(Mary Springer, 2013 WSB photo)
It’s the end of an era for West Seattle community theater, in more ways than one. Here’s the announcement sent by Twelfth Night Productions:

After nearly 30 years, Mary Springer has decided to retire as Artistic Director of Twelfth Night Productions (TNP) in 2023. Mary is the heart and soul of this organization and has created a magical community of theater lovers, performers, and artists. Her background in education and incredible gift of community building made her the perfect leader for this endeavor. With her at the helm, TNP mounted technically challenging productions, simple yet soulful radio shows, small ensemble pieces, and everything in-between. This company made our community of West Seattle stronger and richer.

TNP’s mission has always been to create a joyful and supportive place for people to explore the performing arts. With a focus on the process, not the product, the community that was built here is truly remarkable. Many generations of performers have discovered or re-discovered a passion for performing on our stages. Professional actors have sharpened their skills with us before going on to have distinguished careers. There have been multiple marriages and deep friendships forged among community members who met while working with TNP.

The amount of time and work it requires to lead this community is immense and Mary’s always-present helpers, Kathy Ayer and Rick Springer, are also ready to ease into retirement. Earlier this year, we were also informed that our costume storage warehouse has been sold and will be torn down in 2023. Considering those challenges, it is with both sadness and excitement for the future that we announce we are closing our production company in 2023. The last few years have certainly taught us that you can never say never, but for now we are making the hard choice to close the curtain.

We have had an incredible run and feel confident that our legacy of community building, joy, and inspiration will be remembered well into the future. Our holiday radio play, Miracle on 34th Street, directed by Mary, will be our final production, and then we will work on continuing to liquidate our inventory (check our website later this monthly for sales dates in October and November) and celebrate our 30 years of theater.

Save the date for a huge party to celebrate this amazing community; on 2/25/2023 we would like to invite you all to The Hall at Fauntleroy. We’d love to see community members from our entire history for a night of karaoke, dancing, celebrating… and probably a few tears.

Thank you for joining with us, onstage, backstage, in the audience, and at our work parties. This community we all built together is a true gift.

You can also watch the TNP website for the dates of their final production this holiday season.