Capital Mall space shuffling leaves local theater groups without a home

OlyTheater, the Capital Mall black box that housed Theater Artists Olympia, Broadway Olympia and Juice Box Theatre, is no more, and the theater companies — which had shows planned through June — are in search of a new home.

The former theater, near the cinema, will soon become The Artists Gallery, a cooperative gallery previously located in the Capital Mall Promenade. The gallery is temporarily closed and will open in its new spot Sept. 5.

On July 26, the mall notified OlyTheater that it needed to vacate the space.

“Unfortunately, we do not have another available space in the mall that we can relocate you to, or we would be offering that,” the letter from the mall said. “OlyTheater will need to vacate by Saturday, August 10, 2024, by 11:59 pm.”

“It’s just heartbreaking,” said Pug Bujeaud of TAO. “We had just bought black ceiling tiles for the space. We had just revamped the backstage.”

The ending, though abrupt, was permitted under the terms of the theater’s contract. OlyTheater was a temporary tenant, paying a portion of ticket sales to use the space and agreeing to vacate with 24 hours notice. That arrangement began in 2018, when Broadway Olympia founder Kyle Murphy rented the space for the company’s rehearsals. He opened it as a theater in 2021, hosting Broadway Olympia musicals and performances by other community groups. Theater Artists Olympia took up residence there in August 2022.

“The mall supported us with a really favorable agreement,” Murphy said. “We probably wouldn’t have been able to do what we did without that.”

The Artists’ Gallery also has a temporary arrangement, said Neil Peck, president of the cooperative gallery. The gallery has had space in the promenade, a strip mall near the main mall, for 11 years, and was recently notified that a permanent tenant wanted the promenade space.

“The mall was kind to us in offering us a new space, which they didn’t have to do,” Peck said. “We had no say in the matter except if we’d moved to a space outside the mall, and there is no other commercial landlord that would be willing to do what the mall does for us.”

Mall manager Kevin Johnston did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“It was a business decision to go in a different direction,” Murphy told The Olympian. “Now everybody is moving on and moving forward.”

“This isn’t the first time this has happened to us,” Bujeaud said. “We are down, but we’re not out.” In its 21-year history, TAO has occupied spaces including The Midnight Sun in downtown Olympia, South Puget Sound Community College’s Black Box and space at the Olympia Eagles.

Both TAO and Broadway Olympia were hitting their stride at the mall. The last show at OlyTheater, Broadway Olympia’s “Tick, Tick … Boom,” played to packed houses in July.

“We had an amazing two-year run there,” Bujeaud said. “I am incredibly proud of the shows we put up. We did some of our best work there.”

The road ahead for the theater companies is foggy though.

TAO’s “Much Ado About Nothing” is happening this coming weekend, Aug. 23-24, at Lakewold Gardens, 12317 Gravelly Lake Drive SW, Lakewood. It had been slated for a run in the mall theater as well. Now, the show will happen only in Lakewood.

Also canceled were a pair of August concerts by the Queen tribute band Mercury Rising, planned as fundraisers for the theater, as well as Juice Box’s October show, which would have been the next in the company’s daytime productions for young children.

All of the companies hope to continue the remainder of the planned productions as best they can.

Broadway Olympia and TAO will look for spaces to rent for each show in the short term while looking for a new home.

For Juice Box, the closure might cause a bigger interruption.

“It would not be ideal to change venues since we do something monthly,” said Kate Ayers, who founded the company and adapts fairy and folk tales for very young audiences. “We’re just not sure what our next step is.

“We are actively considering all kinds o possibilities,” she added. “The hope is that all three groups will be able to find appropriate space.”