With the upcoming move, Freehold becomes the first of the Odd Fellow's Hall's three anchor arts organizations, including Velocity Dance and the Century Ballroom, to leave the building following its sale in January to developers.
Freehold will move from its original home to Belltown, setting up shop in the former location of the Speakeasy Networks offices at 2222 Second Avenue. The theatrical company Macha Monkey, another former Odd Fellows tenant, will share the new space. Beyond administrative offices, there will be two large studio spaces, one of which can be used as a 49-seat performance space, and a writing room. The new location is smaller; Freehold will no longer have a 100-seat theater of its own.
While disappointed at having to leave its longtime home, Freehold's Managing Director Angela Luechtefeld said the organization feels considerable relief from having removed the uncertainty surrounding where Freehold would end up. But once the building was sold, the writing was on the wall in bold capital letters.
"The new owners have a different business model, one that includes charging market-rate rents in the building. Freehold simply could not pay that kind of rent and still survive," she said.
Freehold has a significant and long-standing artistic footprint on the Hill. Begun 17 years ago when cofounder Robin Lynn Smith and several others merged acting studios with a group led be cofounder George Lewis (who moved to South America in December), Freehold has a long history as an arts incubator whose artistic reach extends far beyond Capitol Hill.
Freehold features a wide variety of theatrical training by profession artists and emphasizes a collaborative approach. Freehold's Theatre Lab aims to promote new and experimental work and to rediscover the classics. Its Engaged Theater Program takes actors out of familiar stage settings and launches performances in such locations as the Washington Corrections Center for Women, Tent City or Harborview Medical Center, among others. In its training programs, Freehold teaches roughly 500 students each year.
In all, roughly 10,000 people either take part in classes, attend performances or participate through the Engaged Theatre project.
While the building's sale, announced last fall, forced Freehold's hand, the idea of leaving Odd Fellows had been under discussion. Last year, Freehold's board members held a retreat, formed focus groups and assessed where the organization wanted to go in the future. The organization knew it had to streamline costs, a challenging proposition for an arts group which needs a lot of physical space.
"After 15 years, we wanted to take a look back. We wanted to make sure we were still relevant. This meant asking a lot of questions about our mission and what it is we do at Freehold," she said. This meant examining its business model as well.
On the heels of such organizational introspection came news that the Odd Fellows Hall would be sold. While the prospect of an unmanageable rent increase was a shock and necessitated finding a new home sooner rather than later, Luechtefeld said Freehold was aware that the building would likely be sold at some point.
Back to the Hill?
Freehold has signed a 2-year lease in Belltown and has the option to stay as long as five years. The ultimate goal, one discussed prior to Odd Fellow's Hall sale, is for the organization to own its own space. Efforts at locating and purchasing a space are under way. Ideally, Freehold could return to Capitol Hill if a permanent location can be found.
"We would like to have our forever home be on the Hill. Many artists and residents are concerned about artist dispersal on Capitol Hill, and our identity is here," Luechtefeld said. She added that Freehold is aware of six or seven specific buildings, all on or near Capitol Hill, that, while not on the market, would make for a suitable Freehold home.
"There are some buildings on the Hill that, with vision, could be used for artistic purposes," she said.
Additionally, Freehold will explore ways to combine a permanent location with other arts groups. Given the tremendous cost of real estate in the city, and the need for more performances spaces, such an approach may become a necessary and realistic model.
"This is the only way medium to small arts organizations can own their own space," she said. "We want to look for more collaborations, and having a multi-use venue to share costs and inform each other's art makes sense."
Luechtefeld admitted a sense of sadness at leaving Odd Fellows. But she said she and others at Freehold are mostly sanguine about the move and are excited about what comes next. After months of uncertainty the organization can look forward to a known future and, once the move is complete, getting back to the artistic work that is its raison d'etre in the first place.
"At the end of the day, our organization, all the organizations at Odd Fellows, are greater than the building," she said. "But we want to take what was great about this building and bring it with us to a new one."
More information about Freehold is available at www.freeholdtheatre.org.
An open house at Freehold Theatre's new location takes place on from 7 to 9 p.m. on April 2, 2222 Second Ave.
Doug Schwartz is the editor of the Capitol Hill Times. He can be reached at editor@capitolhilltimes.com or 461-1308.
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