An Island organization that provides a second home for young theater and arts lovers is looking for a home itself.

Youth Theatre Northwest (YTN) offers year-round classes, produces 12 professional shows per year and “nurtures the intellectual, artistic and personal development of children and youth through drama education, performing opportunities and live theatre experiences.”

But those experiences have taken a different shape in the past two years, as YTN entered an interim period after losing its building in 2014. YTN’s offices, classes and some performances are housed in a temporary home: Emmanuel Episcopal Church.

“We reached a certain level of desperation, and the solution was to combine forces with another Island group,” said YTN Executive Director Manuel Cawaling. “The church has the same focus on community development and nurturing children as Youth Theatre does.”

Shared spaces

YTN uses almost every space the church has to offer: performing in the chapel and on the lawn, converting its reception hall into a black box theater and using office space in its teen center. But these are shared areas, and the church works with other on-site partners, including a Boy Scout troop, the Mercer Island Visual Arts League and Alcoholics Anonymous.

The group is “grateful” for the space and works well with Emmanuel Church, its staff and its resources, putting on “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” in its sanctuary and planning to perform “Cats” on the lawn this summer.

But YTN needs dedicated spaces to carry out its mission, Cawaling said, which is why it partnered with Mercer Island Center for the Arts (MICA). MICA, another non-profit Island group, is planning to raise $25 million and build a performing arts center in a corner of Mercerdale Park, with YTN as its main tenant.

“We used to have so much space: 14,000 square feet, two theaters, exclusive classrooms and ample storage and office space. And they were technologically appropriate to provide professional experiences for our children and audiences,” Cawaling said. “But most importantly, we had a sense of home. It belonged to the kids.”

Island student Kyle Gerstel spoke before the City Council at its Jan. 19 meeting. He said that he and his family had recently moved to the Island, drawn by the promise of YTN and its “theatrical community” and “campus for theater kids.” To say he was sad to learn that YTN moved to a church, he said, was an understatement.

Quick change

YTN was started on Mercer Island in 1984, operating out of the old junior high school building on Southeast 40th Street at the North Mercer campus, a property owned by the school district.

“We renovated [the building] over 30 years into a fully functional and professional theater, appropriately sized for young actors and their families,” Cawaling said.

But both Youth Theatre and the district hit a tipping point two years ago. The group had “clearly outgrown” the space, and the district needed to reclaim the land to build a new elementary school.

After “exhausting every possible means” and “looking at every option,” YTN decided that using city property would be the best route, resulting in the selection of the Mercerdale Park site. Land on the Island is too expensive for a non-profit to purchase, meaning that if the MICA option doesn’t work out, Youth Theatre will likely move to another community.

“We want to stay on the Island,” Cawaling said. “The children of Mercer Island shouldn’t have to sacrifice their growth and education in this transition. It wasn’t their choice, and it’s no one’s fault … For all the right reasons, we got knocked off our feet. We need the community’s support as we try to build a new home and offer something that is uniquely Mercer Island.”

Longtime YTN student and Issaquah resident Daniel Repp spoke to the City Council last August. He said that Youth Theatre provides a second home for kids, and has drawn him across Lake Washington for eight years. What makes it precious is the community it creates, with one generation educating the next, he said.

“If MICA doesn’t get built, many children after me won’t find that home away from home and that wonderful place where they can be themselves, sing songs together and just be nerdy and have fun,” said Lauren Bouju Davies, a 16-year-old YTN student.

Money matters

The transition has been hard on YTN physically and financially, Cawaling said. It had to spend $30,000 on new stages, $100,000 to retrofit its black box theater and $10,000 to rent out the Stroum Jewish Community Center’s stage for recent performances of “Suessical Jr.”

“We rent it once a year because we need to create that opportunity for kids to be in a big musical number. That’s just basic youth theater and every kid needs that. You can’t do that in a parish hall,” Cawaling said. “Every day we have to choose between mission and cost.”

YTN’s annual gala is coming up, and will be held March 5 at the Bellevue Hilton. YTN, which offers about $20,000 in scholarships, is hoping to take a multi-pronged approach to fundraising this year: to pay for annual operating expenses not covered by tuition and ticket sales, to settle some of the debt caused by the transition and to raise money for MICA.

YTN is now spread over three locations, making staff communication more difficult. Cawaling says he has to lug boxes back and forth for different classes and shows, and spend weekend hours setting up or taking down stages and sets if the spaces are needed by other groups.

The uncertainty about MICA doesn’t help. The group is still negotiating a ground lease with the city, with an environmental review, zoning changes and a parking solution still needed, and some citizens oppose the project and its impact on parkland.

Next steps

Youth Theatre has lost a bit of visibility and perhaps some credibility since the move, Cawaling said, but the mission remains the same. YTN’s customers cycle out as they get older, so the business has to continually introduce itself to new audiences, which is more difficult now that it isn’t located at one of the busiest intersections on the Island.

“The dynamic curriculum, focus on personal growth, high caliber of arts and thoughtful creation of programming — that’s all still here,” Cawaling said. “Nothing has changed, but the packaging is different.”

YTN serves about 2,000 children each year, and is one of the largest employers of working artists in the area.

“We have some really exciting programs this year. This transition has forced us to think outside of the box,” Cawaling said.

YTN now runs programs at the Rainier Valley Boys and Girls Club, schools in Renton and Issaquah and is starting to identify satellite sites.

“We’re committed to the Island, but we need a plan B,” he said. “Kids are our first responsibility, but it’s a fragile ecology and a lot of people are counting on us. We have a family 32 years old counting on us.”

For more on the gala and upcoming performances, visit www.youththeatre.org.