inlander.com18%
Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre’s next 2026 season musical Come From Away displays the importance of hope and humanity 46%
By Colton Rasanen0%
7/16/2026, 6:00:00 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 23 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Confirmation Bias, and Anecdotal, with Indoctrination as the most egregious example at 14.4% saturation with 132 hits. Analysis detected 996 faulty-reasoning hits from 916 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 48.3% and a BS Rank of 46% (11,114 of 20,315 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 54.70% of the article peer group.
Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre’s next 2026 season musical Come From Away displays the importance of hope and humanity
THEATER
By Colton Rasanen
Jul 16, 2026
Updated Jul 16, 2026
After the events of Sept. 11, 2001, it felt like the world stood still.
Nearly 3,000 people died in the world’s deadliest terrorist attack, however, in one small Canadian town east of Maine, the coming days were still buzzing with activity.
That’s because the U.S. closed its airspace and diverted 38 commercial planes to the Gander International Airport.
The town of Gander, Newfoundland — population about 10,000 — took in close to 7,000 passengers from around the world.
Former Spokesman-Review reporter Jeff DeFede was the first to write about the thousands of people stranded for a week in his 2002 book, The Day the World Came to Town, but the most popular retelling of the tale comes in the 2017 Broadway musical Come From Away.
Written by Canadians Irene Sankoff and David Hein, the 100-minute musical comes to life at Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre from July 17 to 26.
“People hear about Come From Away, and think ‘That’s the Sept. 11 musical,’ but it’s just set in that time period,” says Antoinette DiPietropolo, director and choreographer of the Coeur d’Alene show.
“Really, it’s about how people can come together at an event, how our reactions to a tragedy are all so different, and how you still have to support each other as a community but you can still move through it with joy and peace.
If you can recognize that everyone is dealing with trauma differently, you can have more empathy.”
DiPietropolo, a New Yorker with 26 years of experience in the field, has spent her last five summers in Coeur d’Alene; last year, she directed and choreographed Anastasia.
She credits Executive Artistic Director Chuck Ethridge and the work he’s done to elevate Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre, or CST, for her yearly directorial migration to the Inland Northwest.
“The professionalism of this community keeps me coming back here,” she says.
“The company is trying to do bigger and better things each year, and seeing the improvement in the shows has been such a lovely thing to experience the last five years.”
She’s particularly excited to present Come From Away because it plays to her strengths as a director and choreographer.
She describes the show as a “big director-movement piece” that requires effortless movement on stage.
“This one doesn’t have a ton of dancing, but it has a ton of musical staging in it, so when you do this musical staging as a director choreographer, I have sort of that sensibility of how to keep the piece flowing.”
While DiPietropolo can’t change the script or music for a licensed musical, she does have some leeway in how the show comes together.
For her, the best way to adapt the story was in its setting.
On Broadway, much of the show is performed in chairs at the airport.
But in Coeur d’Alene, the airport is more of a museum.
“I felt this was a little bit of a more grounding way to tell the story.
What we’re doing is we’re making it a museum piece where your set changes and these little blocks look like they’re blocks in a museum,” she says, explaining how messy the stage gets throughout the musical.
“It sort of is like the destruction that happened in that time and how everybody’s life is in an upheaval.
So, the set actually represents that, … and you’ll actually see how that kind of progresses through the night.”
Another highlight of the show is its approach to casting.
Made up of just 14 actors, each playing multiple roles, Come From Away keeps the audience engaged even without an intermission.
“We’re making multiple costume changes and everything, for the most part, is just happening right there on stage.
There are accessories and things that we take on and off to become different people, and that’s just happening throughout and we’re rearranging the objects on the stage to create the next scene,” actress Krista Kubicek says.
“It’s just done in a very creative way, and then music is very fun, uplifting and folksy almost.”
Kubicek plays Beverley Bass, an American pilot who was also the first woman to captain an American Airlines commercial plane, and Annette, a school teacher who hosts those stranded in an unfamiliar place.
Since 1997, Kubicek has starred in CST shows off-and-on, taking roles such as Belle in Beauty and the Beast, Fantine in Les Misérables and most recently Dolly Levi in CST’s 2025 production of Hello, Dolly!.
She fell in love with Come From Away when it came through Spokane in 2024 as part of the Best of Broadway series.
Its message was what inspired her to audition for a role, and she also hopes it’s what encourages audiences in their own lives after the show.
“In this current day and age, it’s just important to be reminded of the love and generosity and kindness that people are capable of,” she says.
“This story really restores your faith in humanity.
The biggest takeaway is that sort of hope and faith in humanity.”
Come From Away • July 17-26; Thu-Fri at 7:30 pm, Sat-Sun at 2 pm • $50-$192 • Schuler Performing Arts Center at North Idaho College • 880 W.
Garden Ave., Coeur d’Alene • cstidaho.com
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