Green Lake Aqua Theater
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The Green Lake Aqua Theater was a theater located at Green Lake in Seattle, Washington.
The Aqua Theater was built in 1950 for the first Seafair Summer Festival in order to house an attraction called the Aqua Follies and their "swimusicals" - a combination of aqua ballet, stage dancing, and comedy. The first ever performance at the venue was on November 8, 1950.[1]
The theater included a round stage and floating (though still recessed below the stage) orchestra pit. There were high diving platforms on each side of the stage which encircled the edge of the lake. There was also a large 'moat' in-between the 'fan-shaped' grandstand and stage/orchestra pit. The grandstand was built to a capacity of 5,600 seats.[1]
The Aqua Follies continued to run during Seafair until 1965. Outside of the Seafair schedule the theater was the stage for plays and musicals whose directors always took advantage of the unique setting.
In the summer of 1962, coinciding with the Century 21 Exposition, the Aqua Theater stage was host to a jazz festival, popular performers such as Bob Hope, two plays, and a special presentation of the Aqua Follies with 100 performers.
After the World's Fair, summer productions languished (usually blamed on Seattle's unpredictable weather) until the Aqua Theater was mostly abandoned — a 1969 concert by the Grateful Dead revealed that the grandstand was crumbling and dangerous.
Beginning in 1970 the theater was dismantled, stage right now serving as a pedestrian pier and stage left providing dock and storage for crew shells. In the late 1970s, the majority of the grandstand was removed to make way for a small craft center which was dedicated in 1980. Some sections of the grandstand were left in place.[2][1]
