The First Decade:
1963 – 1973

Seattle’s First Professional Theatre

Buoyed by the cultural success of the 1962 World’s Fair, a handful of community leaders—with Bagley Wright at the helm—envisioned for Seattle a professional theatre company to rival the best in New York. Seattle Repertory Theatre was founded in 1963 to realize that vision.

The first six years of Seattle Rep, under the leadership of Founding Artistic Director Stuart Vaughn, were presented in repertory format—five plays and a company of twenty two actors to perform them, alternating shows over a period of weeks.

The Second Decade:
1973 – 1983

Building a Strong Foundation

After a decade of successful work, we turned our focus to sustaining what we had built under the careful leadership of Managing Director Peter Donnelly.

We began to dream and plan for a new facility and launched our education programs. During this decade Seattle Rep premiered Music Is (a musical based on Twelfth Night), Christopher Walken took the stage as Hamlet, and an emerging director named Daniel Sullivan was appointed Artistic Director.

The Third Decade:
1983 – 1993

A Permanent Home

Well-established artistically, it was time for Seattle Rep to find a permanent home. In the 1980s we joined with the City of Seattle to build the new Bagley Wright Theatre.

With Daniel Sullivan at the helm, our new play development program flourished. The Rep became an artistic home to a group of American playwrights including Wendy Wasserstein, Herb Gardner, Bill Irwin, Kevin Kling, Tim Blake Nelson, and August Wilson. That work was noticed, and in 1990, we were awarded the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, and many of our plays moved from our stages to Broadway.

The Fourth Decade:
1993 – 2003

Expanding our Vision

In the 1990s, Seattle and the Rep made it big on the national scene. In 1997, we opened a second theatre space, the Leo K., and welcomed a new artistic director Sharon Ott.

Under Sharon Ott’s direction, the scope of our work expanded, with and emphasis on diverse voices, large scale classics, and the push to create an endowment.

The Fifth Decade:
2003 – 2013

Theatre for a New Century

With two theatres, we’re able to produce a great variety of work, showcasing the talent of our artists in very different spaces. Artistic Director David Esbjornson helped define the Leo K. as a home for new work in the mid-2000s

Long-time SRT Casting Director Jerry Manning was named Artistic Director in 2010 and made new work a priority. Under his leadership, we’ve workshopped, premiered, or participated in several projects that have had a life beyond Seattle Rep’s stages - plays like The Night Watcher, An Iliad, Equivocation, The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, and How to Write a New Book for the Bible.

2003 – 2012:
Theatre in the New Century

With two theatres, we’re able to produce a great variety of work, showcasing the talent of our artists in very different spaces. Artistic Director David Esbjornson helped define the Leo K. as a home for new work in the mid-2000s, and when long-time SRT Casting Director Jerry Manning was named Artistic Director in 2010, our commitment to new work was further strengthened. Under Artistic Director Jerry Manning’s leadership, we’ve workshopped, premiered, or participated in several projects that have had a life beyond Seattle Rep’s stages - plays like The Night Watcher, An Iliad, Equivocation, The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, and How to Write a New Book for the Bible.