Strawberry Theatre Workshop

Strawberry Theatre Workshop (aka Strawshop) is an award-winning Seattle theatre company founded in 2003 by Greg Carter, associated with a movement in that city to improve wages for professional theatre artists. Mission:"Strawberry Theatre Workshop is committed to the idea that the theatre is the people's place of aspiration, and that any voice from the stage is translated exponentially into conversations at coffee shops, bus stops, classrooms, and play fields. Strawshop is dedicated to the idea of ensemble, in the broadest sense of the word. Our ensemble does not only mean a resident company of workers, but a collective that includes our work, our audience, and our neighborhood. This is an activist stance. To be a good neighbor is to be a relevant neighbor, a responsible neighbor, and a vocal neighbor." Strawshop performed seven plays at the Richard Hugo House from 2004–2006, before moving to the Lee Center for the Arts at Seattle University, and eventually to the Erickson Theatre Off Broadway on Capitol Hill, where they performed six summer seasons. In January 2015, Strawshop began performing in a new arts space developed by Capitol Hill Housing called 12th Avenue Arts. Strawshop played a major role in designing and managing the new venue in a partnership with New Century Theatre Company and Washington Ensemble Theatre. In 2007, Strawshop received The Stranger newspaper’s Genius Award for an Organization—a prize awarded in other years to On the Boards, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and the Frye Art Museum. Actors associated with Strawshop have won Genius Awards as Individual Artists in Theatre including Gabriel Baron (2005), Amy Thone (2007), and composer/designer John Osebold (2012). The Seattle Times critic Misha Berson has named Strawshop winners of several Footlight Awards, and the company is the only theatre in Seattle nominated for a TPS Gregory Award for Outstanding Production four years in a row, between 2009-12.