“We lost so much foot traffic,” Howard says, “and as a reflection, the street crime was up. “The large workforce that worked in offices and other businesses here stayed home.” Not to mention the fact that tourism was down and many sports events were canceled at nearby Lumen Field and T-Mobile Park. “We have a comparatively low residential base,” she points out.
Howard acknowledges the pandemic hit Pioneer Square hard - particularly the eatery and entertainment trade. She also is pleased that some of the area’s hardy arts purveyors have hung in there during the pandemic, including Café Nordo, the unconventional dinner theater and multi-arts emporium, located at the former site of Elliott Bay Book Company. Lisa Howard, executive director of the nonprofit Alliance for Pioneer Square, which advocates and oversees civic improvements in the area, welcomes cultural additions like the new musical. It all seems apropos for the nods People in the Square gives to the devastating Great Seattle Fire of 1889, the Klondike Gold Rush (which swelled the population and wealth of the city), and the curious saga of (and controversy over) the Pioneer Square totem pole, also known as the “ Chief-of-All-Women-Pole.” (In a nod to those still anxious about attending a performance in this stage of the pandemic, capacity is limited to 35 people at socially distanced tables.)Īudience members are surrounded by Beneath the Streets’ fascinating collection of historic Seattle photos and memorabilia, including vintage maps and curios, as well as a colorful banner advertising a long-ago Skid Road Theatre production of the Broadway musical about Wild West sharpshooter Annie Oakley, Annie Get Your Gun. Patrons walk down a flight of stairs into the cellar-level theater (note: it’s not wheelchair accessible) and sit at cafe tables and benches in the performing area. Seattle history isn’t just presented on stage here, but all around the audience, as the theater shares space with Beneath the Streets, a popular underground tour that since 2013 has leased the old Skid Road Theatre space during daytime hours for its atmospheric excursions through the city’s subterranean history.
Hence the term “Skid Road” (or Skid Row) - which local lore (but not all historians) claims as a Pacific Northwest invention. The timber he processed was logged from the forested hills above, then dragged and skidded down the slope to the mill. That’s when European-American settlers established it as Seattle’s first downtown, where Henry Yesler opened his steam sawmill and wharf.
Little theatre on the square 2017 season trial#
The musical (presented with support from Trial and Error Productions) imparts how Pioneer Square as we know it today, with its charming brick buildings and old-fashioned storefronts, dates back to the 1850s. “Our show asks, ‘Whose Pioneer Square is this?’” “As an artist, those contrasts and contradictions interest me,” says Cano. She notes a convergence of cultures and backgrounds in the picturesque neighborhood that is unique to the city - from those who can afford pricey cocktails at establishments such as Nirmal’s and Damn The Weather, to the low-income residents in the area’s subsidized apartments and the indigent people who depend on the Union Gospel Mission and other shelters for a bed and a meal. “We want to be part of a revival of this community,” says Cano, whose day job as a Spanish language translator for Harborview Medical Center includes a weekly stint at the Pioneer Square Clinic. Nyberg and Cano believe, now that people feel more comfortable about gathering, it may be time for another nightlife resurgence. And, later, she frequented the other neighborhood venues of that era: the Pioneer Square Theatre (which closed in 1989) and the Empty Space Theatre (which operated there for several years before moving to Fremont). They are old enough to recall when Pioneer Square was a bustling entertainment hub with inviting music clubs, open-late eateries, art galleries and theaters.Ĭano recalls, for instance, seeing shows while still in her teens at the previous incarnation of Skid Road Theatre, which was a popular performance space for musicals and contemporary plays in the 1970s and early ’80s. The director-writer Rose Cano and composer David Nyberg (partners in Creative Hiatus Productions) are Seattle natives and former schoolmates at Seattle Preparatory School.
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