The Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia is a member-based service and leadership organization composed of non-profit professional theatres, individuals, and other affiliated organizations within the Greater Philadelphia region. The Theatre Alliance serves to strengthen and lead the region's richly diverse theatre community by promoting positive awareness and serving as a resource for information, professional development and advocacy.

• We value coordination and collaboration over competition.
• We endeavor to find common ground for the majority of our members.
• We seek diversity and equality.
• We encourage each Alliance member to share their advice, knowledge and experience.
• We believe that peer support, mentoring and networking are crucial to the health of the entire theatre community.

The origins of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia go back to 1990 with the creation of its predecessor organization, the Performing Arts League of Philadelphia (PALP). PALP was founded to expand awareness for all the performing arts in the Greater Philadelphia area. Through the years, PALP achieved its greatest success with programs specifically implemented for theatre. Among these programs are the Annual Auditions, instituted in 1991; The Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre, Philadelphia's first comprehensive theatre awards program created in 1994; and the development of a shared patron database. Following a strategic planning process in the spring of 1997, the League's membership voted unanimously to concentrate its energies on theatre and to formally change its name to reflect this new focus.

The need for the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia
The Greater Philadelphia Region is home to well over 100 producing theatres. Some are nationally renowned, and manage multi-million dollar budgets. Others are small, and endeavor to nurture and create new works. Each and every one contributes its unique voice to Philadelphia's arts community, adding to its richness and diversity, and helping to maintain its creative vitality. The Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia is the only local service organization dedicated to serve all of these theatres, by promoting positive awareness of the art form, building audiences and strengthening the theatre community.

In this era of diminishing public funding for the arts, the challenge for performing arts groups to remain artistically vibrant and financially stable is greater than ever. By pooling resources, sharing ideas and creating a unified marketing voice, member organizations of the Theatre Alliance are taking strong, positive steps to ensure continued diversity and vitality in Philadelphia's cultural community.

Pooling Resources
A strong marketing presence is essential to a theatre's success in today's competitive marketplace of art and entertainment. Non-profit arts organizations are often hard-pressed to find either sufficient human resources or funds for extensive marketing campaigns. Professional-quality marketing pieces, media buying and target mailings are expensive. By sharing costs through broadcast calendar dissemination, the Theatre Alliance website, and other programs, member theatres can take advantage of marketing tools they may not otherwise afford.

Alliance members benefit from sharing costs and human resources in non-marketing areas as well. The Annual Auditions, for example, give dozens of producers, directors and casting directors the chance to see hundreds of actors all under one roof. The auditions help member theatres cast the productions for their upcoming seasons and provide Philadelphia actors with a valuable career opportunity.

Sharing Ideas
The benefits of Theatre Alliance membership go far beyond cost-sharing. The Theatre Alliance provides local theatre professionals a much-needed forum for sharing ideas and expertise in all areas of theatre administration, especially in marketing and public relations. Through this forum the membership benefits from its own diversity in size and unique missions by learning from each other. SPARK, Marketing and Development Roundtables, board and committee work, and attendance at special events are just a few of the many opportunities available for learning, networking and professional growth provided by Theatre Alliance membership.

A Unified Voice
Building a unified voice aids building audiences for theatre and the performing arts in the Philadelphia Region. As an advocate for theatre in the entire Philadelphia Region, the Theatre Alliance constantly searches for opportunities to publicize and promote its members, increasing positive public awareness for theatre as an art form and creating an environment in which theatre is highly valued. Collective Theatre Alliance programs provide members a method to expand and/or reinforce their own marketing campaigns and create an overall marketing presence for theatre in the region. By pooling together to build a unified voice it is possible to build a positive national profile of theatre in Philadelphia and make the Philadelphia Region a destination of choice for quality theatre entertainment.

Join the Theatre Alliance as an Organization or Individual

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