Chad Smith and Bruce Willis star in Sam Shepard’s True West at the Liberty Theatre in 2001. The play was Willis’ second time on stage with the Company of Fools, which he helped found in 1997. Smith, a Hailey native, has gone on to enjoy success as a film actor.

In the Shadow of the Stars
Thirty years of theater in Sun Valley.
by Tony Evans

One of the early Laughing Stock shows, Cowboy, starring J.K. Simmons, center (now a successful Hollywood actor), premiered at the Opera House in 1982. It also featured local actresses Jules Petit, left, Cherie Kessler, Karyn Crawford, Patty Parsons and Janet Edmund (front). Courtesy photo

In 1977, Wygle founded Ketchum’s first theatre group, The Laughing Stock Theater Company, by gathering a few actors at Louie’s restaurant. The company included Chris Millspaugh, Rick Kessler, David Blampied and Bill Nagel. Their first production was Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite, performed at the Sun Valley Opera House. Wygle has gone on to produce 40 plays in 30-odd years.

That year, 1977, was also the year Mariel Hemingway would leave town for her Oscar-nominated turn in Woody Allen’s Manhattan and Vincent Dowling left the valley to resume his duties at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Ohio. While there, he gave an equity card to a young actor named Tom Hanks.

But there were those who thought the valley was ready for something a bit more serious. "We wanted to do challenging and provocative theater," said David Blampied, who left Laughing Stock in 1984 to embark on seven years of theatrical training in New York City. Upon his return in 1991, he founded the New Theater Company, and went on to stage 35 plays in 13 years, including Pulitzer prize-winning Wit by Margaret Edson.

Blampied also toured Idaho in the one-man-show Papa by John de Groot to commemorate Ernest Hemingway’s 100th birthday. "It wasn’t easy doing serious theater in a town that likes to be entertained," said Blampied. He eventually decided to give the valley masses what they wanted when he brought Forever Plaid to Sun Valley. The song and dance show has been running for nearly a decade at the resort.

Jon Kane, founder of the Interplanetary Theatre Company, consistently drew big names to local stages for both reasons. The actors included Pamela Sue Martin (from Nancy Drew, Dynasty and The Poseidon Adventure) and Adam West (star of the original 1970s Batman series). "I basically had to stalk Adam to get him on the stage for a reading of David Mamet’s Duck Variations with Bill Raymond," said Kane, who now works on construction sites in the valley and has no immediate plans to return to producing. "Raymond had won several Obie Awards for his work off-Broadway, but I still had to educate people as to who he was. When you use actors with a deeper level of experience, it brings cachet to local productions."

Kane played Bundles the Laundry Man in Laughing Stock’s Annie, which starred Steve D’Smith as Daddy Warbucks. Bruce Willis’ daughter Rumor was in the show, and Kane saw Willis in the audience every night. "I asked him if he wanted to play the part of Bundles for the final night. He said, ‘I thought you’d never ask.’ It was my best moment as a producer. The audience went nuts."

Soon Willis took to a stage of his own at the Liberty Theatre in Hailey, which he purchased, renovated and made available to his old friend Denise Simone and her partner Rusty Wilson. Their Company of Fools debuted with Diary of a Mad Man, and has since become an Idaho arts institution. In 2005, the company received the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, due in large part to its commitment to theater education in the community. "Our first show cost $5 and people brought bags of food and beer from Paul’s Grocery," said Simone. The next show starred Willis in Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love, marking his return to theater after an 18-year Hollywood career.

Keith Joe Dick came to the valley from Los Angeles to play in Fool for Love. Dick also had a part in the film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions, shot in Twin Falls and featuring Willis, Albert Finney, Nick Nolte and a group of local actors, including Anna Johnson, Denise Simone and one of the early Laughing Stock players, Bill Nagel.

But in the Age of Celebrity, it matters much who tells the story. Wygle’s nexStage has had Carol Burnett, Cliff Robertson and British film star David Hemmings from Michael Antonioni’s Blowup on its boards. This year she is canceling the Sun Valley Shakespeare Festival after nine seasons, due to financial constraints. "It helps shine your star to have big names in your theater, but the real task lies in long-term fundraising."

This valley has the funds and the Hollywood connections to make dreams come true for even the biggest of stars. Every summer, dozens of media mogul jets line the runway at the airport in Hailey for the Allen & Company conference. Last year, Google’s Sergey Brin and Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein strolled together in front of the Sun Valley Inn. Perhaps even locals like Tom Hanks, Scott Glenn and Jamie Lee Curtis are hoping for a break.

Evolution of Community Theater

Laughing Stock 1977 – present
Rick Kessler & Mary Stevens in Plaza Suite, 1977