Seattle Shakespeare Company and Wooden O Theatre merge

In an unusual move designed to raise the profile and productivity of two respected classical-drama troupes, Seattle Shakespeare Company and Wooden O Theatre have merged their nonprofit operations, a move legally finalized Monday.

Local arts funders have long been actively encouraging theater companies to reduce their overhead by sharing space and other resources. But Stephanie Shine, Seattle Shakespeare's artistic head, says, "We're not doing this to save money. We're doing this to grow."

Shine says consolidating administrative duties, office and storage space and other resources will spur on SSC's plan to launch new programs, including more and farther-flung tours of Shakespeare works around Washington state and elsewhere.

"We want to be a statewide, even regionwide Shakespeare center," she notes, adding that the combined companies will produce more plays by the Bard of Avon each year than does the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the classical-theater powerhouse in Ashland, Ore.

As the result of the merger, Wooden O, a popular Mercer Island-based group that has been performing Shakespeare plays in area parks for 15 years is no longer a separate nonprofit organization.

Retaining the same name, it is now a program of Seattle Shakespeare Company, one that will continue to stage free outdoor shows each summer. (SSC's local indoor shows are presented at Kirkland Performance Center, and the Center House Theatre at Seattle Center.)

Shine is now overall artistic chief of the conjoined operation, and SSC managing director John Bradshaw is continuing as top manager. The SSC board of directors is absorbing into its ranks two members of the Wooden O board.

The transition from two troupes to one should be eased by the close, ongoing professional relationship between Shine and George Mount, the founder and artistic head of Wooden O, who in recent years has also been the coordinator of SSC's education programs.

"I'm excited about this move," says Mount, whose new title at SSC is director of outdoor and touring performance. He'll continue to supervise the Wooden O summer shows. And he's already overseeing educational tours of such SSC productions, he says, "like our five-actor version of 'Romeo and Juliet.' we're touring to schools and auditoriums as far as the Okanogan and Wenatchee, and we hope to do a lot more."

By far the larger organization, SSC (founded in 1991 as the Seattle Shakespeare Festival) has a current yearly budget of about $915,000 per year, compared with Wooden O's annual outlay of roughly $80,000. Neither company is carrying a financial deficit.

The joint venture will allow SSC "to take any administrative savings we get and pass it on to the actors and other artists," says Shine. In addition to employing more actors, SSC also provides better pay and benefits than Wooden O could as a separate entity.

SSC board chair Emily Evans, says, "This is all upside for us. The merger will bring us more talent, in terms of hiring actors. And it should give us more audience, because people who attend outdoor performances tend to be a somewhat different group than those coming to our indoor shows."

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com