he wanted to run screaming from the studio and dig himself a deep hole.

As for subsequent results, here's a fun drinking game: gather some friends, get out your favorite bottle of tequila, and everybody does a shot every time Bobo stumbles over a word, smiles uneasily, looks at the wrong camera ... you get the idea. Make up your own rules! You'll quickly be intoxicated.
After that, the show will seem much more professional than it actually is.

If you miss the show (and I believe that as many as nearly two dozen people in the Spokane area are hooked up to channel 114), then you can catch it in a podcast for the next month or so, supposedly with links at kxly.com and inlander.com (and maybe at kxmn.com and bestofbroadwayspokane.com, too).

kxly.com has info about what a podcast is and how to access it (it's helpful if you have iTunes, I gather)

Then you can download it and make fun of Bobo to your heart's content.

(Fun with trivia: Right before the red light went on for the second half, the stage manager had Bobo in stitches -- some joke about how widespread was the fornication in a touring company, and he comes back with they were in a bar last night with the cast from Disney on Ice, The Incredibles, and it was each man for himself, baby ...)