American | Asian with Steven Tran and Aaron Jin

Part of a larger festival of new work generated by Intiman Theater’s emerging artist program, this double-bill features two solo performances about identity and Asian American culture. In The Sonata Years, Steven Tran confronts the stereotype of the Asian classical musician and the challenge to become truly authentic. It’s part monologue, part piano recital, part flight of fancy (with appearances by Liszt and Rachmaninov). In True Love, but Gay, Aaron Jin tells his own personal story, about a young man trying to find love through many first dates — with the complicating layers of being Asian and gay. –S.H.

If you go: We Are Here: Intiman Emerging Artists, 1/25-1/31, times vary. ($15-$25)

“Dragon Lady” by Sara Porkalob, at Intiman Theatre in 2017.SEASONSJANUARY 23, 20190 COMMENTS

Intiman Theatre Announces 2019 Season

The second part of Intiman’s Wild Wicked Woke season will feature three mainstage productions.

BY AMERICAN THEATRE EDITORS

SEATTLE: Intiman Theatre has announced the lineup for its 2019 season, the second part of its Wild Wicked Woke program, which will include three mainstage productions.

The season will open with Christopher Chen’s Caught (March 7–30), directed by Desdemona Chiang. Caught is a genre-bending work about a Chinese dissident artist who appears in an art gallery that is hosting a retrospective of his work. Previously imprisoned in a detention center for his art, he shares the details of this ordeal with his patrons.

Next up will be The Events (July 18–August 10) by David Greig. Following the lone survivor of a mass shooting, The Events explores violence, obsession, and the humanity found in circumstances of evil. The production will be directed by Paul Budraitis.

A production of Bulrusher (August 20–Sept. 14) directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton will follow. Bulrusher, written by Eisha Davis and set in 1955, is about a multiracial orphan with a gift for clairvoyance discovering a new place in her identity.

Intiman Theatre aims to achieve liberation through arts activism. Founded in 1972, Intiman produces contemporary plays and adventurous new writing, in addition to American classics.

Intiman Theatre was hanging by a thread. Now it’s out of debt

By Marcie Sillman

JAN 22, 2019 at 4:59 PM

Eight years ago, Intiman Theatre’s future hung by a thread.

The Seattle nonprofit revealed it was millions of dollars in debt, laid off dozens of staff members and immediately ceased operations. After a prolonged shutdown, Intiman reopened in 2012 with a drastically downsized budget and staff and a long term plan to pay off the debt.

On Tuesday, Intiman declared itself debt-free.

Artistic Director Jennifer Zeyl says she wept when when she heard the news. “And I don’t cry easily,” Zeyl added. “Many people struggle with health conditions, and this is a financial health condition. Finding out you’re debt free is kind of like getting a clean bill of health.”

Intiman was founded in 1972 and built a national reputation for presenting a mix of classics and new work, including the 1992 Pulitzer Prize winner “The Kentucky Cycle” and the Tony Award-winning “Light in the Piazza.” In 2006, the Tony Awards honored Intiman as the nation’s best regional theater company.

Artistic success doesn’t necessarily result in financial solvency for nonprofit arts organizations. Intiman announced its money problems in 2011, and ceased operations abruptly. Andrew Russell, who was then an artistic associate with the theater company, proposed that Intiman reopen with a summer festival of four plays, performed by a small acting company. Russell also proposed that Intiman raise a million dollars upfront to produce this festival.

In the ensuing years, Intiman has maintained its leaner profile; it raises yearly operating funds before it mounts an artistic season. The company maintains only two full time, year-round employees: Zeyl, and Intiman’s Executive Director Philip Chavira. Across town, Seattle’s ACT Theatre has also wrestled with an ongoing debt. Last week ACT announced it had finally retired that obligation and heads into a new artistic season in the black.

Meanwhile, as Intiman has grown into its new, leaner identity, its artistic mission has evolved. Zeyl says the main focus of every dramatic selection, as well as community outreach and training, is to wrestle with racial, social and economic inequities in this country. Intiman titled its current artistic season “Wild, Wicked, Woke.” The first production, “Caught,” by Christopher Chen, opens in March.

Intiman Theatre Announces $2.7 million in Debt Retirement, Forgiveness and Settlements

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 22, 2019
Contact: Joann Natalia Aquino, Marketing Contractor
joann@intiman.org | (206) 931-3202

Seattle, WA (January 22, 2019) — Intiman Theatre is pleased to announce its debt retirement of $1.8 million and $900,000 additionally forgiven and settled, which threatened to close the theatre in 2011. Intiman has acquired no new debt and has operated in the black since reopening in 2012.

With a newly revitalized mission of Intiman Theatre wrestles with American inequities, Intiman Theatre has entered 2019 debt-free and is overseen by Artistic Director Jennifer Zeyl, Executive Director Phillip Chavira and Board President Daniel Nye.

“Until this moment, Intiman has not been able to look forward without looking back; split focus. One eye on the future and one looking over our shoulder,” says Intiman Artistic Director Jennifer Zeyl. “The shadow of this debt passed over every decision we made — but the biggest one, for which I am ever grateful, was made by our board in 2011 and that was to ‘Make Art Anyway’ (Arts Corps).”

Zeyl adds, “Over the past 13 years, Intiman has said yes to me as a theatre-maker over and over. Since 2012, it has been nothing short of an honor to be able to return the favor. I’m beyond thrilled to guide us to our next manifestation. The artistic plan for Intiman moving forward is trifold. We’re focused on our productions, educational programs and new partnerships. 2019 is a growth year. Finally.”

Incoming Board Chair Daniel Nye, who has been an Intiman Board of Trustee since 2008, says, “I am delighted to be part of the team making this comeback milestone for Intiman Theatre. This moment is a particularly proud one, because in 2008, during my first full year on the Board, the economic downturn, and other factors beyond anyone’s control, nearly caused Intiman to cease operations for good. Happily, a core group of stubborn fixers showed up: fierce angels determined to rescue this forum and proud history from extinction. ‘The great work’ began immediately to save Intiman. I hung around too, because I simply love this theatre.”

Nye adds, “Today, proudly and joyfully, we are debt-free and with a great season before us. Due to the tireless efforts, creativity, sacrifice and generosity of Intiman’s staff, Board, and supportive community, Intiman has found its way out of that wilderness.”

Andrew Russell, Intiman’s Artistic Director from 2011-2017, says, “It is stunning and impressive and important that we have reconciled this debt — this is a day a long time coming and a long time anticipated. What this accomplishment means, what it demonstrates and what we should remember, is that there are a whole lot of people in Seattle (and beyond) who believe stories can change people, and people can change the world. And those people — in all sorts of ways — stepped up to keep the mission of Intiman alive in Seattle.”

Looking ahead, Intiman’s future not only looks bright — it is WILD, WICKED and WOKE. “We retired the debt of a company six-times the size of how we operate today. This incredible accomplishment became a reality through intense financial investigation, strategic fundraising, and a passion for social justice and liberation that we strive towards through artistic activism,” notes Intiman Executive Director Phillip Chavira. “Intiman has come a long way from the 1972 company Margaret Booker started, and we’re proud of the artistic and activist evolution we have gone through. We have a strong future because the Seattle arts community said yes to art. I am beyond thrilled that gifts fully support future shows, future education programs, and the future of arts leadership.”

Intiman would like to thank these incredible partners that helped Intiman get to this moment; City of Seattle, Seattle Center, Office of Arts & Culture, Raynier Institute, Gates Foundation, Cornish College, Doris Duke, ArtsMarketing, Compton Lumber, STG, KUOW, KEXP, KPLU, PNTA, Tessitura, Maxwell Hotel, Rose Brand, and many outstanding individual donors who believe in art and our mission. We also want to thank our fellow theatres for all the unconditional support.

ABOUT INTIMAN THEATRE:

Intiman Theatre wrestles with American Inequities. Intiman Theatre is a professional theater company in Seattle, Washington who won the 2018 Gregory Award for Outstanding Musical and 2006 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.

On January 14, Intiman Theatre announced its 2019 WILD WICKED WOKE Season featuring three mainstage productions, which include CAUGHT written by Christopher Chen and directed by Desdemona Chiang, THE EVENTS written by David Greig and directed by Paul Budraitis, and BULRUSHER written by Eisa Davis and directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton.

Intiman produces in various venues throughout Seattle, which include the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute in Central District, 12th Avenue Arts, Velocity, UW Jones Playhouse, Seattle Center Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, the Alhadeff Studio and Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center.

Jennifer Zeyl, artistic director of Intiman Theatre, says being out of debt will allow the theater to evolve from survival mode back to creating and innovating. (Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times)

How did Intiman and ACT theaters, both mired in debt for years, get out from under?

By Brendan KileySeattle Times arts and culture reporter

For the past eight years, Intiman Theatre has been living with an anvil hanging over its head: millions of dollars in debt, which was discovered during a harrowing spring in 2011 and nearly imploded the theater. The board laid off its approximately 20 employees — including relatively new artistic director Kate Whoriskey.

The story drew attention across the country, from The Los Angeles Times to The New York Times: The demise of the decades-old, Tony Award-winning theater looked not just possible, but probable.

But Intiman persisted. This week, after years of fiscal austerity and negotiations with creditors, the theater announces it is finally debt-free.

“It’s not sexy, it’s not flashy,” said former Intiman artistic director Andrew Russell. “But this is a moment I’ve been dreaming of — and a moment the theater has been dreaming of since the minute we learned about the layoffs.”

Russell was originally hired as an associate producer at Intiman in 2009. By late 2011, when the theater had canceled the rest of its season and senior leadership had left, Russell stepped up to propose a reinvented, more agile version of the theater: a summer festival instead of a traditional season, a core company of artists and a focus on both newer and older works with an emphasis on sharp social critique (“Trouble in Mind” by Alice Childress, both of Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” plays, new musical “Stu for Silverton,” about the first openly transgender mayor in the United States), co-curated by bold local artists such as Valerie Curtis-Newton and Sara Porkalob.

Russell’s gamble paid off. “Every theater struggles with debt,” he said. “But Intiman has been a wild ride.”

At the same time, ACT Theatre (another of Seattle’s most prestigious theaters that has also wrestled with financial problems for years) is entering a new, debt-free era. Since 2013, the theater has carried two private loans, which totaled $2 million in 2017. This year, managing director Becky Witmer said, ACT is finally in the clear: “Overall, 22 percent of the $2 million debt was forgiven and the remaining balance paid as a result of financial discipline and the generosity of donors who were determined to help ACT make this milestone step.”

ACT, Witmer said, also received two recent bequests from longtime patrons who’d set aside gifts for the theater in their estate plans.

Both stories are reasons to celebrate — happy news from the world of arts organizations, which often make headlines for being in financial trouble.

“It’s very powerful,” Randy Engstrom, director of Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture, said about Intiman’s dramatic turnaround. “It’s really nice to hear a story about an arts organization being fiscally responsible and nimble. You hear so many stories about ‘financial struggle and then they collapsed under the weight of their own whatever.’ And to retire a debt of that magnitude while still producing shows? I’m just really proud of them.”ADVERTISING

Intiman executive director Phillip Chavira (who arrived at the theater in 2017) said that since 2012, the theater has retired $1.8 million in debt, with an additional $900,000 forgiven by creditors.

The debt was acquired prior to 2012 and, by that time, the theater’s senior leadership had left the building: longtime artistic/managing director team Bartlett Sher and Laura Penn, Sher’s handpicked successor Whoriskey, and managing director Brian Colburn, who was hired in late 2008 and abruptly resigned in 2010.

“The amount of debt we’ve retired,” Chavira added, “was accrued by a company six times the financial size we have right now.” According to available filings with the IRS, Intiman claimed $6.85 million in revenue for the fiscal year ending March 2008, but only $1 million for the fiscal year ending December 2016. (In 2010, on the brink of its public crisis, Intiman moved the goal posts of its fiscal year from March to December.)

“We’re sharing this,” he said, “so other struggling organizations can look at Intiman as a beacon of hope.”

How did they do it? Tight budgets, renegotiating debt and asking for debt forgiveness? “Keep going!” Chavira said. “That and so much more.”

The four keys, he explained, were:

1. regaining trust with rigorous transparency about the dire situation to everyone (staff, board, creditors, public);
2. operating in the black from year to year while keeping a steady eye on the debt load;
3. “fundraising, fundraising, fundraising”;
4. talking with creditors early and often, offering them a range of possible settlement options.

“You have to distribute your ask and your expectations,” said Intiman artistic director Jennifer Zeyl, who had worked for the theater in the past (she was a scenic painter there in 2005), and collaborated closely with Russell as Intiman’s artistic producer for a few years before taking the wheel after he left in 2017. “If you’re thinking, ‘If only this foundation would forgive us, we’d be out of debt,’ forget it,” she said. “You have to go back to every single person you owe and offer some kind of reparations.”

Before the 2011-12 crisis, for example, the Doris Duke Foundation had given the theater hundreds of thousands of dollars for its endowment — money that was rerouted to pay off debt. “We went back to them and explained,” Chavira said, “and they came back with: ‘We support you, we want to see you succeed, but here are conditions — you’ll have to operate in the black for three years.’ ” (That’s operate in the black from season to season, not counting the debt.)

Intiman made it work. The city of Seattle and Seattle Center were among its more generous creditors (Intiman owed back rent for its Playhouse building at Seattle Center), and gave the theater “public-benefit” credits for projects like its Emerging Artists Program, which allows young theater makers to work, for free, with professionals like Porkalob.

But for-profit companies like Pacific Northwest Theatre Associates (PNTA, a clearinghouse for lighting, audio, rigging and other theater equipment) needed cash. “They’re not charitable organizations,” Zeyl said. “Vendors need to be paid, because for them, it’s just cash out the door.”

At times in 2012 and 2013, Zeyl started to hate calling theater-supply companies. “If I said, ‘I’m calling from Intiman,’ the conversation would be rerouted immediately to accounts payable. And I’d think: ‘Dammit! Again?’”

So Zeyl started ordering things under her own name and having them shipped to her home.

Getting out from under the debt load has been liberating. “We were tired of being in The Nether, where we had this giant tail attached to a very small theater company,” Zeyl said. “Even though I did nothing to incur this debt, there’s still cultural shame about being in debt. I felt like damaged goods.”

Now the theater can take that intellectual bandwidth, which was locked in reconciling the past, and transfer it to the future. “Instead of ‘head scratch — how are we going to make that payment to Seattle Center?’ ” Zeyl said, “It’s ‘head scratch — what we do actually want to do?’ ”

“It was messy and crunchy for a while,” Russell said. “But, in traditional Seattle fashion, folks believed in the long game.”

_____

Intiman will celebrate its announcement at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 22, on the main level of Seattle Center Armory, 305 Harrison St. Details are on Intiman’s Facebook page.Brendan Kiley: bkiley@seattletimes.com. Brendan Kiley is an arts-and-culture reporter at The Seattle Times.

Admin Offices: 201 Mercer Street, Floor 3 | Seattle, WA 98109

Our offices are located in the southwest side of the Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center.  If you walk between the Playhouse and Seattle Repertory you’ll see a sign that says Intiman Administrative Offices.  There is an elevator and a Stage Door there.  Take the elevator to the 3rd floor and go through the glass door.

Mailing Address: PO Box 19537 | Seattle, WA 98109

Email: info@intiman.org

Phone: (206) 441.7178

For inquires about renting the Cornish Playhouse click here.