It’s Official: ACT, Shakespeare Merge to Create Union Arts Center

More than a year after an exploratory announcement and six months after reaching a deal, it’s official: ACT Contemporary Theatre and Seattle Shakespeare Co. are now one entity.

The two Seattle arts organizations announced their first annual 2025/26 season on July 1, the day they officially joined forces. Now known as Union Arts Center, the organizations are housed in ACT’s former downtown Seattle space at 700 Union St.

The season features five works:

• Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, from Sept. 20-Oct. 25;
• Shakespeare’s Shrew, from Oct. 18-Nov. 2, followed by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Feb. 14-March 1, 2026);
• The aves, by Jiehae Park (April 18-May 3); and
• Frida…A Self Portrait, written and performed by Vanessa Severo (June 6-28).

“For me,” says Managing Director John Bradshaw, “the most important thing we can do our first season is to invite everyone in to see that Shakespeare, which we can only ever really interpret through our contemporary experience, and contemporary works, which reflect our history as they open doors into the future, combine perfectly in the timeless arc of our need to gather around the fire and tell stories to make sense of our world.”

Season subscriptions and more information can be found here.