Theater band together into “Off Broad Street”

Small theater groups with no permanent homes are working together to promote each other and share ticket databases.

The fall theater season will be starting soon. This year a handful of small theater companies have banded together to give a name to alternative theater. “Off Broad Street” is a coalition of six theater companies sharing advertising and audiences. They are trying to make themselves more visible.

The Philadelphia Fringe Festival begins in a few weeks, when over one thousand small theater shows will be staged. For many local ticket buyers, that will be their only alternative theater experience for the year. The Off-Broad Street consortium would like to change that. Six mid-sized theater companies have pooled their marketing resources to say that kind of theater happens all year long, if you know where to look.

Kevin Glaccum of Azuka Theater says it can be a challenge for audiences to know where to look because small companies have no fixed home – every show is at a different venue.

“Audiences are confused by that. They consider where they are going to be the theater, and don’t realize there are a variety of companies that can occupy that same space.”

The companies in the Off Broad Street coalition are Azuka, BRAT, EgoPo, Mauckingbird, 11th Hour, and Inis Nua. The members say they will share subscription databases, which could lead to discount offers for subscribers.