(Image: CHS)

By Domenic Strazzabosco

A decade ago, 88 affordable apartment units above office space for nonprofits, and a street level theater complex opened along 12th Ave on land that had been a barbed wire-fenced parking lot for the East Precinct. While the affordable apartments and offices have become part of 12th Ave’s fabric, the stages of the 12th Ave Arts development are ready to grow after a challenging ten years.

Black Box, formed to manage the building’s two theater spaces, is looking forward to what comes next as 12th Ave Arts emerges from the pandemic.

“The nature of any kind of performing art is that a lot of it is developed in rehearsal, and rehearsal happens right before you go,” said administrative director Greg Carter.

Though he’s booked out the spaces months in advance, Carter doesn’t know all that much of what’s going to be performed than someone browsing the listings would. That’s part of what he loves about working in the space.

What’s exciting about how Black Box rents out its spaces, often up to a year and a half in advance, is that each production can be whatever the creators want it to be, so long as it can fit in the room. There are three resident production companies — Strawberry Theatre Workshop, Washington Ensemble Theatre, and Velocity Dance — that are guaranteed more time throughout the year. An array of other companies produce the rest of the performances, some repeat, some one-time renters. Velocity Dance became a formal partner last year after moving from across the street during the pandemic.

The Studio stage (Image: Black Box)

The two theater space total nearly 6,000 square feet: one with room for 149 seats, the other Studio Stage has an 80-person audience capacity. You can find out what is currently scheduled for the theater spaces here.

CHS reported here ten years ago on the opening of 12th Ave Arts. The development from Community Roots Housing built with a $47 million mix of tax credits, levy dollars, state programs, commercial bank loans, and a $7.7 million loan from the city. City Hall also transferred the property to the nonprofit developer in an agreement pounded out in 2012.

Capitol Hill farmers market-born Rachel’s Ginger Beer has also been a tenant in the building from the start.

12th Ave’s theaters are highly adaptable and customizable; performances could be anything from a one-person show with no stage or costumes to a dance troupe with ten performers to a classic Shakespeare play. If a company wants to have a reading on a night when the ongoing production isn’t being performed, it’s entirely up to them, as is how many seats are sold for each performance.

The survival of 12th Ave Arts this past decade could come down to a few other aspects of the space as well. Though rental blocks might be a bit pricier than other venues throughout Seattle, at 12th Ave, you book the space, and it’s yours all day, every day. There’s no worrying about an already-scheduled one-off performance or various groups competing for practice time. And because you’re not competing for space, once the lighting and stage are set for a performance, it stays in place until the next production takes over the room. That means less turnover, less wear and tear on the equipment and less money for labor for stage construction.

“We’ve had so much repeat business that it must be working,” Carter said. “We offer so much because of the flexibility.”

Though 12th Ave has hosted plenty of exciting and successful plays over the years, it continues to struggle with attendance since the pandemic, as is the case with live theater venues all across the city.

Carter believes it’s a combination of factors: people are busy, television and streaming channels are better than ever and people just don’t know or remember the power of live performance.

“It’s just different. There are people in the room with you, and things happen on stage that are affected by the way you respond to them,” Carter said. “That’s what the advantage of live theater is. Sometimes, it’s gonna be awful, but just like a football game could be awful.

A change coming in the next few years, and one that hopefully helps boost attendance, is a revamp of the front lobby space. Aside from a few posters of ongoing productions around the city and Black Lives Matter flags above the entrance, the lobby is empty. It’s a result of both the space never having changed since it was built and worries over CHOP which resulted in the furniture that was there being removed.

Carter hopes that a few eye-catching art pieces, beverage services and some furniture will encourage ticket holders to show up more than just a few minutes before showtime.

12th Ave Arts is located at 1620 12th Ave. Learn more about Black Box and the theater spaces at blackboxoperations.org.

$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻 
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 👍