The nonprofit has an opportunity to tell the story of how the organization adapted to tremendous external changes in the last year.
During the pandemic, Intiman paused professional productions to engage in strategic planning. With COVID, we modified our process to be fully virtual, ultimately engaging 200+ community members in conversations about the future of our company. A key outcome was a groundbreaking partnership with Seattle Central College that includes the development and launch of an AA degree. Intiman is now the professional theatre-in-residence at the college, and our offices, shops, and storage have all relocated to SCC, where we will stage our productions. Based on robust community feedback during planning, we elevated our arts education programs to hold equal priority with mainstage productions. Our goal is to continue to expand who has access to art, the skills to make art, and who can experience art as a vehicle to personal and societal transformation. The theatre now offers 4 education programs: STARFISH Project (an after-school program for high school students learning technical theatre skills); Intiman Emerging Artist Program (a training and showcase opportunity for early career actors, playwrights and directors); South End Stories (a fiscally sponsored program providing trauma-informed arts learning to K-12 students); and an Associate of Arts degree with SCC for behind-the-scenes technical skills training. We innovated in 2020-21 due to COVID by offering programming virtually, including the STARFISH Project, in which youth received free, well-equipped Home Kits to film an exciting collaborative performance about finding resilience during a pandemic, and by offering free online panel conversations and virtual performances, including: “Under Big Piney” reading with Tim Blake Nelson, “A Celebration of Asian American Art & Artists,” “Black Theatre Beyond the Politics of Representation” and many more. Intiman’s Emerging Artist Program pivoted to a fully virtual program and presented a digital production of THE RACE 2020 in October 2020, reaching more than 1,000 audience members.