Two Major Seattle Theaters Explore Merger
ACT Theatre and the Seattle Shakespeare Company recently announced that its respective boards are exploring a merger. The prospective forging of the two would produce a new entity in the Seattle theater community as well as create an arts center that focuses on both classic and contemporary works housed in the historic Eagles Auditorium Building at 700 Union Street.
The announcement was summarized in a joint statement: “The combining of resources would serve as a rejuvenating force to downtown Seattle, create new opportunities for artists within the community to work and grow, and consistently utilize all performance spaces within the landmark Eagles Auditorium Building, leading to more groundbreaking contemporary and classic programming from both organizations.”
While this news is exciting, it’s also a reminder of the fragility of the theater ecosystem in Seattle and throughout the Puget Sound region—one need look no further than the 2023 demise of Book-It Repertory Theatre. When Book-It collapsed, more fuel was added to the ongoing concern across the city’s arts community over the vulnerability of all of our mid-level, professional theaters (such as Seattle Shakespeare). This concern is “ongoing” because Seattle has been here before with the closing of beloved companies The Group Theatre (1998), Tacoma Actors Guild (2004), and The Empty Space (2006).
Eagles Auditorium Building, a.k.a. ACT Theater, c. 1926 / HistoryLink.org
Why the need for a merger? To provide more immediate context, it is necessary to take into account the ongoing effect of the COVID pandemic upon theater companies nationwide. From Teresa Eyring, the Executive Director of the Theatre Communications Group (TCG):
While the initial impact of the pandemic was immense, with an 88% one-year drop in total ticket income, a combination of historic federal relief funds and adaptive resilience largely saw theaters through. Now, with those relief funds ending, our theater ecology is facing a series of compounding challenges, many of which predated the pandemic but have been accelerated by it. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, theater companies were already concerned about how to get more people in seats. Worries about declining ticket sales and audience retention, on top of economic inflation, have grown even more urgent as performances have safely come back to the stage, but audiences haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. The key question is, what are the things that are being done in order to emerge from the pandemic in a sustainable way?
The question of sustainability is a powerful factor across the country as many theaters struggle to remain viable, recapture their audiences, and balance their budgets. Merging companies is one way to attain continuing viability and to pool valuable resources.
While a merger is not a closure, it does mean one fewer theater in town. How might this affect the arts landscape of the city?
What has made Seattle theater incredibly special over the years is the sense of collaboration and collegiality among the different theater organizations. This is what makes Seattle one of the most important cities for theater in the country, and the heart of this powerful community began with the leadership of Greg Falls, founder of ACT. It is especially exciting to explore a merger of these two companies, with nearly 100 years of combined theatrical service in Seattle, to create something stronger, more vibrant, more impactful than either alone.
—John Bradshaw, Executive Director, SSC
This is not only about ACT and Seattle Shakespeare, but also about the city of Seattle. What better way to assist in the revitalization of downtown than to join together the forces of two storied arts organizations into our historic Seattle landmark building. We see this as a first step to becoming an arts center in the heart of the city. We feel this is out of the box, collaborative thinking where all parties benefit, and that the real winner will be this great city.
—John Langs, Artistic Director, ACT
