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The Lights Will Stay on at Empty Space ; Theater's Funding Effort Tops $400,000

Posted on: Thursday, 3 February 2005, 06:00 CST

The Empty Space Theatre company, which stopped regular production and started emergency fund raising last fall, will recommence staging plays, the company's board decided last night.

Crippled by debt and non-existent financial reserves, the board decided in October that unless $350,000 could be raised by Jan. 31, the Space would go out of business.

As of yesterday, $403,865 had been raised, according to the company's interim managing director, Steve Galatros. "The money goes to retiring $192,000 in debt," he said last night. "The rest is to get the current season up and running again and to plan for next year's season.

"The budget is a cautious $650,000 for the year. That's about half of our peak: $1.1 million four years ago. For the past two months, the staff has been down to two. It used to be 12 people."

Most of the emergency fund contributions came from individuals, Galatros said. There were 2,293 such donations, the bulk of them under $500. The average contribution was $176. "The Space constituency has always been mostly ordinary people," Galatros said, "and it was basically those folks who came to our rescue." There was one corporate contribution, $8,000 from The Boeing Co., and gifts from two foundations, Lucky Seven ($25,000) and Breneman Jaech ($10,000).

Businesses that were owed money by the Space, including the company's landlord, Mike Peck, forgave a total of $39,000 in unpaid bills. The Space's 150-seat home is at 3509 Fremont Ave. N.

With its concentration on unpredictable productions - new works by contemporary writers - the Space has a long history of financial ups and downs.

Four years ago, nature added difficulties. After the Nisqually Quake, the theater's 1927 building, a former Odd Fellows Hall, dropped tons of bricks onto North 35th Street. During the building's restoration, the Space was forced to rent office space and to produce at the Seattle Children's Theatre.

Now in its 35th year, the Space started as an artistically ambitious and financially negligible operation first in Pike Place Market and then in a loft on Capitol Hill. A 1984 move to a sumptuous "dream home" near Pioneer Square nearly bankrupted the company. The move to Fremont in 1992 represented the company's determination to live frugally. Eventually, an accumulated debt of $300,00 was paid off, according to then-company manager Melissa Hines.

By 2003, the Space was in trouble again - as were most arts organizations after the dot-com bust and 9/11. That year, the Space had an emergency donation campaign to pay off pressing bills.

To keep out of trouble in the future, Galatros said, the board hopes to economize by sharing office space, staff and theater facilities with other arts organizations. Another strategy is to share production costs. Right now, Space artistic director Allison Narver is in Washington, D.C., developing "Horse Opera," a musical by Seattle writer/composer Chris Jeffries. The show is a Space co- production with D.C.'s Woolly Mammoth Theatre and the Illusion Theatre of Minneapolis.

On April 1, The Space will open "Biro," a show about AIDS in Africa written and performed by Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine of Uganda. "Stupid Kids," a dark comedy about high school angst, opens June 3.

P-I theater critic Joe Adcock can be reached at 206-448-8369 or joeadcock@seattlepi.com

Source: Seattle Post - Intelligencer

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