The Problem Intiman Faces (And Every Other Theatre)

We’ve been batting around over at Facebook the recent news that the Intiman’s landlord, the City of Seattle, has essentially put a “For Rent” sign in the Playhouses window.  (See here and here for more details.)

Annex Theatre‘s Managing Director, the inestimable, incomparable Stephen McCandless framed the problem as accurately, as succintly and as implacably as I have ever heard it put:

“The economics of producing a play and running a venue are not entirely complimentary. To frame it in business-school vocabulary, producing a play requires an Entrepreneur, the venue a Manager.”