Noises Off at Harlequin Productions

A group of five people—James L. This, Scot Whitney, Linda Whitney, Phil Annis and Ronna Smith—got together in 1991 and decided that they wanted to produce a more challenging style of theater than was available locally. We wrote our mission statement, pooled our start-up capital—a whopping $400 cash—and began producing individual shows at the Washington Center Stage II, a “black box” venue that seated about 100. Seventeen months after beginning our capital campaign, we opened the doors on the beautifully remodeled State Theater. Suddenly we had a theater, a mortgage and a staff. Our budget jumped from $150,000 annually to $750,000. Our full-time staff increased from one to eight. To keep up with the bills and the building, we knew we had to increase income, so we planned to expand from a four-show season to a six-show, year-round season, but the first year we panicked and added two additional shows for a total of eight. And these were not small shows. It was as close as we ever came to failing as a result of driving all human beings involved to near collapse. Then… a bunch of years passed, during which no one has had the time to keep this up to date. But that’s how it started.

Harlequin Productions is at 502 Washington Street SE, Olympia, Washington.