A New Theater and New Energy Come to the Bathhouse

By Yayoi Lena Winfrey

Lauren Marshall, Artistic Director of Seattle Public Theater.

The Seattle Public Theater (SPT) was awarded proprietorship of the Bathhouse Theater last month by the Department of Parks and Recreation.

The theater, on the shores of Green Lake, has been silent since last fall when the Bathhouse Theatre Drama Board filed chapter thirteen bankruptcy and the city began hunting for a suitable replacement.

The bathhouse facility was originally constructed in 1928 as a changing room for swimmers. Located on the north shore of Green Lake, it was converted to a theater in the late 1960s.

SPT, which was founded in 1988, "is a social change theater that produces issue-oriented plays," according to Artistic Director Lauren Marshall.

Marshall, a former lawyer, worked as an actor and director while in law school, and has written Whadda 'Bout My Legal Rights?, a musical for teens, and the lyrics to Waiter, There's A Slug In My Latte. She has been involved in SPT since 1993.

Marshall says SPT's focus is "to use theater as a tool for social change and the development of community self-awareness, to encourage dialogue and embrace justice. We don't do agitprop (agitation propaganda) and we have no real strong political stance. Instead...our approach has been more to empower audiences to make their own decision. We bring groups together to a place where they can dialogue."

One of SPT's more popular productions, Timber, tackles the issue of deforestation. "The play was particularly successful in logging towns where there might be loggers in one half of the auditorium and environmentalists in the other," says Marshall. Following the presentation, each side was given the chance to actively play a role either as an environmentalist or an unemployed logger in a downward spiraling economy. Another potentially explosive project involved the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Marshall, who is Jewish, wrote the script for Abraham's Land while a Palestinian directed it and both Jews and Arabs appeared in the cast. But SPT also produces "some safe plays," Marshall interjects, "on recycling for elementary kids." One of its touring workshops available to schools, workplaces and community centers is The Incredible Undersea Trial of Joseph P. Lawnboy, a musical about water pollution. "We'll be announcing the new season real soon. In addition to main stage programs, we'll have summer youth programs, theater for younger kids and teens and weekend matinees." Additionally, SPT will produce "more intellectually challenging work including The Ghetto about Jewish resistance and King Christophe, a Haitian epic drama at the time of Napoleon."

The troupe tries to use "people with real jobs" as actors, which helps maintain a strong sense of community. "We want to open it up for multi-generational...moms, daughters, dads, sons, grandparents and gay partners to work together" on stage.

Another SPT venture according to artistic Director John Sullivan will be the "Theater of Liberation" which will recruit homeless and at-risk youth to write and perform plays about "survival, homophobia, drugs, street living, police, race and gender."

"The kids design short plays based on real experiences and the audience can enter a scene, get involved and change what they want," Marshall explained. "It's very powerful and enlightening." We're eager to create the vision of "what the city wants for the Green Lake neighborhood," says Marshall. "We've been nomadic so we're really excited to have a home."

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