A Capitol Hill theater faced with roaming venues after leaving its $5,000-per-month home on E Pike has struck a deal with another financially challenged neighborhood cultural institution. Balagan Theatre will take over management of Seattle Central’s Erickson Theatre venue, the Seattle Times reports:
The Erickson will be used for Balagan productions as well as SCCC drama-student projects, and as a rental facility for other local theater groups.
The 133-seat venue on Harvard Avenue, just off Pine Street, contains a box office, dressing rooms, a scene shop, costume shop, rehearsal room and other facilities. Most recently, it has hosted productions by the Strawberry Theater Workshop, which is in talks with Balagan about renting the space for future shows.
Balagan had been the most recent — surviving — face of Capitol Hill’s endangered theater scene. Theatre founder Jake Groshong told CHS Balagan was beginning its “gypsy” season after it left its spendy underground digs on E Pike just below Boom Noodle in 2010.
“We’d outgrown our space. We felt we had accomplished what we had set out to do and wouldn’t be able to grow in the ways we wanted to as an organization if we stayed where we were,” Groshong said.
The new deal with SCCC should help both organizations. It gives Balagan a home, for one, and the community college is in the midst of continued budget cuts thanks to the squeeze on state coffers.
It’s not clear what the deal will mean for the Broadway Management Group, the organization that books the Broadway Performance Hall and had been representing the Erickson. SCCC didn’t issue an announcement of the Balagan deal so we’ll follow up to learn more.
The 8,000 square-foot Erickson Theatre facility at 1524 Harvard Ave underwent an award-winning $1.3 million renovation in 2004 headed by LMN Architects. It is named for Ed Erickson, the founding president of the Seattle Community College District, who died in 2005.
Balagan is a nonprofit theater that has been active in the area since the mid-2000s. You can learn more at balagantheatre.org.
How did such a bad theatre company get management of such a good space?
1)Broadway Management Group did a meh job of running this space. It sat empty for huge chunks of the year, and they charged way too much for rentals.
2)Despite Mr/Ms Hunty Pants nasty previous comment, The Balagan is a great SMALL company. No, not every production hits it out of the park, but they’ve done some excellent shows on a tiny budget. It’s good news for the Capitol Hill theater/arts community that they’re back in business ON the Hill.
Wow, Lageryhythm is not only an asshole but completely wrong. Balagan is one of the absolute best theatre companies in Seattle and this news is well deserved. Straight up.
Love small theater companies …. but I did not get much from trying to go two three or four B. productions when they were downstairs.
I think a new start is great, new space, new season. But they need to get better material, better players. Maybe a new name, Last Chance Company.
My opinion, have not missed their productions.
This is great news and speaks to the tencity and leadership of The Balagan Theatre. I think it bodes well for the theatre community, Capitol Hill, SCCC, and the facility itself. Congratulations and keep up the good work to keep theatre alive and well in Seattle.