Andrea Lynn Allen

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Andrea Lynn Allen

SEATTLE — Andrea Allen died on November 15th after a courageous battle with cancer. She was 45-years-old.

Andrea was the daughter of the late Linwood (Woody) Allen and Connie Allen of South Paris. She was born and raised in the Oxford Hills. She graduated with honors from Oxford Hills High School in 1985.

A graduate of Yale University with a degree in Women's Studies in 1989, she held an MA in education from Antioch University. Andrea married Matthew Smucker of Seattle in 1998. She was the very proud mother of twin boys, Ulysses and Finnegan.

As a theatre artist in Seattle, Ms. Allen began her involvement at Annex Theatre in 1989, where she was a company member for more than 10 years, serving as director, literary manager, performer, and Artistic Director from 1996 to 1998.

Her sensibilities were crucial to the formation of Annex’s “Big Cheap Theatre” aesthetic, and the crafting of Annex’s longstanding mission statement: “Annex Theatre produces bold new work in an environment of improbability, resourcefulness, and risk.” Her artistic work with the company includes directing Machinal, The Women, Family Affair, The Handwriting, the Soup, and the Hats, and Beatrice.

Andrea was the Director of Education at Seattle Repertory Theatre for sixteen years where she created numerous programs to develop new work with teenagers, including the Playwriting Project and TeenSpeak.

In collaboration with other Seattle Center campus theatres (Seattle Children’s Theatre and Book-It Rep), she developed a teacher professional development program, Bringing Theatre into the Classroom; with national partners she created the Teaching Artist Training Lab (TAT); and she worked on the Theatre Education Assessment Models (TEAM) with TCG, the national service organization for regional theatres.

Her work as a director has been seen in Seattle Rep’s Speech & Debate and Circle Mirror Transformation.

As a playwright, she created new works in collaboration with the students she taught, including My Life as a Greek Tragedy, Pants on Fire, and Lost.

Marcie Sillman, of Seattle’s KUOW, writes “Andrea was a force to be reckoned with. For more than two decades she ran Seattle Repertory Theatre’s Education Program, but her passion for theater and for kids transcended the Rep.”

In 2005 Ms. Allen co-founded Deus X Machina, a community-based theatre company, for which she was the resident playwright.

Andrea is survived by her husband, Matthew Smucker and sons, Ulysses and Finnegan; mother, Connie Allen; father and mother-in-law, George and Barbara Smucker of Goshen, Indiana; Brothers, Scott Allen and his wife, Julia Allen of Bedford MA, and Todd Allen and his wife, Lisa Morin of Lee NH; sister-in-law, Janneken Smucker and her husband, Rick Sieber of Philadelphia, PA; Nieces and nephews, Evan, Jonathan and Jessie Allen, Michael and Eran Zelixon, Elizabeth (Libby) and Benjamin Allen, and Calla Seiber; and grand-niece Cecelia Baker.

A celebration of life to honor Andrea and her incredible legacy will be held on Monday, December 10 at 6 p.m. in the Bagley Wright Theatre at Seattle Repertory Theatre.

There will be a celebration of Andrea’s life in South Paris late in December 27, 2012 at the First Congregational Church in South Paris at 1 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family encourages donations to the Andrea Allen Memorial College Fund at any U.S. Bank branch to support the college aspirations of her sons, Ulysses and Finnegan, and contributions to Seattle Repertory Theatre to help sustain the education programs that Andrea founded and fostered.