There's a new place in the neighborhood, and it's full of Empty Space.
The Jeanne Marie and Rhoady Lee Jr. Center for the Arts opened on Tuesday, Feb. 14, at the corner of 12th Avenue and East Marion Street. The $6.75-million arts center, housed in a former auto dealership, presents a gleaming front to the street: 90 linear feet of plate glass windows showcase a visual arts gallery as well as the red velvet tunnel leading to a new 150-seat theater.
The Lee Center belongs to Seattle University and is the latest action of the university to reach out and connect with the neighborhood. Besides housing student shows in the gallery and the theater, SU intends the Lee Center to be an attractive addition to the street's entertainment offerings. Farther north on 12th, the Capitol Hill Arts Center and the Northwest Film Forum are drawing evening crowds to eclectic shows.
"I think this space will be a really wonderful addition to the neighborhood," said Carol Wolfe Clay, chair of the university's fine arts department. "Already, I'm getting a number of calls from people in the neighborhood who want to use the space for theater, dance or music. We did feasibility studies for about two years to see what type of space was needed in Seattle and 150 seats was a number that we kept hearing. We usually seat about 90 for our student shows, so this was a good step up for us too."
To add to the excitement, the Lee Center will now be home to Empty Space, one of Seattle's oldest professional theater companies.
"The relationship with Empty Space will be the biggest residency that we will have, but we're already starting to work with other programs, like Garfield High School's jazz program, to do things here," said Clay. "Right now, we're putting together an advisory board that is not just us (the fine arts faculty) but also people in the community to figure out how to use the time that we're not in the space."
For Empty Space, this is a move back to their roots. The company started 35 years ago on Capitol Hill, shifted downtown to Pioneer Square until rents became too high in that district, and then moved out to Fremont. Now, with Fremont rents escalating and Fremont parking shrinking, the move to the Lee Center offers a welcome opportunity for the company to stabilize its financial situation and provide a comfortable space for both its audiences and its actors.
"The theater in Fremont was a wonderful old space, but there was no backstage space, it was hard to move seats, there was little variation that you could do. We were paying a lot of rent. Parking was getting harder. Our number one complaint was parking. By the time that we did our last show in Fremont, we were having to hold curtains 15 minutes or more so our patrons could find parking," recalled Empty Space Artistic Director Alison Narver.
The move into the Lee Center began as a series of telephone conversations and e-mail exchanges between Narver and Clay last summer, when Clay asked Narver for some ideas about how to make the Lee Center a resource for the community as well as for the university's theater students. During that exchange, Narver said she finally wrote "well, what about having a 35-year-old professional theater company as residents?"
Clay saw the Empty Space proposal as a terrific way to attract a broad audience to the Lee Center as well as give Seattle University students an opportunity to work with a well-respected professional theater that has launched a number of careers in acting, directing and writing.
So Seattle University and Empty Space worked out an agreement that would move the theater's administrative staff to the campus and give the company a new performance space with all the flexibility their old space lacked.
The first Empty Space show at the Lee Center will be a new Lauren Weedman work, "Bust," in June. The Weedman show will be followed by Paul Mullin's "Louis Slotin Sonata" in September and "Forbidden Xmas" in December.
"Empty Space is not just moving their shows over here," emphasized Clay. "They are also moving their offices into our Fine Arts building. One thing that we were both really determined to do was to be in the same space together."
"To have a chance to cross-pollinate," added Narver.
"Exactly," said Clay, "and we're already bumping into each other. This month, we're just trying to get moved in and settled. Then we're going to take a breath and talk about how we're going to work together."
For the last 35 years, Empty Space has been known as a theater that seeks out the latest material from controversial playwrights and isn't afraid to push the audience's comfort zone. That, said Clay, won't change with the move to the Jesuit-run Seattle University.
"We're not known for doing tame theater [in the student program]. That's what is wonderful about theater. It makes you think. So we'll be highlighting the educational value" of the Empty Space's contributions, said Clay.
Narver added that many in the theater world have asked her about the constrictions of becoming artists-in-residence at a Catholic university.
"It is the question. How is wild and wacky Empty Space going to fit into this place? First and foremost, I think this is an incredibly progressive university. But it was written into our contract that we are an independent organization and that we are going to make our own decisions about our season," said Narver.
"But," she continued, "while Empty Space will continue to push the envelope and be driven by our mission, I am going to take the first couple of years here thinking about the environment here. We are going to be sensitive to, or rather not be insensitive to, the nature of college."
"Besides, we've worked together a lot already," added Clay, who has been designing sets for Empty Space shows since 1998 and has helped Empty Space workshop earlier shows at Seattle University.
The current Empty Space season was planned for the Fremont theater, but there is already a plan in the works to do an "Arts and Science" symposium around Mullin's play about nuclear scientist Louis Slotkin. That symposium will take place in May.
In 2007, Empty Space will launch its first season really designed around the opportunities presented by the Lee Center. Besides housing the state-of-the-art theater, the Lee Center also has a scene shop (with movable walls for easy shifting of sets into the theater) and costume shop. These technical resources will give Empty Space the chance to do shows that might have been too big or too complicated for the company's former space, noted Narver.
The plan for the near future is for the Empty Space to do a four-show season.
"We will do one co-production a year with the university and three of our own shows," said Narver. Besides being sensitive to the neighborhood, Narver is sensitive to the Empty Space's finances. The theater came perilously close to shutting down during the last two years and was barely saved by a last-minute outpouring of financial support by the community. The move to Seattle University, while giving Narver hope for long-term stability, was expensive, and Empty Space's administrators and board will continue to watch the budget closely. They plan to expand the season and the size of Empty Space shows cautiously for a few more years, Narver said.
Narver and the other Empty Space staff members are delighted to have a brand-new theater to play in and full of ideas about how to make that space work best for everyone involved. "The immediate plan is to finish out our season and learn how this space works, learn how we fit into the community, and learn how to take advantage of that gorgeous theater," said Narver. "Also figure out how to attract SU students to the work that we do."
But this month, Narver added, the administrative staff of Empty Space is just enjoying the little support services now offered by Seattle University. The Empty Space staff no longer have to empty the wastebaskets in their offices or clean their theater.
"Oh," joked Clay, "didn't we mention that clause?"
Rosemary Jones writes about arts and entertainment for the Capitol Hill Times. Reach her at editor@capitolhilltimes.com or 461-1308.
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