Seattle Musical Theatre to Save the Stage

Seattle Musical Theatre (SMT) has received an award from the Morgan Family Foundation to rebuild the stage at their historic theatre in Magnuson Park. SMT began its campaign to 'Save the Stage' after an inspection in 2016 revealed that the temporary stage built ten years earlier was literally on its last legs. The supporting infrastructure, after years of shimming, bracing, and leveling, was beyond saving and would need to be demolished and rebuilt.

The inspection, which took place during the 2016 annual meeting, also uncovered a surprise. Amidst the sagging timbers was a crescent shaped half wall dating back to the Navy's construction of the building in 1941. Research revealed that it was the original orchestra pit used to support the screening of silent films. The location of the pit was apparently too far upstage for musical theatre productions, so a stage extension was built over it and a platform built house left for the orchestra.

SMT kicked off the 'Save the Stage' rebuild with the support of Artfund's 'power2give.' (Here is a link to the promotional video used during the campaign: https://vimeo.com/169168430).

After meeting the initial target goal, fundraising has continued through Seattle Foundation's 'GiveBig' and King County Employees Annual Giving Program.

Meanwhile, Artistic Director Tyrone Brown began questioning the location of the orchestra in relation to the stage. 'SMT has been plagued by poor acoustics in this facility. Having the musicians off to the side not only diminishes their contribution to the production, it also complicates mixing the sound with the voices on stage. Why not return the orchestra to the center the way the Navy, in its wisdom, first envisioned it?'

For the production of 'Annie,' the second show of SMT's 40th anniversary season, Brown moved the musicians to center stage, after taking out the first row of seats. The sound quality of the production was greatly improved, though some patrons complained that the location partially obstructed sightlines and for those in the first few rows, the music at times overpowered the vocals. 'That's when we discovered a crawl space under the theatre floor,' noted Brown. 'We stepped up the fund-raising campaign and last week received the wonderful news that Seattle Foundation, through its partner organization, the Morgan Family Foundation, will fund permanently moving the orchestra to the center after dropping the theatre floor about two feet to create the new pit.'

Building 47, in which the theatre is housed along with Magnuson Community Center, is an historic building in the Sand Point Naval Station Historic District. 'We would like to move the orchestra pit to the center location after the temporary stage is demolished,' says Tom Ansart, Secretary, and SMT board member. He noted that the old pit is still accessible from the backstage dressing room in the basement. 'I presume the musicians entered the pit from the green room. Although it probably isn't feasible to move the existing wall, we can copy its features in the new design. For historic preservation, we will leave the original wall in place.'

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