The Curtain Falls on a Joyful Life: Edie Whitsett

Seattle Children's Theatre and the entire Seattle arts community lost a treasure when Edie Whitsett passed away Thursday night after a long fight with cancer. Whitsett was SCT's longtime Prop Shop Manager and had worked as a scenic artist with just about every theater in town, as well as Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet, and was shortlisted for the Stranger's Genius Award last year.

I worked with Whitsett for the four years I was Marketing & PR Manager at SCT, and what first impressed me was her attention to detail. When SCT produced a small cast Hamlet that required much doubling of roles, the actor playing Ophelia had to be onstage in another role when Ophelia's drowned, lifeless body is brought in. To accomplish this, the prop shop created a "Fauxphelia"; not content to make a simple stuffed doll, they built a fully articulated wooden skeletal frame to insure the proper drape of the carried corpse. The stage fire they created for In the Northern Lands went through a dozen iterations before Whitsett and her crew were satisfied they had produced the perfect result. Her work with scale breathed diminutive life into The Borrowers and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and she perfectly outfitted any time period or fantastic land SCT Artistic Director Linda Hartzell threw her way, from revolutionary France to Neverland.

Whitsett's design presentations during the meet-n-greets that kick off each SCT rehearsal period were a consistent highlight. Accompanied, as always, with her tiny dog, Lily, Whitsett would charm the room with her wry, dry wit and beautiful designs. She was a fixture and anchor in one of the strongest design and production teams in town.

And this is where I have to drop the journalistic convention, and talk not of Whitsett but of Edie. Even more important than her artistic gifts, Edie was a kind and caring human being, one of the people who remind you, by their very presence, of all that is good in the world. Edie supported every effort I made to promote our theatre, opening the doors of her shop to me and my camera as I tried to find ways to share the backstage magic at SCT with our audience, and it was in this welcome that I was to learn the secret to Edie's work and life, summed up in a single word: joy. It was impossible not to smile when she showed off a new find, some oversized teapot or perfect garden gnome; her face lit, eyes danced and she had you. Edie was good and loving and kind because she carried an inner joy, and was willing to share it in so many ways.

When I heard the news, my heart fell, tears welled up, and then I remembered that joy, and I smiled. Heartbroken, but better for having had the chance to share in it.

Edie's final scenic design is on the SCT stage right now in A Year with Frog and Toad, and it is vintage Edie. If you get the chance, see it, and know it is but one example of what Edie did best. She created beautiful, dynamic playgrounds for artists' and audiences' imaginations. She shared joy.

Good journey, Edie Whitsett. Our hearts are with your family and friends.