| Former Names: | Wilma Project (1973–1996) |
| Address: | 265 Broad Street, Philadelphia |
| City: | Pennsylvania |
| Country: | USA |
| Coordinates: | 39.9473°N -75.1645°W |
| Capacity: | 296 |
| Opened: | 1996 |
| Website: | https://wilmatheater.org/ |
The Wilma Theater is a non-profit theater company located at 265 S. Broad Street at the corner of Spruce Street in the Avenue of the Arts area of Center City, Philadelphia. The company's current 296-seat theater opened in 1996 and was designed by Hugh Hardy.[1]
The Wilma Theater began in 1973 as the "Wilma Project", founded to produce original material and to develop community-oriented artists. The name "Wilma" refers to an imaginary oppressed sister of Shakespeare created by Virginia Woolf.[2]
Blanka Zizka and Jiri Zizka from Czechoslovakia joined the project in 1979 as artists-in-residence, and later took over artistic leadership, changing the name to the Wilma Theater. The company staged their productions at a variety of different theaters, in particular a 100-seat converted garage on Sansom Street, but opened their current 296-seat theater on S. Broad Street in 1996.
Jiri Zizka left the theater at the end of the 2009–2010 season and died in January 2012.[3] [4]
Productions by the Wilma have been seen at the International Theater Festival in the Czech Republic; in New York City at the Public Theater and Manhattan Theatre Club; the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC; the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey; the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut; and ACT in Seattle. In addition to their presentations and festivals, the Wilma has produced over 100 productions, including 18 world premieres, 13 United States premieres, five East Coast premieres, and 64 Philadelphia premieres. The Wilma also co-produced a feature film broadcast nationally on Great Performances.
The Wilma has worked with notable artists such as Stephen Sondheim, Tom Stoppard, Christopher Hampton, Doug Wright, Arthur Miller, and Paula Vogel, and produced works by up-and-coming playwrights such as Claudia Shear, Lillian Groag, Chay Yew, Charles L. Mee, Dan O'Brien, Jason Sherman, Dael Orlandersmith, Robert William Sherwood, Sarah Ruhl, Polly Pen, Laurence Klavan, and James Ijames.
, the theater had won 68 Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre and received 238 nominations.[5]
On May 22 2024, it was announced that the Wilma would be the recipient of the 2024 Regional Theatre Tony Award, which comes with a $25,000 grant.[6] One of the objects of the award is promoting what often amounts to the incubators of new productions. The Wilma has been noted for this, due in part to its unique organizational structure: it switched from one artistic director, which is standard, to four in early 2020, and then down to three when Blanka Zizka retired in 2021 (leaving James Ijames, Yury Urnov, and Morgan Green), and it also has a permanent troupe of in-house actors, known as the Hothouse.[7] [8] Zizka credited the Hothouse for the award, describing them as the "soul" of the Wilma.[8] WHYY's arts and culture reporter Peter Crimmins has similarly noted that "The Wilma is distinctive not only for the excellence of its original productions, but [also] for its unique approach to running a theater company."[8]
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