Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia

The Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia strengthens and leads the region's richly diverse theatre community by promoting positive awareness and serving as a resource for information, professional development, and advocacy.

To advance the advocacy agenda of this mission, the Theatre Alliance has established a set of activities to leverage its leadership status and advance stronger support for the theatre industry among diverse stakeholders.

• Advocacy News Now:  An advocacy newsletter sharing details on topics and events that affect the Greater Philadelphia theatre industry.
• Advocacy Act Now:  Specific calls to action on the advocacy issues.  These alerts include the details on who to contact, how to reach them, and what message to convey.
• Viral Organizing:  Facebook page and Twitter postings that spread the word through the social networks. These formats have allowed for immediate mobilization of the theatre community for grassroots action on the issues.

These activities have proven to be strong tools for mobilizing the theatre community around important advocacy issues, such as the recent threat of an arts and culture tax in Pennsylvania.  In addition, the Theatre Alliance is utilizing local and national research to define and promote the individual contribution that the theatre industry specifically makes in our region; both to the economic vitality and life-quality of Greater Philadelphia.

Recent efforts include:

SUCCESSFUL MOBILIZATION of the theatre industry to defeat of a proposed ticket tax, first by Philadelphia City Council, and then by the Pennsylvania State Legislature.
 
PROACTIVE PARTICIPATION in the ongoing campaign to preserve government funding for the arts on the city, state and national level.

EFFECTIVE DISSEMINATION of information relevant to the field, such as our Leadership Roundtable discussions exploring fiscal sustainability in the context of a shrinking contributed revenue base, and the publication of the Theatre Industry Snapshot Report, a research study conducted in collaboration with Philadelphia Theatre Initiative, examining the scope and vitality of our industry.

COLLABORATIVE COORDINATION with other advocacy organizations including the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance (GPCA) locally, Citizens for the Arts in PA state-wide, and the Association of Performing Arts Service Organizations (APASO) and Americans for the Arts (AFTA) nationally.