1846) and Virginia (1847-1931), for whom the Belltown neighborhood streets were named - performed for their neighbors. Such events in the isolated timber town included the evenings that two of the Bell sisters - Olive (b. Yesler’s Cookhouse, which was located about two lots south of the SW corner of Commercial Street (today's 1st Avenue S) and Mill Street, would be the site of "all social gatherings and entertainments of the day" (Grant). Yesler's (1810-1892) sawmill - on the waterfront at the foot of Mill Street (today’s Yesler Way) - provided the fledgling community a public gathering space. Soon additional new settlers arrived and for the subsequent decade and a half the log cookhouse associated with Henry L. Indeed "it can be claimed with some accuracy that outside of New York, Seattle can boast of a greater variety of theater activities than any city in the U.S.A."įor some time after the new inhabitants of the tiny village of Seattle first arrived in the autumn of 1851 - the Denny, Low, Terry, Bell, and Boren families - they necessarily relied on themselves for companionship and entertainment.
In 1992 Lehmann also wrote that the "advent and success of the Rep spawned a whole array of other Seattle theatrical enterprises" including ACT and Intiman. Based, since 1983, at the Bagley Wright Theatre building (155 Mercer Street), the Rep - which presents shows and other events in both the 842-seat Bagley Wright Theatre hall and (since 1996) the adjacent 282-seat Leo Kreielsheimer (the “Leo K”) Theatre hall - was honored with a Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre in 1990. Millions of audience members have attended more than 300 different plays (including the debut of almost 100 brand-new pieces) and enjoyed watching the premier of plays by such outstanding playwrights as Neil Simon and August Wilson.
Plenty of theaters and their associated troupes have come and gone, but only one - the nearly five-decade-old Seattle Repertory Theatre company - can fairly lay claim to being what The New York Times has crowned it: "This city’s flagship theatre.” The Rep (as it is commonly called) has also been described, by local arts patron (and one-time Seattle Repertory Theatre board-member) Hans Lehmann, as "this city's first important legitimate theater" and even "a national treasure" that earned its esteemed reputation as one of America's largest and most renowned regional theaters by producing and presenting a lively mix of classics and edgy new works since its founding in 1963. Since its earliest decades, Seattle has been staging theatrical plays and other musical and dramatic entertainments.
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