Freehold hopes to stay in Odd Fellows Hall
Freehold has informed its staff and students that it is negotiating with the new owners of Odd Fellows’ Hall in hopes of remaining in the Capitol Hill building.
A popular, independent theater school, Freehold has offered its classes and shows at Odd Fellows for more than a decade. It is one of many arts tenants hoping the building’s new owner, GTS Development LLC, will continue to rent space at moderate rates to the dance, theater and other cultural groups currently in residence there.
According to a public memo from Freehold artistic director Robin Lynn Smith, “We have explained to the new owners that if they are interested in maintaining a strong arts culture, they need to be sensitive to the needs and financial constraints of the various nonprofit organizations in the building.”
Free theater week pays off for 2,100
For last month’s 2007 Live Theatre Week, organizer Theatre Puget Sound distributed 2,100 free tickets to patrons for 60 shows around the Sound.
Surveys revealed that 78 percent of those using the gratis tickets attended shows by theater groups they’d never seen before, 70 percent identified themselves as “infrequent” theater attendees and 47 percent were under age 35.
The local event, involving 53 local theater companies, was part of a nationwide effort to raise the profile of live drama in cities throughout the U.S.
Misha Berson,
Seattle Times theater critic