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.

NOVEMBER 9, 2015
The second evening in the series features Seattle Group Theatre and a reading of Sizwe Banzi Is Dead by Athol Fugard. Former artistic director Timothy Bond will be in attendance. A reception will follow the reading.

Sizwe Banzi is Dead
by Athol Fugard
In this intensely funny and poignant drama exploring the universal struggle for human dignity, a black man in apartheid-era South Africa tries to overcome oppressive work regulations to support his family. The Seattle Group Theatre produced this play twice in their tenure and also toured it to schools throughout the region.

CAST
William Hall Jr. (founding member of Seattle Group Theatre)
AJ Friday (UW Drama PATP)

Seattle Group Theatre

Seattle Group Theatre Company was founded in 1978 by the cast and crew of Short Eyes, which was directed by Rubén Sierra, an alumnus and faculty member of the School of Drama. Seattle Group Theatre operated out of the UW Ethnic Cultural Theatre and later the Center House Theatre. Seattle Group Theatre was one of the first multi-ethnic theatre companies in the country and a leader in the movement for multicultural and inclusive casting.

Seattle Group Theatre changed the predominantly white theatre scene in Seattle, “presenting multicultural playwrights' festivals and works by the likes of Keith Glover, Jose Cruz Gonzalez and Chay Yew. It was one of the first theaters in town to stage the works of Athol Fugard and Derek Walcott; in 1995, it mounted a gutsy musical about Sarajevo. And it gave now-acclaimed directors and actors some of their first breaks: Timothy Bond (a former Group artistic director), Jacqueline Moscou, Timothy McCuen Piggee.” –The Seattle Times

“They were a terribly important part of the whole Seattle theater development. The Group was the first place where Latinos, Asians and blacks could get a chance to show their stuff. And they really did.” -Wayne Johnson in The Seattle Times, at the time of the company’s closure in 1998.

COMPLETE SERIES DATES

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