Organizational History

Book-It Repertory Theatre was founded by a group of theatre artists who loved to read. Recognizing the immense wealth of story, character and language that exists in classic and contemporary literature, these artists wanted to create opportunities for audiences and fellow artists to experience theatre through imaginative stagings of written narrative. By creating theatre exclusively from literature, Book-It strives to bring theatre back to its roots - storytelling. From its early beginnings as a collective of artists experimenting in a workshop setting, to its current day as one of Seattle's most thriving, unique theatres with over 1,600 subscribers, Book-It's main purpose has been and still is to bring literature to life on stage, and inspire people to read.

Book-It has collaborated with a wide variety of community organizations. We tour stories to King and Seattle Public Libraries for Read Aloud and Teen Read months. We have produced at ACT, Intiman, Seattle Art Museum, KUOW 94.9 FM, Town Hall, Center House Theatre, Freehold, North Seattle Community College, Cornish, Northwest Asian American Theatre, Hugo House, On the Boards, and the Seattle Repertory Theatre. Book-It's work has been seen in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Colorado, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Chicago, and New York City. Book-It's educational and outreach program, Book-It All Over! offers long-term residencies at public schools throughout King County, and is partnering with the Seattle Rep, Seattle Children's Theatre and Seattle Shakespeare company to provide teacher training and bring theatre into the classroom.

How Book-It Got Started

Book-It Repertory Theatre's history begins in 1986, when co-artistic director Jane Jones lead the 29th Street Project in New York City, an artistic collective comprised of graduates and company members from the American Theatre Conservatory in San Francisco, to experiment with performing short stories for the stage.

After moving to Seattle in 1987, Jane Jones, Tony Pasqualini, Mark Jenkins, Robyn Smith, Sarah Brooke, among others, formed The Collective at the Pasqualini/Smith acting studio in a 3-story walk-up on Pine Street in Seattle's Capitol Hill. Myra Platt, Book-It's future co-Artistic Director, joined The Collective in 1988. Members of The Collective began to experiment with the concept of Book-It by adapting literature into theatre. The only rules to produce a Book-It piece were that it must be literature and there could be no editing or playwriting. For the next two years, the company would hold free, monthly public performances of short stories in the Book-It style.

The Collective soon evolved into Book-It: A Performing Arts Company and in 1990, Book-It incorporated as a 501(c)3 organization, established its first Board of Directors and along with the Pasqualini/Smith Studio, moved to the Oddfellows Hall. Meanwhile, Book-It company members John Billingsley, Tony Pasqualini, and Mark Jenkins founded of the Capital Hill acting studio Freehold. That season, Book-It performed seven stories in Seattle's 2nd Fringe Festival, winning Best of Fest. Book-It also received a Washington State Governor's Award for its mission towards literacy and its artistic excellence in the performing arts.

Book-It members continued to explore and develop techniques for adapting literature and holding in-house performances for the next several years. For the 1990-91 season, Book-It's first annual budget was $10,750, had a total of 60 actors and directors in the company, paying dues, and had performed nearly 100 short stories for the public. 1992-93 the Book-It audience kept growing along with it's repertoire of stories. The company began to receive more and more requests from schools and libraries along with opportunities for grants to fund the company ability to tour the work. Book-It began touring stories throughout the King County Library System, a tradition that would evolve into Book-It's current education and outreach program, Book-It All Over!, formalized by Myra Platt in 1996, and developed by current Education Director Gail Fraser.

As Book-It's audiences and programming continued to grow, company members and the Board together formed a Committee to research the future leadership structure of the organization. The company requested and voted on a Co-Artistic Directorship to lead the company. In 1994, Myra Platt and Jane Jones became Book-It's first co-artistic directors and the following year, Book-It established its first home by renovating a 50-seat black-box theatre on 1219 Westlake Ave. North. For its first subscription season in the new space, Book-It had 39 subscribers and an annual budget of $64,200, and the Company received high artistic praise from local reviewers for it's innovative and polished productions.

The 1996-1997 season achieved several milestones for Book-It. Following a collaboration between Jane Jones, Tom Hulce and Peter Parnell to adapt John Irving's novel The Cider House Rules in the Book-It Style, the show premiered at the Seattle Repertory Theatre (co-directed by Jane and Tom Hulce). Although Book-It did not produce The Cider House Rules, it starred many Book-It company members, (including Myra Platt, Dougald Park, Sarah Brooke, Stephanie Shine, Michael Winters, Jayne Tahini, and Tom Beyer) and again, featured Book-It's unique approach to adapting literature. This same year, Book-It received the first ever Stabilization Grant from Don Johnson and the Kreielsheimer Foundation to hire a full-time Managing Director.

Building upon this success, Book-It continued to stabilize through increased fundraising and a small, growing paid staff. It established a collaboration with ACT Theatre and the Seattle Repertory Theatre, performing Lady Chatterley's Lover in the Allen Arena and Cowboys Are My Weakness in the PONCHO Forum. Book-It's national reputation grew. Cowboys Are My Weakness was invited to perform at the Telluride Playwright Festival. Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago commissioned Jane to adapt In A Shallow Grave for their New Play Workshop. And as the Seattle Rep's production of The Cider House Rules moved to Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum, the Book-It Style was introduced on a national scale.

With a growing subscription base, up from 39 to 434 in 2000, Book-It outgrew its Westlake venue and, with community support from Corporate Council for the Arts, Theatre Puget Sound and Seattle Center, the company moved its administrative offices to the Seattle Center House.

2003. Book-It continues to grow and stabilize with over 1300 subscribers and a staff of 7.5 FTE. Book-It's main stage season offers an annual 5-play subscription, and Book-It All Over! tours curriculum-based stories to schools and libraries throughout Washington State. In addition to touring, Book-It All Over! offers long-term residencies (2 weeks - 7 months) at schools.

To date, Book-It Repertory Theatre has produced over 50 world premiere adaptations of literature, toured to over 500 schools, libraries and community centers throughout Washington, and reaches over 77,000 people annually through mainstage and educational programs.