Arts Duet- Opera, theatre team up on sets

In a new partnership that joins the artistic forces behind "Rent" and "Rigoletto," the 5th Avenue Theatre has hired the Seattle Opera to build its sets - a change from outsourcing the work to scene shops in other states.

The change allows the nonprofit 5th Avenue to direct more of its spending toward quality sets instead of interstate transportation.

"It's good for Seattle, because we keep it all here," said Bernadine Griffin, 5th Avenue's managing director. "We keep the work here, we keep the paychecks here, and it's another way to ensure that the quantity and quality of the work can stay here."

The partnership is the latest move in an ongoing trend of arts and other nonprofits sharing costs during shaky economic times. For example, several Seattle arts organizations leverage group buying power for their customer management database software.

Griffin expects the set-building change to save the musical-theater company between $100,000 and $200,000 on each of the approximately eight productions it mounts each year, depending on the scale of the project. The savings occur partially because the opera company, a fellow nonprofit, is charging only for the cost of materials and labor.

"The money that we had used to spend in transportation and shipping and all of that kind of stuff," she said, "we can reinvest that into the set itself."

Previously, the 5th Avenue used Reed-USA production shop, in Portland, Ore., and Gothic Moon Productions Inc., in Orange, Calif., for its sets and scenery.
Eliminating the transportation costs alone allowed the 5th Avenue to direct an extra $25,000 toward building the scenery for its current production of the musical "Rent," money that was originally budgeted for trucking and transportation before the Seattle Opera took on the project.

The partnership also creates more work for the artists and artisans at the Seattle Opera's Renton-based scene shop who build the elaborate sets. The 5th Avenue Theatre and Seattle Opera are two of the state's biggest employers in the arts. The 5th Avenue employs 800 people in a given year, including about 100 full-time. The opera employs about 630 people annually, including more than 70 full-time workers.

"The benefit that we see here is that we keep the talent in town, gainfully employed, readily available for the opera and all other arts groups in the city," said Michael Moore, the opera's scenic studios manager, adding that a typical 5th Avenue production brings six to eight weeks of work for the crews.

The opera's scene shop has produced sets and materials for other groups, including the EMP Museum at the Seattle Center.

As nonprofits, both the opera and theater group largely operate on donations.

"If you can keep (arts) work here in the Seattle area," Moore said, "then that donation remains here in the community."

It's also just a practical move, he said, because Seattle workers are familiar with the 5th Avenue stage and can evaluate its technical elements - lighting, electrical connections, scale and other details that become critical to ensuring that a set works in the space for which it's designed.

Having the extra work is important for the set builders, who often have unpredictable work schedules as they jump from project to project around the city and the state.

"Every set is unique," Moore said. "Every set presents a different set of challenges and issues to resolve."