We had the good fortune of connecting with Kate Drummond and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kate, what do you attribute your success to?
Dacha Theatre is a collective of artists with infectious joy and passion for creating innovative, engaging theatrical experiences. Our success as an organization is in large part due to our commitment to building and sustaining community, in our rehearsal rooms, design processes, and audiences.

Since 2016, Dacha has been steadily growing and currently operates with a staff of 8 and 37 company members, as well as employing about 80 other artists per year. This comprises a range from early career artists to established actors. Our audition philosophy is built around creating a space for artists and creators of many different backgrounds and disciplines to find resonance together. We run our auditions as group workshops, requiring no preparation beforehand and designed to make auditioners feel successful and show their best work.

Our commitment to community is reflected most strongly in our ticketing structure: Dacha strives to provide accessible theatre for everyone, regardless of financial status, and all of our events are ticketed on a sliding scale with a Pay-What-You-Can option. This has been true since our founding in 2016, and extends to everything we offer — from our productions, to our workshops, and even to our fundraising events. The run of a typical show reaches 400-500 audience members, with over 50% choosing reduced price, pay-what-you-can, or complimentary ticket options.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Dacha Theatre is a Seattle-based theatre company specializing in devised, immersive, and playful productions. Our work centers the audience as a key participant in telling our stories, and the range of productions appeals to a variety of audiences. A “dacha” is a Russian cottage, a retreat and a time apart, a place for family where the generations mingle. Our Dacha seeks out stories that strike a chord of familiarity in our audience. We are constantly in pursuit of new ways to tell old stories and ways to make new stories resonate. The stories we tell are typically full of movement, comedy, and audience interaction.

Each season includes a sprawling interactive performance – a unique format in the current Seattle theatre scene. The Dacha rehearsal room is a space of collaboration, creation, and joy. We use devising tools in all our productions to amplify the voices of our actors and designers, and create something together that we never could have made alone.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The success and spirit of Dacha as a theatre organization is thanks to the artistry, vision, and passion of our community of artists — particularly to our Dacha Company members and Artistic Production Staff, who choose again and again to share their voices and talents with our community.

Website: dachatheatre.com

Instagram: @dachatheatre

Twitter: @dachatheatre

Facebook: @DachaTheatre

Image Credits
Brett Love

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