Only New York City has more equity theaters and performances than Seattle. What that means for Seattle audiences and visitors to Seattle is an artistic diversity that simply is not found elsewhere. Seattle Actors Theater was created to preserve and protect a uniquely American approach to theater art.
The next 100 years are critical to the survival of our approach. As such, the thriving Seattle Theater scene and Seattle actors, far from the politics, competition, and superficialities of New York and Los Angeles, are ideally matched to the challenge. It is the sincere hope of Seattle Actors Theater that future generations of audiences will be able to experience what has thrilled theater-goers since 1930 on the American stage.
By Seattle City Councilmember Nick Licata.
Exerpted from Urban Politics #193, 4/25/05
Live Theater Week
Today the Full Council unanimously passed Resolution 30765 which established one week each year in April to be known and celebrated as "Live Theater Week" in Seattle. This year, it will run from April 26th through May 2nd. The intent is to showcase a diverse range of programming, promote and increase live theater attendance, generate excitement, and demonstrate the political relevance of live theatre.
Participating theaters will offer incentives during Live Theatre Week for the public to attend plays and readings, such as pay-what-you-can admission, special meet-the-artist events, and behind the scenes tours. Scheduled events are posted at SeattlePerforms.com.
Live Theater Week coincides with "Take Part In Art"", a public awareness campaign conducted this Spring by the Arts Coalition, with support from the Seattle Foundation, encouraging citizens to partake in the vibrant arts sector that exists in Seattle.
I wrote and sponsored this resolution, to remind people that, beyond being proud of Seattle's theater scene, we all benefit in the long run from participating in it. I encourage Seattle citizens to attend theater performances, to buy tickets as gifts, and to commit to making Seattle's live theater a more significant part of their lives.
In addition to theater being an important contributor to Seattle's quality of life, ArtsFund, a major regional arts funder, determined that the arts had a $1 billion impact on Washington state's economy in 2003. ArtsFund's Economic Impact Study of Arts and Cultural Organizations for that year reports that live theatre in King County attracted the highest number of patrons of any other arts or cultural category surveyed - 2,286,429 - while generating $77,800,000 in spending.
Yet, financial challenges remain. The Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national association of not-for-profit professional theaters, told a Seattle audience recently that in 2000, 71 percent of the nation's theaters ended their fiscal years with a surplus enjoying the second widest participation among all art forms, next to museums. But, by 2003, 59 percent finished their fiscal years with a deficit, even though audience participation had not diminished. That represents a nationwide shift from three-quarters in the black to two-thirds in the red occurred within a three-year span.
In the same short period, TCG reports that ticket revenue dropped as a percentage of all income, public funding was cut in half, foundation funding fell off with the stock market, and 43 percent fewer corporations funded theater.
Reflecting these statistics, two of Seattle's longest-lived and beloved theaters, The Empty Space and ACT, came close to closing in the past two years. Yet, when the public learned of their plights, each theater was able to rally support and continue.
I don't believe those problems arose because people don't value theater. I think people simply need to be reminded every so often. Live Theatre Week is the Council's way of saying to both our stage theatres and to the public that theater is worth remembering.
J.D. Coburn
A Message From Our Founder
As the founder of Seattle Actors Theater there are two issues that I would address in response to Councilmember Licata's outstanding observations and commitment to live theater.
As a preface I want to point out that I fully endorse Resolution 30765 in spirit and context. It is as important that government supports art as it is to provide food, clean water and medicine for the homeless and the best possible free education for all the children of our community.
Our theater and theater company were created in the true spirit of American enterprise and innovation. There is the point of difference between our theater company and many others in Seattle. Seattle Actors Theater has never and will never 'panhandle' for funding; private or public.
Our theater company will succeed through merit or fail through being irresponsible to our service goals. Theater is a service. A theater or acting company does not produce a product that can be picked off of a shelf and scanned at the checkout stand. The service of theater in general is to entertain, inform and elevate it's audience by bringing to light, through portrayal and moral, meaningful stories of the human condition.
Seattle Actors Theater will never require a 'bail out' by responsible art lovers. Rather, Seattle Actors Theater will assume personal responsibility for elevating and deepening our audience's sense of themselves as individuals and that afore-mentioned human condition. The resulting demand placed on Seattle Actors Theater is therefore to create art that compells audiences to attend.
Too often, and sadly, the ambitions of many theaters in Seattle are to gain attention through shocking demonstrations of moral decay. Worse still, are the blatant efforts of presenting plays for the self-aggrandisement of the featured actors and writers. The real tragedy and comedy of some Seattle theaters is that the overwhelming emphasis of their efforts is toward fund-raising. Look at the staffs of these theaters and you'll see that the greatest percentage of their workers are employed in publicity and grant-writing while they may not even provide a single paying job for actors.
It is true that Seattle Actors Theater does not pay the actors in our productions. 100% of the monies collected for admission to our plays goes to the support of the Seattle Police Guild's 'Help the Officer Fund' which provides for police officers and the families of police officers who are facing a life-threatening illness or have been injured or have fallen in the line of duty. Furthermore, no police officer, firefighter, or American Armed Services member, or their family members will ever be charged admission to our theater or to see our plays irrespective of the venue. In other terms, Seattle Actors Theater is about contributing to the most vital of human needs; service to those who protect our rights and lives with their own and service to the patrons of fine art in theater.
With respect to the latter of those groups it is our unbending principle that 'Art Expresses Human Experience.' So, with the productions we mount at Seattle Actors Theater there will always be the underlying theme of decency versus indecency and where, just as in reality, decency may not always be victorious in the end it is the artistic aspiration of our theater and it's company that decency will be served by illustration.
It is a priviledge to serve art in this way. The mission of Seattle Actors Theater is to elevate acting and theater in Seattle. In doing so, we aspire to give audiences a reason to come to the theater, or return, as the case may be.
The saddest part of this article is that other Seattle theaters will take offense to what I've written instead of picking up the gauntlet and saying, "We're going to make theater better too!" Those who do pick up the gauntlet will be joining us in our mission, to elevate art and theater in Seattle, and in that we welcome them and encourage them to do their best.
Respectfully submitted, October 7, 2005 by J.D. Coburn; Founding Director, Seattle Actors Theater.
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