George Green will lead Lake City Playhouse

Effective today, George Green has been appointed as executive artistic director of Lake City Playhouse in Coeur d'Alene.

The current artistic director at Lake City, Brian Doig, will stay on through June as an artistic consultant to Green (and to help Green, as Doig says, "figure out where the staples are").

Green's already engaged in marketing for CdA's community theater: He has announced that tickets for the final three performances of Amadeus (April 1-3) will be sold on a buy one, get one free basis. Visit lakecityplayhouse.org or call (208) 667-1323.

Brian Doig resigns at Lake City

After the Lake City Playhouse season ends in June, Brian Doig will resign as the theater’s artistic director.

He will be involved with the Lake City board in the selection of his successor.

For personal reasons having to do with his family, Doig will be moving out of the area to another city in the western U.S.

“Actually, the Playhouse is doing well this year,” he says. “I would say we’ve made incremental progress as far as finances go, though we still have a tremendous debt.”

“I’ve gone back over decades of board minutes and financial records,” says Doig, noting that Lake City ‘tends to get into debt and then get bailed out. This is their M.O. They’d cut way back to a barebones staff, and the quality of the productions would drop.”

Lake City was “about $40,000 in debt when I got here” three and a half years ago, says Doig. “We are fiscally a little worse than when I got here,” he says — though some might say debt ballooning to $100,000 (as reported here on Nov. 5) is a lot worse — while adding that that’s due to “increased spending on things that are to our advantage.” He includes on that list such things as marketing, posters, programming, stipends and salaries. “The debt we’ve incurred,” Doig says, “is not because we have not been investing in ourselves.”

In two phone conversations, Doig claimed that over the past year, Lake City has retired somewhere between $5,000 and $12,000 in debt — “and we haven’t incurred any more debt,” he emphasizes. “We’re paying our current payroll, plus we’ve been able to retire some of our debt.”

As an indicator of the theater’s artistic progress, Doig points to what he thinks will be some of the likely casting choices for Jhon Goodwin’s March-April production of Amadeus. “We’ll have good people — people who have performed at the Civic and Interplayers — in that show,” he speculates.

“I’ve learned quite a bit over the past four years,” Doig says. “And I have developed great respect for [other artistic directors] in our regional theaters. Even though the task [of achieving success at Lake City] may seem daunting, it’s far easier to accomplish now than it was three years ago — if we can manage to keep the place open. But remember: It was scheduled to close four years ago.”

Doig has spoken informally with at least three people about succeeding him, but no one yet has committed to making an application.

Those interested in applying for the Lake City artistic directorship should send a letter of interest via snail-mail, directed to Doig’s attention. The board is evaluating some possible changes to the position’s job description. They hope to have someone in place by July.

[ image: MarshallDesigns.com ]

Brian Doig on the state of Lake City Playhouse

We got trouble, right here in Lake City. With a capital T, and that rhymes with P, and that stands for ...
Predicament. Because a predicament is what Lake City Playhouse is in.
"We were $40,000 in the hole when I started," says Brian Doig, who's in his fourth year as artistic director of Coeur d'Alene's community theater.
The deficit climbed to $80 and now $100K. But Doig remains guardedly optimistic, and for a number of reasons: the deficit is leveling out, audiences are growing, profitable musicals are on the way, and the recession isn't likely to get any worse for the financial-sector sponsors that LCP had been depending on in recent seasons.
Average audiences have climbed from 45 to 105 (and even higher, up to around 125, for musicals) in a converted-church of a theater that holds 170.
This year's Christmas show, The Little Princess, "almost sold out when we did it four years ago," says Doig. "And [director] Laura Little is as tireless in her promotional efforts as she is a talented director. It's a wonderful Christmas musical, and we're going to have Kent Kimball [Capt. von Trapp at the Civic two years ago] as the father.
They were selling tissues in the lobby the first time we did it, and I thought, 'Yeah, right....' But dude, you watch this show, you need the tissues."
Doig is philosophical about his theater's outlook. "As bad as things are, people are working hard. We are losing less. Last year, we lost five sponsors, who'd [sponsor] a night of a show for $1,500. But all our sponsors are investment firms, and they all got hit. If we just had those five, we would have made money last year for the first time in 10 years."
Tickets sales only cover about 60 percent to 70 percent of the theater's expenses.

But a guy can dream: Doig envisions, in the long term, the possibility of Lake City finding a location closer to the Sherman Avenue corridor (maybe somewhere around Fourth).
"It may seem dark and dim," Doig says, "but a lot of people are working really hard. And it's starting to respond -- we just need continued support."
"Frankly, for a few years, the product was inconsistent. But we're always trying to be better. At the same time, part of our mission is that we are a community theater -- and that means that we will have actors, sometimes, who are onstage for the first time."
And in an encouraging sign of cooperation among theater-lovers, says Doig, "we're starting to see more people from across the border involved" -- meaning that some prominent names associated with Spokane Civic Theater have offered to help Doig organize a fund-raiser sometime soon for LCP.
"People don't want to see another theater go down," Doig says.
"Right now, we're just focused on getting through this next season, with an eye on making it to our 50th. We're working hard to make sure that our 50th season isn't our last."

audition for *Leader of the Pack*

on Monday-Tuesday, Nov. 9-10, at 6:30 pm

Harding Family Center, 411 N. 15th St., Coeur d'Alene

Callbacks on Nov. 11-12

Bring resume, photo and list of conflicts; be prepared to sing

Needed: four men; 10 women; extras

director: Marina Kalani

For the Lake City Playhouse production, Jan. 14-31

Leader of the Pack surveys the life and ('60s) times of Ellie Greenwich (who died on Aug. 26 at the age of 68 — the 1984 off-Broadway jukebox musical follows Ellie's life in Brooklyn and Queens, with characters based on Phil Spector and on Ellie's husband and songwriting partner, Jeff Barry)

Songs include the title tune, "Chapel of Love," "Da Do Ron Ron," "Be My Baby," "Hanky Panky," "Do Wah Diddy," and "And Then He Kissed Me."

[photo: from spectropop.com]

AACT Region IX a success in CdA

The Driftwood Players of Edmonds, Wash., will be sending their production of *Minnesota Moon* on to nationals in Tacoma in June, having won last weekend's American Association of Community Theater Region IX competition at Coeur d'Alene High School.
The runner-up was The Coaster Theater of Cannon Beach, Oregon's production of *The Cemetery Club.*

Minnesota Moon also won Best Actor and Best Director
The Cemetery Club also won Best Ensemble and two Best Actress awards
Best Supporting Actor went to Crazy Eights from Columbia Arts Stage Troupe (CAST) of Hood River, Oregon
Theaters from Bremerton, Wash., and Lewiston, Idaho, also competed.

Judges included adjudicators from Portland, Wyoming, and Spokane’s own Susan Hardie

Brian Doig, artistic director of Lake City Playhouse, which hosted this regional festival, comments that "Everything went smoothly. There were no issues on load-ins or load-outs. Everything went on time or was early."

CdA won't be hosting another regional festival for another four years at the very soonest, but Doig felt that the facilities at CdA High School were "just the right size for this festival" -- even if they had to disable the school bells and intercom announcements so as not to be distractions.

Surprisingly, the winning show had a $100 budget -- and only spent $36 of it. The Driftwood Players, Doig explains, have a five-show season plus a series of Monday-Tuesday shows that are offbeat and low-budget.
*Minnesota Moon* is about two guys who have graduated from high school -- one an intellectual, one a redneck -- and how they deal with their memories of mutual friends who went off to join the Army and who got killed in a motorcycle accident. Doig says "It's about how you let go, how you say goodbye, about how men use bravado to avoid being emotional. It was funny and touching," and, in his opinion, the most polished of the five shows in Region IX.

Doig regrets that "we didn't get to represent Lake City Playhouse artistically, but we did represent it well administratively. Everyone had a good time, everyone got a fair shake." [Lake City's production of *K2* deferred to Lewiston when there was a misunderstanding about how two Idaho shows could not advance to regionals unless there was an Idaho state festival first, but Lewiston couldn't come up for four days straight for a state festival and THEN a regional, so Lake City graciously bowed out and allowed the Lewiston production of *Cat on a Hot Tin Roof* to be Idaho's representative at the regional competition.]

The 2011 AACT nationals have been announced for Rochester, New York.

Doig says that Idaho is hopeful of sending 7-9 productions to their state competiton next time, “though I’ll believe it when I see it.” Alaska's representatives have said that they should have three or four productions at the state level next time (two years from now).
[photo from seattleperforms.com: Driftwood Players' *Minnesota Moon* ]

audition for *Big River*

Monday-Tuesday, March 2-3, at 6:30 pm
at the Harding Family Center, 411 N. 15th St., CdA
for the Lake City Playhouse production (May 8-23) of the 1985 musical with music and lyrics by Roger Miller and book by William Hauptmann

Director Brian Doig is looking for 6 women, 6 men and ensembles of 10-15.

Huck and Jim float down the Mississippi and have themselves some fine adventures, sho' 'nuff.

Lake City Playhouse, 1320 E. Garden Ave., CdA
(20) 667-1323

Trivia time: What *Deep Space Nine* cast member was in the original production of *Big River*? And when director Des McAnuff was trying out the show at the La Jolla Playhouse, what future and highly influential Spokane theater critic** did Roger Miller find himself face to face with?
(**This five-word phrase appears in your dictionary next to "oxymoron.")

Study the IBDb entry here.

Frank Rich's 1985 review in the N.Y. Times is here. And John Goodman played Pap! I'd forgotten that.

audition for *K2*

on Monday, Feb. 23, at 7 pm
at the Harding Family Center

Director Brian Doig is looking for two men, age 25-40, for this Lake City Playhouse production.
Prepare a monologue; cold readings; must learn how to rock climb.
Call (208) 667-1323.

In Patrick Myers' play, Taylor and Harold are stranded high on the world's second-tallest mountain; Harold has a broken leg. As Taylor attempts to climb higher to retrieve a longer rope -- one that might make Harold's rescue possible -- they carry on a conversation about what they value in life.

*K2* will perform at the regional AACT Festival on April 15-18 in CdA

Pay What You Can at Lake City

Lake City Playhouse, 1320 E. Garden Ave. in Coeur d'Alene
*A Few Good Men* continues through Nov. 15. And on Saturday night — whereas tickets usually go for $16 ($13 for seniors, $10 for kids 12 and younger) — the closing night ticket price will be ... pay what you can. Just show up at 7 pm for the 7:30 show; tickets sold at the door.
(Compare the Oct. 27 post here, Free Theater Night.)
(Seating capacity at Lake City, a converted '60s-era Mormon church, is 172.)
Artistic Director Brian Doig reports that for every production, they offer 100 free tickets to at-risk kids in the area, thanks to the generous support of U.S. Bank and the Florence Wasmer Fund for Arts & Culture of the Inland Northwest.
Visit www.lakecityplayhouse.org.
(photo: Aaron Sorkin, author of *A Few Good Men*)

Lake City Playhouse announces Summer Rep

Running June 18-Aug. 29, 2009 ... a four-musical season in repertory at CdA's community theater: Forever Plaid (for sure), I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change and Tintypes (probably) and Stop the World, I Want To Get Off (possibly). Two men and two women as a resident company, augmented by the cast of the recently successful production of Forever Plaid and other regional performers. Lake City artistic director Brian Doig reports that auditions for the resident company will be in Feb. or March, with regional actor/singers to try out in May.
Six shows a week -- Tuesday through Saturday at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 2 pm -- with ticket prices at $18, or $55 for all four shows.
Directors will include Tom Nash, Maria Caprile, Doig, and (possibly) Reed McColm.
"We're going to 11 shows a year, so this is pretty aggressive for us," says Doig. "But for *Nunsense,* our audience figures have jumped, even though the economy is going down."