Throughout its 25-year history, the Merc has showcased a wide variety of the performing arts in addition to theatrical productions. Early in its history, the Merc served as venue for a movie series. We've hosted several popular “Open Merc” events (our version of an open mic event) where local people could perform music, or a skit, or routine.

Dance revues have been popular events through the years, running the gamut from broadway-style shows to a mask-a-rave dance event on New Year’s Eve 2009 for locals, to the performance of a professional ballet troupe from Tacoma in the fall of 2015. The Merc stage has seen it all.

We’ve hosted lectures, panel discussions, talk backs following important performances and served as the venue for our local Poetry Out Loud since 2012. Two Poet Laureates of the State of Washington have traveled to Twisp and performed at the Merc.
Visiting professional acting troupes have included both Oregon and Seattle Shakespeareans, as well as Seattle University student actors.

See that relaxed couple in the third row, center—ready to enjoy opening night of Driving Miss Daisy here on the Fourth of July? They barely made it back home to Twisp in time for the parade earlier today, and you won’t believe what they’ve been through since last spring.

This couple — Min and Mona, as I’ve always known them — were down at their Pacific Coast home when a new guy showed up. He said he was a surfer from Hawaii, interested in buying some local beachfront property. Seemed nice enough. He hung around for a day, left a thank-you note, and even a pricey bottle of vodka as a parting gift.

Some time later, Min and Mona got a call from friends in Bellingham who’d heard about the mysterious surfer. These friends had done a little digging and discovered the visitor was actually an escaped criminal—wanted by the FBI. Turns out, he’d fled during his trial and sentencing.

Well, Min and Mona did the right thing: they contacted the FBI… who, surprisingly, didn’t seem too interested in following up or taking them up on their offer to help. But Min and Mona weren’t ready to let it go. They got in touch with a bounty hunter who had been chasing this guy for months. Together, they laid a trap.

By Jane Hill

According to Laurelle Walsh in the December 26, 2012, issue of the Methow Valley News, Reader's Theater productions became popular following the Second World War when resources were scarce. Building sets, making or finding costumes and props necessary for full productions, can be downsized or ignored for a Reader's Theater production. Add to that the much-shortened rehearsal schedule since actors rehearse and perform with their scripts, and you understand immediately the production appeal of Reader's Theater.

Heightened artistic appeal also adds to the popularity of Reader's Theater: Many patrons of The Merc Playhouse express their appreciation of the simpler, less busy production a Reader's Theater entails, encouraging concentration on language — the power and beauty of words alone and their ability to present scenes for your mind, as well as the meaning of universal ideas, existential concepts.

An ongoing concern of any not-for-profit must be the bottom line – can we earn enough money through grants, donations and creative fundraising to keep our doors open and our programs top-notch. Last month we looked at the creative ends our Merc friends went to in order to purchase our concert grand piano. This month let’s talk about how other individuals and groups have rented The Merc facility in order to help other not-for-profit organizations gain valuable exposure and even funds.
         
First for exposure, once he was home Dana Visalli wanted to share his experience of serving with an Iraq Peace Team. He rented The Merc space to give local people an idea of what our brothers and sisters in that part of the world are like by sharing slides and stories of his adventures there.
 
In 2010 then Superintendent of Schools Mark Wenzel performed an evening of popular songs in The Merc, donations benefitted the not-for-profit Public School Funding Alliance.
 
Local musicians Terry Hunt, Lynette Westendorf, and others have performed numerous evenings of music in The Merc venue, the proceeds benefitting our sister arts organization Cascadia.
         
For several years now, Michael Brady has rolled out our grand piano to entertain us with his music and his knowledge of composers. The funds taken in from these performances have been donated to another valley not-for-profit such as Room One or the Cove.
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​This month the Merc spotlight focuses on a prized possession carefully guarded and secretly shrouded. Did you guess? Have you wondered, like me: “How does a small, unprepossessing community theater in a remote (though beautiful) valley in Washington State far from any population hub afford to possess a concert grand piano?”
 
Here’s what I discovered in our Merc Archives (thanks, Christine Kendall, for championing  this archiving  project):

Sometime  in the spring of 2000, the Board of Directors of the Merc Playhouse was asked to return the Chickering Grand Piano which they had secured on loan. The loan, it seems, had run its course. However, the Merc’s desire to own its own grand piano had not faded.
 
They returned the loaned Chickering as requested, and then sought the help of the Community Foundation of North Central Washington. The Board applied to this benevolent foundation for funds toward the purchase of a grand piano. Turned down for this request, the Board reapplied, and their tenacity earned a $1500 grant toward the purchase of the piano.
 
The community at large was responsible for raising the remaining funds, and soon “everyone” was involved (you know our community.) Local musicians signed up to provide benefit recitals with donations directed to the grand piano fund. Pam and Terry Hunt, John Weeks, and new resident Lynette Westendorf provided evenings of musical entertainment and refreshments for (hopefully generous) donations. Later, Lynette arranged a whole series of fund-raising recitals. She was so invested in this piano project that she stepped forward to find just the “right” piano to enhance the ideal Merc acoustic discovered by Carolanne and Egon Steinebach when they first stepped into the former Mercantile.
 
The Merc has many people to thank for helping us secure our beautiful and cherished ebony K. Kawai Concert Grand Piano, a treasure for decades to come.
 
Cheers to 25 Years!
​Jane Hill

The following review, from the same edition of the Methow Valley News, shares more information about the production.  

Both pieces are reprinted with the permission of Don Nelson from the Methow Valley News. 

By Jane Hill

This month we shine our Merc spotlight on … the people who’ve made us who we are! We’re celebrating our roots and inviting you to join the party.   

Once Carolanne and Egon had reconfigured the Merc Hardware Store into The Merc Playhouse, they were ready to bring in some plays. Aware that the Methow Valley Theater, performing in the gym at the Community Center, had been using local talent in their productions, the Steinebachs decided to run a professional theater – to book and pay actors through talent search businesses in Seattle. Carolanne selected scripts and actors and directed them, while Egon managed all things technical. 

As the business end of things got more demanding, Carolanne hired a part time business manager, Helen Buzenberg. Carolanne doesn’t remember that Helen stayed long in the valley.  She gets credit, however, for the idea of “Open Merc [Mic],” an opportunity for local talent to try out their ideas.

After ten years of theater management, the Steinebachs stepped down, making way for the duo of competent women who managed the theater as equal partners, Jane Hubrig as the business manager and Julie Wenzel as the artistic director. They decided to showcase local acting talent, choosing plays of general interest.

When Jane Hubrig listed the vacancy to be filled by Julie Wenzel’s departure in 2013, she received 35 solid applicants for artistic director. From among them was selected Ki Gottberg, a professor in the theater department at Seattle University. During Ki’s tenure here in Twisp, the Merc was happy stage-home to several of Seattle U’s productions, including Picnic and Mother Courage and Her Children.

Jane Hubrig retired as business manager in 2014 and her replacement was Missi Smith. Missi and Ki served together until Ki’s departure in 2017. Then Missi saw us through COVID in 2020, when the world shut down. COVID hit just as we were ready to open The Fantastic Mr. Fox; a year later, in March of 2021, we opened that postponed show.  

Kira Wood-Cramer currently fills the position of Executive Director. The Merc’s staff is rounded out by Karter Layfield as House Manager and Technical Director, Darla Hussey as Marketing Director, Jenny Knox as Facilities Manager, Amy Ellenger as Business Manager, and Dean Hussey as Audio Engineer.

By Jane Hill

This month we shine our Merc spotlight on … The Merc itself! We’re celebrating our roots and inviting you to join the party.   

The beloved Mercantile in Twisp, where you could buy anything from axle grease to zippers, was going out of business. Carolanne and Egon Steinebach paused in front of the store window. “Everything is 70% off,” Carolanne commented. “Surely we can find something we need at that bargain price.”

Into the Merc they went, separating, wandering, each searching for the perfect sale item. Stopping at one display, Carolanne commented to herself, “Here, I’ve found something I can use.”

“What’d you find?” she heard Egon ask.

“Some lanyards to hang my reading glasses around my neck. Where ARE you?” she demanded, realizing that Egon was totally out of sight in another part of the Merc.

Finding their way back together, the two stopped to contemplate the store’s acoustics that allowed them to hear each other at a normal speaking volume clear across the store. Then they looked up. Ahhhh! Fifteen foot ceilings! Of course. An idea blossomed.

With the eyes of a person long involved in the technical aspects of live theater, Egon looked around the old store, considering floor space, possible layout, advantages of certain stage and seating arrangements, all the while noting the general charm of the place. “This space would make an interesting small theater,” was Egon’s assessment.

Inquiries confirmed that the building was already leased. “So, end of story,” Egon noted. “If it’s meant to be, it will be.”

For the next four years, The Merc served as a market space for antiques and collectibles. When the building became available again in 1998, the Steinebachs were living in the valley. The dream of turning the Mercantile store into “The Merc Playhouse” was more than tempting. Discussions led to deals led to signatures, and the building was theirs. Carolanne went to work drawing up papers to obtain a 501(c)(3) tax exempt status for the fledgling organization, and she and Egon began the physical work of transforming the department store into a theater, culminating in the welcoming valley space we enjoy today, our beloved Merc Playhouse.