Our Company
Who We Are
Annex Theatre is a democratic collective, artist-run theatre company made up of the people who create, produce, and sustain our work. Our company includes artists—actors, playwrights, designers, and other performers—alongside production professionals such as directors, stage managers, technicians, carpenters, and electricians, as well as the many volunteers and supporters who make each show possible through box office work, marketing, bar service, house management, and more.
Company membership is invitation-based and grows organically from our productions. Artists and collaborators who work on Annex shows may be invited to join the company, a lineage that stretches back to our incorporation nearly forty years ago. This long arc of participation connects past and present, creating a living network of theatre-makers who share responsibility for how the company functions and what it produces.
As a democratic collective, the Annex company guides the theatre’s artistic direction, governance, and operations. Decisions about what work we produce are made together, through proposal, discussion, debate, and consensus.
Our History
Annex incorporated on Bainbridge Island in 1986, and took residence in 1988 in a former dance studio on 4th Avenue in downtown Seattle. Since then the theatre has produced hundreds of world and Pacific Northwest premieres, including new plays by Stranger Genius Award winners Chris Jeffries and Paul Mullin; dozens of local playwrights including Elizabeth Heffron, Kelleen Conway Blanchard, Scotto Moore, Keri Healey, Scot Augustson, John Kaufmann, Heidi Heimarck, Bret Fetzer, Holly Arsenault, Courtney Meaker, Keiko Green, Brandon J. Simmons, Amy Escobar, and Seayoung Yim; and nationally recognized playwrights such as Erik Ehn, Naomi Iizuka, Glen Berger, Anne Washburn, Jeffrey Jones, Nicky Silver, Madeline George, and Benjamin Benne.
Former Annex company members can be found throughout the Seattle arts community, including Allison Narver, former Artistic Director of the Empty Space; Weir Harman, Executive Director of Town Hall; and Gillian Jorgensen, Seattle Children’s Theatre Teaching Artist; also nationally including Josef Krebs, former Director of Development at Actors Theatre of Louisville (home of the Humana Festival of New American Plays); as well as in the local and national film industry, such as directors SJ Chiro, Garrett Bennett, and Mike Shapiro, and actors Jillian Armenante and Paul Giamatti. We believe that Annex’s distinctive collective working model–which cultivates a combination of initiative, diligence, and the ability to play well with others–is responsible for this remarkable track record of producing leaders in the arts.
Annex has produced upwards of 300 individual performances during its nearly 30 year history. A complete listing of performances from 1982 through 2010 — created by Annex Historian Ed Hawkins — is available as a PDF document: Annex Production History; this web site catalogs our seasons from 2008 through the present in more detail.
Annex Theatre Artistic Directors
Edgar Sargent — 1987 – 1988 (might have started 1986)
Allison Narver — 1989 – 1995
Andrea Allen — 1996 – 1997
SJ Chiro — 1998 – 2000
Bret Fetzer — 2001 – 2004
Gillian Jorgensen — 2004 – 2006
Bret Fetzer — 2006 – 2009
Pamala Mijatov — 2009 – 2016
Catherine Blake Smith — 2016 – 2019
Hannah Ferguson and Madison Jade Jones — 2019 – 2020
Sam Ro — 2021 – 2024
Lucien Oberleitner — 2025 – Present