The Seattle Times reported the good news recently that Balagan Theatre finally has a place to lay its collective head again, after “outgrowing” its home in the basement of Boom Noodle, on Capitol Hill. Balagan has been tapped to manage the Erickson Theatre Off-Broadway, owned by Seattle Central Community College.
As a Seattle Central spokesperson explained to CHS:
The Broadway Management Group has had the contract to manage both theatres (BPH and Erickson). However, that contract expires in Sept. and by state rules we must issue an RFP and go through a competitive process to award a new contract. A committee of the college decided to award the BPH contract to the Broadway Management Group and the Erickson contract to Balagan.
As you know, nothing can happen in Seattle’s arts community without an outbreak of paranoid conspiracy theory, often based on people knowing next to nothing about the details. So no surprise there’s already a Save the Erickson page on Facebook. A Seattle Dances post says, based on no evidence provided in the post: “Seattle’s best, most professional, most affordable theatre for small dance companies might be going bye-bye.” [UPDATE: Apology here.]
It is highly unlikely that a single small theatre could hog the Erickson, of course. Small companies are usually struggling to put on the few short runs of shows they can afford to present. Besides dance companies, the Erickson’s tenants have included the highly regarded Strawberry Theatre Workshop and the New Century Theatre Company, without previous public complaint.
Meanwhile, on the Slog post about the move, Annex Theatre’s more due-diligent Chris Comte has questions about the lack of local visibility of the RFP, and Balagan’s qualifications:
…the RFP specifically seeks a PROFESSIONAL MANAGEMENT COMPANY to run the space, and not a VOLUNTEER-RUN PRODUCING ORGANIZATION to both operate the space and use it as a home base for their own productions, which would seem to present a glaringly obvious conflict-of-interest, since SCCC will not only be paying Balagan to run the Erickson, but will now, in effect, be subsidizing their productions to a significant degree.
Comte seems to be reading ahead, here, as I don’t think he’s seen the agreement specifics. It is also true that, generally, it’s easy to be envious of Balagan’s good fortune while being in no way prepared or interested in accepting the duties and headaches of a management company.
I contacted Jake Groshong, Balagan’s executive director, to see about Balagan’s planned usage. Groshong, who has an MFA in Arts Leadership from Seattle University, said he was aware there was anxiety about the change, but offered this reassurance:
Balagan will use it for our own productions only in 4 or 5 months out of the year. We want to see the place used as a true community venue that is accessible to the students, arts groups, and community at-large. This means not blocking off huge chunks of time when only one company can use it as much as possible. In fact, with the rentals we’re inheriting, we’re likely to get a max of 3 productions in the space for the first year. So overall, I think Balagan will use the space about 80 to 120 days/year.
Rather than complain about the change in management, I want to suggest that Groshong is right that the Erickson needs to become a “true community venue”–it’s central to Capitol Hill but tucked away between Pike and Pine on Harvard. It’s a great theatre for small companies, with 133 seats, but often they aren’t filled because small companies don’t have, singly, marketing budgets that can reach mainstream.
If “the Erickson” can become a known destination for Capitol Hill arts performance, then there are efficiencies in terms of cross-promotion and audience building. It might be possible to run some performances in repertory, to further build audience traffic. Certainly a shared home would give three small theatre companies reason to collaborate on back-end services that otherwise would be triplicated.
For a while, I’ve been asking companies to consider the benefits of separating distinct artistic goals and visions from everything it takes to produce them: support staff, lighting grids, box offices. Where there are physical realities that support this, it seems like a cooperative structure is the best way for arts groups to allocate resources. If this emerges bottom-up, out of Balagan Management, it would be a great thing for the arts in general.
UPDATE: Thanks to Chris Comte, who would like you to know his comments on Slog are on his own behalf, we have a link to the RFP (pdf), which I don’t believe either of the two existing tenant companies, Strawberry Theatre Workshop or New Century Theatre Company, were provided with any notice of. It appears Seattle Central Community College didn’t feel that was warranted. Once again, renters get screwed.
That said, the RFP itself asks only for a “qualified respondent to privately manage, market,
staff, maintain and make improvements to the Erickson Theater,” and most if not all of the requirements they list are something any theatre company would be familiar with.
Further, far from establishing a fiefdom, the RFP requires the management provider to:
…book events and promote services that will significantly expand both the numbers as well as the variety of plays, concerts, and other events held at the facilities, in keeping with the SCCC’s mission and values.
Also, I’m told that the management contract is open to rebidding each year. All that is required is for another company to express an interest in managing the Erickson. As I say, though, venue management is hard work. If you think Balagan has snagged a stealth residency, that’s one thing. If you think that Balagan has just snagged an enormous amount of extra work, as I tend to, that’s another.
In closing, wouldn’t it be wonderful if all three theatre companies (and any dance companies interested) worked on forming a Erickson-specific management company, one that was a distinct legal entity from the arts groups? (Perhaps something on the order of the non-profit partnership known as Beethoven, which consists of the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, and ArtsFund.) If artists aren’t willing to experiment with socialism, who will?
While I am a staff member of Annex Theatre, I am not in any way, shape or form representing Annex in this discussion. It’s just me, an individual member of the local theatre community, expressing my concerns regarding the method and manner in which an all-volunteer theatrical producing organization with no professional facilities management experience has been able to outbid at least two other companies to win a contract from a state-financed public institution to manage this facility.
Hope that’s clear.
Oh, and I have in fact read the RFP, which anyone else can read here:
http://tabor100.us/Resources/Documents/SCCC%20Erickson%20Theater%20Mgmt%20RFP.pdf
Hi Chris, to be clear as well, I was not calling you out as speaking for Annex–it’s just that your association with Annex is germane to the discussion. Also, I’m for due diligence. Re: the RFP, I don’t see where it mentions pay rates and compensation, so I didn’t see how you could make the argument that compensation for management was a “significant” subsidy or not for the theatre–what are the management costs? The question about being a de facto “resident company” is a thorny one, though, and I’ll update the post with info about that.
Chris, if you want to grab a coffee, I can explain exactly how the RFP process worked and show you a copy of the proposal we turned in.
We put everything we had into going for the Erickson and while we are thrilled with the outcome, we’re very confused to your response at was feels like some vendetta against us. Please stop making broad assumptions that are wholly false and find out the facts of what happened before you start posting everywhere about how someone was wronged.
We went through a highly competitive RFP process and came out on top. That’s all there is to it. If you’re upset with SCCC’s guidelines and standards then talk to them, but we simply put in the best proposal we could.
We managed our former facility successfully and now have another facility to manage that we’re very excited about. Again, I’m happy to grab a coffee with you and discuss. My guess is we have far more infrastructure and experience than you seem to think we do.
Best,
Jake Groshong
Executive Director
Balagan Theatre
Hmmm..kind of a snarky response. This is what the Erickson and potential future tenants have to look forward too.
So, Jake, you start your “facility management” by already kicking people out who have signed contracts for the space. Nice start.
@SayWhat? got proof?
@Jose, there was a dance company on the now defunct “Save the Erickson” facebook page that talked about being pushed out of their dates. As well, as an email sent to another company that says they will have to move dates to accommodate Balagan’s schedule. So, apparently contracts that were already signed have no meaning to the new Space Managers. Or, they will honor them, but only if they aren’t on a date where Balagan wants the space. That doesn’t sound like promoting a “community” venue…a venue manager should not start promoting “community” by first not honoring contracts.
Look folks, this is obviously a big change for the venue, and for our company as well. As we have not yet taken any keys, booked any events, or set foot inside the space (and we won’t for over a month still) it is hard to respond to reports of how previous/current renters are being treated. We aren’t booting anyone.
@SayWhat? please send the renters who were told to move their dates on to me, and we will figure this out. Going off a guess, this could have been a contract that bridges between new and old management; if that is the case we will address this with the renters themselves to see what can be done.
As far the the defunct “Save the Erickson” page, this was made erroneously, it was not based on any dates/events/communication from us, and we have already spoken with Seattle Dances. Their apology is issued here:http://seattledances.blogspot.com/ – but more important than an apology, we have already started to build a relationship with this group of artists.
If you find yourself, your company, or your neighbors feeling trepidation or concern about Balagan’s involvement with the Erickson, I encourage you to reach out to us. We are a company that has been without a home for nearly a year, and you would be hard-pressed to find a group more passionate about finding ways to make a professional venue accessible to scrappy artists.
We are your friends and colleagues, not your adversaries. If we are strangers, let’s fix that now. We will be managing a beautiful space, in a great location, and with our staff to maintain and book it, all we need now to make it the community hub it should be is YOU.
M. Elizabeth Eller
Marketing Director
Balagan Theatre
“As we have not yet taken any keys, booked any events, or set foot inside the space (and we won’t for over a month still) it is hard to respond to reports of how previous/current renters are being treated”
But then on the Stranger
“We have contacted one other company about re-negotiating some dates for 2011 (not eliminating a booking, as has been inferred, but a discussion about moving some dates), but we have in no way advised anyone they are not welcome or wanted.”
So as was previously stated, you start your reign by doing the opposite of building community. You start by trying to move dates of a company that already had a signed contract. That seems like a sign of things to come…we are welcome to rent the space, but if Balagan suddenly needs it, we will be forced to move dates.