SPU honors Taproot's Scott & Pam Nolte as Alumni of the Year | People

It was nearly 35 years ago that Scott Nolte, Pam Bailey and four others graduated from Seattle Pacific University with their theater degrees and promptly founded a theater company that would establish roots in the community.

Thirty-five years later, SPU is honoring Scott Nolte and his wife, Pam Nolte, as the 2011 Alumni of the Year for the work they have done with the Greenwood-based Taproot Theatre Company, located just a few miles north of SPU’s north Queen Anne campus. Scott Nolte is Taproot’s Producing Artistic Director, while Pam Nolte is Taproot’s Community Liaison.

In a feature story in the current issue of Response, SPU’s magazine, making the announcement, the Noltes were honored for their “visionary partnership” that helped create Taproot and turn it into one of the most respected theater companies in the region.

SPU will honor the Noltes during the university’s Homecoming weekend in late January. Scott Nolte will also return to SPU’s theater department next spring to direct the production of Our Town.

The next production at Taproot is the world premiere of John Longenbaugh’s Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol, starting on November 19. Scott Nolte is the director for the play.