History
STAGE COACH THEATRE-A BRIEF HISTORY
Stage Coach Theatre was established as a non-profit 501(C)3 corporation in 1981. The original Board of Directors consisted of five founding members. The main objectives of the theatre at that time were
1) to provide quality theatre to the community at a low cost,
2) to bring live theatre to communities that would otherwise not be exposed to live theatre, and
3) to use local actors and writers whenever possible and eventually to pay them.
The original name was The Stagecoach Inc. It had nothing to do with doing western themed plays, but referred to traveling to other communities. The logo on our first sign was an actual stagecoach. The reference was a bit obscure and caused no end of confusion because of the Stagecoach Inn Restaurant in Garden City.
Approximately 15 years ago the by-laws were revised and the Stagecoach name was split into Stage Coach. It was felt the because we were not traveling, the reference to the conveyance didn’t mean anything to the public, and that perhaps because we were “coaches of stage work” the name “Stage Coach” would make more sense and separate us a little more in the public’s mind from the restaurant.
There were five productions the first season that were performed in the basement of the Basque Center in downtown Boise. Ticket prices were $3.50 and the annual operating budget was just over $5,000. One production that year did travel to Mountain Home, Idaho and one production was written by one of the founding members. The first two seasons at the Basque Center were followed by two seasons at the Women’s Club on Main Street in downtown Boise and one season at the former Chapins Restaurant on Federal Way in Boise.
Our building at 2000 Kootenai
We then negotiated with the City of Boise to lease an abandoned, former fire station/traffic court for $1,000 per year. We enjoyed eleven seasons in that building before it was torn down for a road-widening project. We then moved to our current location in the Hillcrest Shopping Center.
Stage Coach Theatre has seen tremendous growth over the last twenty-eight years. The original five member Board has grown to twelve members who are elected annually by the membership. There are currently eight regular productions and two mid-season fundraisers each season making Stage Coach Theatre the first year round theatre in Boise.
The move to our current facility saw our rent increase from $1,000 per year to nearly $17,000 per year, currently. That coupled with increases in utilities and production costs has increased our annual budget to approximately $38,000. This has only spurred the creativeness of our directors, actors and technical volunteers asking them to do great things on what can laughingly be described as shoe-string budgets.
NOTE: The spelling of “Theatre” in Stage Coach Theatre is the English spelling and used to differentiate between live stage “Theatre” and movie “Theaters.”
Written by LaRae Walker, edited by Helene Myers.
As more of our history translates from oral to digital, we will continue to add pieces.
Gerry Bryant found this almost pristine copy of the very first season poster:
This bit of memorabilia that was found taped to a pull-out tray in one of desks that we use for set pieces. This is the line-up for our sixth season:
Our sixth season and the first one in the Kootenai location
If you have memorabilia, pictures, pieces of history or anything else, please let us know: stagecoachtheatre@gmail.com
