Interplayers Theatre Tickets

The Interplayers Theatre is one of the most fascinating groups of artisans in the performing and dramatic arts industry. Founded in 1980 as the Spokane Interplayers Ensemble by Joan and Bob Welch, theatrical teachers and performers, the company has grown on to become one of the most exciting groups in the Inland Northwest. In fact, the company is the first resident professional theatre company in the area. Presently, the  company stages ten to eleven productions in three week runs. These productions are critically acclaimed and you can see them live after buying Interplayers Theatre tickets.

The Interplayers Theatre performs both classical productions and contemporary works. The company has played host to numerous world premieres and calls the Welch Auditorium home. The auditorium is a thrust stage venue with intimate seating, with no seat over six rows away from the stage.

The company's mission is to created theatrical experiences that are inspiring and imaginative. These experiences have gone on to entertain many, touching their hearts and lighting up their imaginations. The company also values its artists' commitment and thus fully compensates them for their work and talents, as well as nourishes their artistic vision. In short, this is a production house whose aim is pronounced in the simple statement, 'we hope our fiction inspires your reality!'

As the first Inland Northwest resident professional theatre company, the husband and wife duo who founded the company moved to Spokane from New York City in 1954. The Welchs studied at the Dramatic Workshop at the New School for Social Research, under teachers such as Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler, next to the likes of Marlon Brando, Walter Matthau, Harry Belafonte and Tony Curtis. The Spokane Ensemble, as Interplayers was known then, grew from the Professional Actors-in-Training Program which the Welchs ran for eighteen years while teaching at the Fort Wright College's theatre department. In 1980, after the college closed, they founded the ensemble with Joan Welch as the artistic director and Bob Welch as the managing director.

The Interplayers first home was the Eagles Lodge building, and their first production was staged in 1981. It was Elliot Nugent and James Thurber's The Male Animal and was particularly sentimental to the Welchs as they had gotten married between performances of the play while at the New School.

Since then, Interplayers has gone on to produce at least seven plays (and sometimes eleven) each season. Eight years after moving to the Lodge, they bought it from the owners and by 1995, their subscriber base had grown to three thousand. Additionally, the average capacity per season was at an astounding ninety three percent.

During the mid-nineties, the company employed a technical crew of seven, office staff, thirty six ensemble actors, an eighteen member advisory board and a sixteen member board of trustees. In 2001, the Welchs retired from Interplayers, after twenty years, and Robin Stanton served as the artistic director from 2002 to 2005. He was followed by Nike Imoru, for two years, Wes Deitrick for one and Karen Kalinsky for two until 2008. Since 2009, Reed McColm has been the artistic director of the Interplayers.

Pamela Brown is the executive director of the company, which has been a 501 non-profit organization since its formation. It has received grants from the Foundation Northwest, The National Endowment for the Arts, the Washington Trust Bank, the Washington State Arts Commission, the US Bank, Safeco Insurance and a number of charities such as Johnston-Fix and the Wasmer Fund for Arts.

This season's repertoire will include The Foreigner, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Broadway Bound, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Glass Menagerie, Reasons to be Happy, Reasons to be Pretty, The Best Brothers, Collected Stories and Boeing-Boeing. These can easily be seen live after buying Interplayers Theatre tickets.