Seattle City Light’s historic Georgetown Steam Plant will be the backdrop for an upcoming play about the paranormal presented by the Seattle Immersive Theater, starting Oct. 3.
“Supraliminal” is described as a suspense thriller story with a supernatural edge.
Seattle City Light’s historic Georgetown Steam Plant will be the backdrop for an upcoming play about the paranormal presented by the Seattle Immersive Theater, starting Oct. 3.
“Seattle Immersive Theatre creates site-specific theatre in the city, and the Georgetown Steam Plant offered us a rich source of inspiration,” the theater’s artistic director, Paul Edward Thomas, said. “Seattle City Light has been an excellent host for our production ‘Superliminal,’ a suspense thriller story with a supernatural edge that takes full advantage of this unique and historic location. We’ve definitely been impressed with how well City Light has been able to accommodate our use of the space. We’d like to thank them for their support without which our production wouldn’t have come to life.”
In “Supraliminal,” Seattle Immersive Theatre invites its audience to become students of Professors Marcus Cadman and Elizabeth Jensen: two local parapsychologists fixated with the history of the Georgetown Steam Plant and reports of paranormal activity tied to the property. Following a brief lecture at South Seattle College, the class will be transported by bus to the location of the supposed hauntings and asked to actively participate in the investigation as part of the course.
“For all intents and purposes, ‘Supraliminal’ is a legitimate college level class in parapsychology with an integrated component,” Thomas explains. “We’re grounding the world we’ve created in reality, but there’s also the really fantastic stuff, the psychic activity that our audience gets to experience. We’re doing things live that most people have only seen on film.”
Actress Frances Hearn portrays Prof. Elizabeth Jensen in “Supraliminal.”
You can watch a trailer for the play here.
The unconventional theater performance comes with a caution: While breaks will be provided, departures from the site will only happen under emergency circumstances. Please take this into consideration before purchasing tickets and plan accordingly.
The Georgetown Steam Plant, a National and City of Seattle Historic Landmark, stands today as a reminder of the era of electrification of America’s cities and a time when industry was first attracted to Seattle by its inexpensive hydroelectric power and electric trolley car system. Built in 1906-1907 by the Seattle Electric Company on 18 acres of land along the Duwamish River, the plant was once at the center of the bustling residential and industrial activity in the rapidly growing Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle.
In 1951, the City of Seattle Department of Lighting – today’s Seattle City Light – purchased the plant and operated it on a limited basis until the 1970s.
Modern operations for City Light continue nearby at the Duwamish Substation. Built in 1955, the substation accepts 230,000 volt electricity from transmission lines and provides 26,000 volt electricity into the distribution system that delivers electricity to our customers’ homes and businesses.