by Ian Johnston
On September 4th, 1986, Annex Theatre was registered with the State of Washington as a non-profit arts organization. On September 4th, 2011, Annex Theatre turned 25.
That is 25 years of art, 25 years of madness, 25 years of passion. We have seen so many amazing talents pass across our stage, some of whom have gone on to national and international fame, some local, and some simply gone on with their lives, spreading their talent and goodness among friends and colleagues. Fortunately, among those talented people, there have been some talented photographers, so our long history of strictly ephemeral art receives some documentation and becomes, in a way, a bit less ephemeral.
I am proud to count myself among those with photographic talents who have helped document Annex through the years. I consider myself very lucky indeed to have access to high quality digital cameras, so that I can take hundreds of photos per night (I typically shoot 600-1200 photos in one evening of Spin the Bottle, our monthly cabaret) without spending the commensurate hundreds of dollars on film and processing. Fortunately, our historical photos more than make up in quality what they may lack in quantity.
Through the efforts of our board member and long-time Annex contributor Laurie Utterback, and Meaghan Darling, our amazing Production Director (who has also been the Production Manager on every show in the last year, as well as raising a family, holding down a job, and contributing her fabric-crafting genius when needed), we have a selection of Annex’s photographic history prepared for you. They collected, they scanned, they organized, and the result is this amazing collection of historical Annex photos.
First seen as a slideshow at our Silver Anniversary Gala on September 17th, we have also placed all the images into a gallery for your perusal. With so many pictures, the slideshow was necessarily somewhat quick — even at only 7 seconds per picture, the entire show clocks in at almost half an hour long. We wanted to give you the opportunity to relive Annex’s past at a more leisurely pace. Thus, we are proud to present:
