Most recently, Empty Space Theatre produced Bust by Lauren Weedman and Louis Slotin Sonata, both strong plays that seemed to indicate a quickening at the relentlessly contemporary theater. Then, suddenly, it closed. "I'm heartsick," said artistic director Allison Narver. "We just made this move to Seattle University; things were in turnaround. I'm just so disappointed, but also proud—in 36 years, Empty Space has introduced a lot of incredible artists to Seattle and to the world."
On October 27, the board of Empty Space voted to shut down after 36 years in Seattle and only 10 months in its new theater at Seattle University. Empty Space relocated from its longtime Fremont home largely because SU offered rent-free accommodations in the new Lee Center for the Arts, but that wasn't enough to save the financially troubled theater. "There was a cash-flow problem," said board chair Erik Blachford. "In theater, there is more or less money coming in at different times of the year and looking over the next several months, we saw a major deficit we couldn't finance."
Empty Space was planning, in the next week, to start a marketing campaign and begin production on its annual holiday show, Forbidden Xmas. The theater couldn't afford the costs and couldn't get a line of credit (partly because of a standing $75,000 debt), so had to close. "If there was a smoking gun, it was that the board was too small," said Blachford, former CEO of Expedia. (Another Expedia executive, Robb Krieg, helmed the board of Consolidated Works before it imploded.) "An organization the size of Empty Space should have around 20 people on its board," Blachford said, "and, as of yesterday, it only had eight." That's too small for the sustained fundraising Empty Space needed to stay afloat.
Narver, directing Memory House at Seattle Rep later this month, is also working on finding homes for orphans from next year's season, including a new musical by Chris Jeffries.
