Seattle's historic Georgetown Steam Plant still burns for the arts

The Georgetown Steam Plant used to generate power for Seattle's trolley system. Now it's serving as a source of inspiration for arts organizations.

Inside the steam plant, a theater group is putting on a sort of haunted house/play called "Ghosts of Nebula." Artistic Director Erin Brindley says the soaring industrial space is part of the experience.

"As you first walk into the Turbine Room, you're on the ground floor, and there are actors up about 35 feet up on a small catwalk," she says. "And then, a little bit later, you're on that small catwalk, and actors are down on the ground where you were."

The use of the steam plant is part of a larger Georgetown effort to reinvent the Seattle neighborhood as an arts hub.

Sam Farrazaino is a Georgetown artist working to make the steam plant an incubator for artistic projects like this.

“I refer to the steam plant as the industrial cathedral," Farrazaino says. "When people walk in here they are just overwhelmed with inspiration.”

The theatrical group Cafe Nordo has been casting around for a new home for months. The group originally focused on combining food and theater. It survived the pandemic by sending out date-night boxes with food and links to theatrical videos for home viewing.

But the post-pandemic lull that has taken so many arts organizations out has led Nordo on a quest for a new home, and a new focus.

The Steam Plant is only a stop on the organization's journey to a permanent location. But it's helping Nordo, which is rebranding as Nebula, to rethink its future as one focused on "immersive theater," which combines architecturally rich, technologically enhanced environments with theater.

"Think of Meow Wolf," says Brindley, referring to an immersive experience company that's opened locations across several western states.

Helping arts organizations find their footing in an inspiring industrial space is the dream Sam Farrazaino has for the steam plant.

"People that want to just spend time and build that relationship with the steam plant, and with its individual parts, and see how the light is hitting it at different times," he says.

Farrazaino lists a revolving door of artists and arts organizations that have worked in the space, from photographers, painters, and dancers to a haunted house run by a math museum.

The steam plant is officially a national monument. It’s being partially preserved using money from the National Park Service.

Farrazaino wants it to become an important part of a developing arts district in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood.

"Ghosts of Nebula" by Nordo plays at the Georgetown Steam Plant through November 2.

The Georgetown Steam Plant has an open house from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the second Saturday of every month.