Several Philadelphia theaters have lost funding in the Trump administration's mass termination of National Endowment for the Arts grants.
The Wilma Theater, Quintessence Theatre Group, Philadelphia Theatre Company and Pig Iron Theatre Company each lost funding from the NEA, a representative confirmed Tuesday. Ensemble Arts and Hedgerow Theatre Company, a performing arts center in Media, were also impacted. They join a growing list of performing arts groups — including the Circadium School of Contemporary Circus in Northwest Philly — that saw their previously awarded grants abruptly rescinded in recent days.
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The Wilma Theater revealed that it had lost $25,000 from the NEA in an Instagram post. The Broad Street performing arts center, which received a Tony for regional theater in 2024, said the money had been awarded to support its play "The Half-God of Rainfall." The production closed March 2. But the theater will now have to "identify funding to replace this loss at a time when the nonprofit sector is already grappling with significant financial challenges," it said.
The Philadelphia Theatre Company learned its $50,000 NEA grant had been terminated in a notice issued Friday night. The funding was issued in support of "Night Side Songs," an original musical about cancer and caretaking that played its final show March 9.
Other organizations lost money earmarked for future shows. Quintessence Theatre Group said NEA had withdrawn a $25,000 grant for its upcoming production of "FIRE!!" The play, inspired by the influential Black literary magazine of the same name, is scheduled to open Oct. 8.
Ensemble Arts experienced both predicaments. NEA canceled a $25,000 grant awarded to the nonprofit's Jazz for Education program, which has already wrapped, and another $25,000 for a Pride concert planned for June 4.
"The concert will continue as planned, as it is important to our values, but we now need to replace those much-needed funds," Ashley Berke, chief communications officer for Ensemble Arts, said in an email.
The wave of cancelations closely followed the release of President Donald Trump's budget proposal, which calls for the complete elimination of NEA and similar boosters for arts groups across the country. The budget, if passed, would also cut the National Endowment for the Humanities and Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Termination notices sent to NEA recipients have suggested they do not sufficiently further Trump's artistic agenda. According to the Circadium School of Contemporary Circus, which lost at $15,000 grant to support its graduating students' May 30 show, the email it received read, in part:
"The NEA is updating its grantmaking policy priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation's rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the President. Consequently, we are terminating awards that fall outside these new priorities. Funding is being allocated in a new direction in furtherance of the Administration's agenda."
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