Seattle Theatres Lost & Founded

In partnership w/ UW World Series and One Coast Collaboration

A series of five free, public readings of representative plays from seminal Seattle theatres of the past.  As part of the School of Drama’s 75th Anniversary, we’ll be celebrating the Seattle theatre community of which we’re an integral part.  The reading series will pay tribute to inspiring companies no longer up and running: Alice B. Theatre, Bathhouse Theatre, Empty Space Theatre, Northwest Asian American Theatre, and the Seattle Group Theatre.

JANUARY 25, 2016
The third evening in the series features The Bathhouse Theatre and a reading excerpt from The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder. Former artistic director Arne Zaslove will be in attendance. A reception will follow the reading.

The Bathhouse Theatre

The Bathhouse, nestled on the west edge of Seattle's Green Lake, was built in 1927 as a place for bathers to change before plunging into the lake. In 1970, the city of Seattle converted it into The Bathhouse Theatre, which it operated for a decade, hiring local director Arne Zaslove as its artistic director in 1980. Two years later, the city slashed its arts budget, cutting loose Zaslove and his theater. Even though he was no longer a parks employee, Zaslove stayed in the Bathhouse, opting to lease the space from the city. There were many notable and still influential productions from two decades of performances, including holiday shows like The Big Broadcast and versions of Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies set to modern music, such as the highly popular and often remounted 1950s rock 'n' roll A Midsummer Night's Dream. Zaslove’s artistic direction of The Bathhouse Theater continued until the company shut down in 1999.

The original facility is now home to Seattle Public Theatre.

COMPLETE SERIES DATES

September 28, 2015: Alice B. Theatre
November 9, 2015: Seattle Group Theatre
January 25, 2016: The Bathhouse Theatre
February 8, 2016: Northwest Asian American Theatre
March 14, 2016: Empty Space Theatre