The Only Children’s Theater on Mercer Island Might Die Because of Park Purists

This is a rendering from the plans for the Mercer Island Center for the Arts, which would house Youth Theatre Northwest and a number of other arts orgs. From the perspective of the Concerned Citizens for Mercer Island Parks, the building doesn’t fall under the category of “park use.” Baseball fields are fine, though. COURTESY MERCER ISLAND CENTER FOR THE ARTS

I am going to ask you to care about a children’s theater. You may think you don’t care about community theater created by kids, but you do. Children’s theaters inspire kids to use their imaginations while also teaching them teamwork, public-speaking skills, lying gracefully, and intergenerational and cross-class communications techniques. You need to practice all of that stuff in order to function at a high level as a citizen, employee, and human being, and you can learn all that stuff very thoroughly at a children’s theater.

The particular children’s theater I want you to care about isn’t just any old children’s theater. It’s an educational creative powerhouse called Youth Theatre Northwest, and it’s been operating on Mercer Island for more than 30 years. I haven’t seen any of their productions personally, but people tell me that the theater the kids produce is actually kinda good. The production values are high, and the kids are super pumped about working with the teachers, many of whom are working artists themselves.

Youth Theatre Northwest has served thousands of children over the course of its existence, and lots of those kids have gone on to enrich Seattle’s creative universe. It’s even produced a television star or two…