Laura Little: Summer

<p>Laura Little is the executive director of the Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre.</p>

by BILL BULEY
Staff Writer | May 16, 2010 9:00 PM

In January, Laura Little landed the role of a lifetime: executive director of the Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre.

After more than three months at it, her enthusiasm and passion haven't changed.

"It's my dream job to work with Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre," she said.

Little oversees a budget of $900,000 and staff of about five. Since coming on board, she's made her goals clear, and that's to let the community know all about the Summer Theatre and all it has to offer.

Specifically, some fantastic performances are coming up, she said, and she wants to be sure the seats are filled.

"You have to market your shows to get people there," she said.

Little, who moved to North Idaho with her family six years ago, was with Christian Youth Theater in Spokane as executive artistic director before being named to lead the Summer Theatre.

A few smaller changes she's made will see CST selling beer and wine before the shows and at intermission, and it is and upgrading its concessions to gourmet desserts.

"We also have a volunteer teen and adult guilds that will help with a variety of things such as being a greeter at the shows, selling raffle tickets and concession, putting up fliers and bringing treats to the actors and crew," said Little, owner of LLL Talent Agency.

Right now, since January, and as long as she's executive director, her focus will be on the success of the Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre.

For good reason.

"I'm proud of the product," she said. "It's easy to represent an organization where you're very proud of the product."

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What have been some goals for you as the executive director of Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre?

The business end has never run as well as the show end. We're just out there trying to market completely different now. It's exciting, everything that's happening. A new website, our logo has stayed the same but we cleaned it up. We Twitter now, we're Facebook, hopefully going to be seen by all the press and they'll start knowing who we are.

Why do you like this job so much?

I'm proud of the Summer Theatre. What I love about it is I get to meet with all the other executive directors from other professional theaters around the nation. We met in Washington, D.C., last month and compared notes. I learned a lot of marketing strategies from them, and outreach. Summer Theatre has been lacking in the outreach department. So we're doing kids camps this summer for the first time. We'll do some training seminars for people on the arts, just really play well with the other theaters.

What I'm most excited about, my personal goal for the theater, is to make it a destination spot for people.

How will you do that?

I've worked with The Resort to put a package together. People can spend the night and go to the theater. I don't know why this wasn't done years ago, but it's done now. Ultimately if I can get in with the airlines and make it a huge package and people know to come to Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre, to play on the lake and see a show. That's my personal goal.

My other goal is to make our Christmas show a big extravaganza. If somehow we can tie it in, people would come here, spend the night, go see Santa Claus, and the next time see a family oriented Christmas show. This year we're still doing a small show, our funding doesn't allow us to do a big show, but hopefully we'll start selling more tickets.

How do you like the summer lineup?

I love it because I'm a big fan of "25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," but again, we need to make sure we get people in the door so they can see it. And then, "Cinderella." we've got Ellen Travolta in it, her two sisters are in it, that doesn't happen very often, the three of them are on stage together. That one is going to do really well.

"Pump Boys and the Dinettes" is a country western show. Hopefully that will bring a new crowd who don't necessarily follow theater. And then, "Hairspray," which everybody has heard of and is great fun.

What kind of hours do you put in?

It's 60 hours a week without fail, and sometimes more because there is so much to turn around. I was hired part time just to help fill in some cracks. Then the managing director left and the box office manager left, so we had to hire all new people and kind of start anew. So the last two months, we're basically a brand new company, as far as the business end is concerned. The artistic side is the same. The business end is completely different.

What's a typical day for you?

I get up at 4:30 and I'll go work on e-mail until about 6:30. Then get ready to take my son to school. I'm at the office by 7:45 each morning. And then, because I've been dealing with a lot more office things than I should, I haven't been getting out in the community very much until the last three weeks. And now I'm just out going to hospitals, seniors centers, visiting with people. I usually spend about 45 minutes on the agency. I have a full-time person running the agency right now because I can't do both. Touch base with her, then go to some evening event to promote Summer Theatre until my son has a game. He plays baseball.

Can you tell me about your background in the arts?

I started doing theater a little bit when I was little, a little more in high school, more in college. My mom wrote play reviews, she was an editor for the paper. So she wrote the play review and I would go with her from the time I was little, about 8 years old.

And then in my teens, she couldn't write a review one time and I said, 'I'll do it.' And I started writing play reviews for the paper. Then I started getting interested in directing because I was dissecting the shows all the time when I would go to review them, so I started taking directing classes.

My kids became involved in theater, which pushed my life more in the theater direction and I came up here and started sitting on boards and directing. Here we are.

Besides your mom, who have been strong influences in the arts for you?

My dad. He's in a choir and has been forever. It's a 100 piece choir. He sings in Washington, D.C., and they travel around, so he's been a big influence in the arts.

My daughter, Jessi is a great little actress. She just keeps my love for the arts alive.

Is this area supportive of Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre?

I think the community as a whole, for how small it is, is amazing for how many theaters it has and how many they support. Summer Theatre is really a gem. It is professional and it is known by all the professional theaters in the nation.

How is the Summer Theatre different than Lake City Playhouse?

Summer Theatre is professional. They're both nonprofit, which is one of the things people don't know about Summer Theatre. They think because there's professional actors it's for profit. It's nonprofit. They also do musicals and nonmusicals. We only do musicals.

What's something you want to be sure the community knows about the Summer Theatre?

We are not part of North Idaho College. We rent the theater from NIC. A lot of people think we're funded through NIC and we don't need funding, and that's not true at all. Just understanding how much it is to do a show. Last year we paid $50,000 just to use the rights for the show, just to use the songs and the script. Next year, if we get the shows we want, it will be $70,000. That's a lot of money we have pay just to do the shows, much less the costumes, the cast, they get paid. The orchestra gets paid. Just how expensive it is to put on a show.

Would you say you're feeling good about the direction of the Summer Theatre?

Very good.

Date of birth: Feb. 1, 1963

Family: Husband, Brent, two sons, one daughter.

Number of hours on average you work in a week: 60

Number of hours on average you sleep in a night: 5

Hobbies: Kayaking

Favorite movie: "Shawshank Redemption" and "Remember the Titans"

Favorite book: "Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara

Favorite author: Jeff Shaara

Favorite type of music: Musical theater

Favorite spectator sport: Football

One person who most influenced your life: My father. He's got this great strategy. Work hard, play hard and always tell the truth.

Quality you admire most in a person: Will power

Any one thing you consider your greatest accomplishment: Personally, my kids. Professionally, the restoration of CYT in Spokane

Best advice you ever received: Play well with others.

This summer's lineup at the Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre:

THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE

Six young people in the throes of puberty, overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves, learn that winning isn't everything and that losing doesn't necessarily make you a loser.

A hilarious tale of overachievers' angst chronicling the experience of six adolescent outsiders vying for the spelling championship of a lifetime. The show's Tony Award winning creative team has created the unlikeliest of hit musicals about the unlikeliest of heroes: a quirky yet charming cast of outsiders for whom a spelling bee is the one place where they can stand out and fit in at the same time.

Opens June 12

CINDERELLA

The timeless enchantment of a magical fairy tale is reborn with the Rodgers & Hammerstein hallmarks of originality, charm and elegance. Originally presented on television in 1957 starring Julie Andrews, Rodgers & Hammerstein's CINDERELLA was the most widely viewed program in the history of the medium. Its recreation in 1965 starring Lesley Ann Warren was no less successful in transporting a new generation to the miraculous kingdom of dreams-come-true, and so was a second remake in 1997, which starred Brandy as Cinderella and Whitney Houston as her Fairy Godmother. As adapted for the stage, with great warmth and more than a touch of hilarity, the hearts of children and adults alike still soar when the slipper fits.

Opens July 3

PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES

The pump boys sell high octane on Highway 57 in Grand Ole Opry country and the dinettes, Prudie and Rhetta Cupp, run the Double Cupp diner next door. Together they fashion an evening of country western songs that received unanimous raves on and off Broadway. They perform on guitars, piano, bass and, yes, kitchen utensils.

Opens July 22

HAIRSPRAY

Loveable plus-size heroine, Tracy Turnblad, has a passion for dancing, and wins a spot on the local TV dance program, "The Corny Collins Show." Overnight she finds herself transformed from outsider to teen celebrity. Can a larger-than-life adolescent manage to vanquish the program's reigning princess, integrate the television show, and find true love (singing and dancing all the while, of course!) without mussing her hair?

Opens Aug. 7