Theater goes to church: 'Lady' opens along with city's newest stage

The city's newest stage officially opens Wednesday night in a Center City space with a high ceiling and 100 new seats. It doesn't even have a name yet. But already it has developed a pedigree.

The theater, on a lower floor of First Baptist Church of Philadelphia at 17th and Sansom Streets, is the first success in a project called Arts in Sacred Places, a Philadelphia-based project that will match unused spaces in holy sites with the needs of arts groups looking for room to rehearse, keep offices, perform, exhibit, and even build sets and costumes.

The theater - people are calling it the new theater or Off Broad Street for lack of anything official - opens with Azuka Theatre's Act a Lady, in previews there since Thursday. Azuka is a primary force behind the new space, along with Inis Nua, another company performing there and moving its offices inside the church.

Both are members of a consortium of six Center City theaters called Off Broad Street - companies that are among the smaller of the region's 51 professional theater ensembles, but are becoming more visible and muscular each season. Inis Nua, for example, transferred a show it premiered last season in Philadelphia to Off-Broadway several weeks ago.

Partners for Sacred Places approached the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia - the umbrella organization that serves the area's stage companies - "and the Off Broad Street group felt that this was really a good mix," says Kevin Glaccum, Azuka's artistic director. "We started meeting with them and with the church in the spring. This happened very quickly. The planets really aligned."

As religious organizations with large, often elegantly designed old buildings find that they need less space and more funding sources, the arts become an option. Many performing organizations lack permanent homes and complain that traditional theater spaces are either too expensive or unavailable.

In Philadelphia during the height of the season - November and December and April and May - a frequent lament is "we need more stages"; it's also a mantra as groups look for space to perform around Labor Day during the frantic two weeks of the Live Arts Festival/Philly Fringe.