
Shannon Waits
My Story
Shannon Waits is the co-chair of the Rainier Beach Link2Lake committee, the group who stewarded the community design process and fundraising to build the Cultural Stage and other Be’er Sheva park renovations.
She grew up doing community and school theater, with dreams of being an “actress,” until she realized she wasn’t that great at it, but loved being a part of the creative process and working behind the scenes. While living in NYC she began making puppets and political puppet shows, and explored stage managing new creative works. This continued when she moved back to Seattle in the early 2000’s, and has ebbed and flowed over the years since.
Ensuring the Cultural Stage exists and is a platform to highlight and uplift South End artists, emerging creatives and the cultural fabric of this neighborhood has been a passion and priority and is why Shannon pulled together the Cultural Stage Collective. Art, performance and any expression of the complex, grueling, tragic, and beautiful elements of life is a way we can communicate and share the human experience. We hope this stage is a place of joy, creative and political expression, and a space we can connect and learn from and with each other.