April 2, 2001 -- Philadelphia -- Philadelphia has always been a theater town. The infamous actor John Wilkes Booth played here. The nation’s oldest continuously operated theater, the Walnut Street Theatre, is in Philadelphia. Members of the famed Barrymore family were familiar figures on the local stage. Cole Porter’s Kiss Me Kate, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and Rodgers & Hart’s Pal Joey all debuted on Philadelphia stages.

But Philadelphia is no longer just a try-out town, a stopover for major productions on their way to Broadway. In the past decade, Philadelphia has emerged as one of the country’s most vibrant and innovative theater cities, showcasing Broadway hits, classics, new plays and musicals, fringe and performance art, Shakespeare, multicultural performances, and Tony award-winning works.

Spurred by the support of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, a member-based service organization comprised primarily of non-profit, professional theaters in the region, there are more than 60 member companies producing work for audiences throughout the region -- more than half of which were founded in the past five years or less.

"Shows still go to New York from Philadelphia," said Melissa Y. Shaner, executive director of the Theatre Alliance. "But they’re more likely to have originated here." For example, Master Class originated with the Philadelphia Theatre Company and went on to Broadway and negotiations are underway to take the Prince Music Theater’s 3hree to New York.

Marjorie Samoff, artistic director for the nationally acclaimed Prince Music Theater, agrees that Philadelphia has raised the bar both regionally and nationally when it comes to producing and generating exciting, original productions. "We are a tight community – everyone wants everyone else to succeed. That kind of environment nurtures and attracts artists, encouraging them to do their best work."

The Prince Music Theater offers just one example of growth within the Philadelphia theater community. Founded in 1984 as the American Music Theater Festival, the company purchased a former movie theater in Center City Philadelphia, renovating it to include a 450-seat proscenium theater with state-of-the-art acoustics. Prince, which specializes in musical comedy, music drama, opera, and experimental work, is the third largest venue on the Avenue of the Arts and the second largest theater company in the city.

Terrence Nolen, co-founder and artistic director for the Arden Theatre Company in Old City, has been in the thick of things as the local scene has heated up. Founded in 1988 by Nolen, Amy Murphy and Aaron Posner, the Arden first produced at the 70-seat Walnut Street Theatre studio space before eventually buying and renovating a 50,000 sq.ft. theater space in 1995 at 40 N. Second Street. "One of the reasons we chose Philadelphia was because it seemed to be a regional theater community in its early stages of development," said Nolen. "The explosion of activity, even in the past five years, has been extraordinary. We expanded and moved into a new space, and so did the Prince, Wilma, and Freedom Theatre companies. The growth is exciting – and the amount of new work originating here is incredible. The caliber of theater in Philadelphia is still somewhat of a secret, but the word is spreading."

In June, more than 600 theater professionals from around the country will see for themselves that Philadelphia’s arts community is both vast and talented, when they’re in town for the biennial meeting of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for America’s nonprofit theaters. "It is an honor to host this group," said Shaner. "The conference will surely result not only in collaborations among Philadelphia artists and those from other areas, but also raise our national profile among the arts and theater communities."

When his organization was considering proposals from cities interested in hosting the conference, Philadelphia was a clear front runner, said Ben Cameron, TCG’s executive director.

"We were looking for a city with a wide variety of theatrical offerings, a healthy mix of aesthetics, organizations of color and companies producing both traditional and new work," he explained. "Philadelphia emerged as a city producing an incredibly interesting array of strong work across many boundaries, including some work that is being picked up and produced elsewhere. While many cities have a single strong theater and small companies, Philadelphia has a variety of midsize theaters, which offer our members many performance opportunities. Philadelphia was a natural choice."

The depth of Philadelphia’s talent pool is evident from a glance at the diversely themed companies currently in production for spring. Besides the larger companies, like the Arden, Walnut Street, the Wilma and the Philadelphia Theatre company, which is dedicated to promoting new American work, Philadelphia is also home to:

• Theatre Ariel, producing plays relating to the Jewish experience;
• Daylight Zone, which primarily produces work with a gay theme;
• Freedom Theatre, which offers insights into the African American experience;
• Pig Iron, which is devoted to movement, clowning and mime;
• 1812 Productions, which educates and entertains through humor and satire;
• The Philadelphia Fringe Festival, an annual series of avant garde productions centered in the Old City neighborhood of town.

Most companies produce their own work and cast primarily local actors.

This spring a wide variety of exciting theater events in Philadelphia will create a strong lead-in to the June TCG conference. Musicals feature prominently, from Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway hit Passion at the Wilma Theater to Sparkle: the Musical at Freedom Repertory Theatre, the popular A Chorus Line at the Walnut Street Theatre, the new The Baker’s Wife at the Arden, The Laramie Project, a new play by highly-acclaimed playwright Moises Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theatre Project, at the Philadelphia Theatre Company. Shakespeare, O’Neill, and Tennessee Williams are also represented, as are new plays and puppet- and movement-based pieces in a variety of venues.

For more information about Philadelphia’s theater community and the upcoming spring season, contact the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, (215) 413-7150, www.theatrealliance.org.

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