InterAct Theatre Company is located in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. A founding member of the

National New Play Network The National New Play Network (NNPN) is the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 stat ...

History

InterAct Theatre was begun in 1988 by four graduates of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. Artistic Director Seth Rozin, along with Brad Rosenstein, Erica Schwartz and David Goldstein, founded the theatre after working together on an Irish theatre company's visit to the

Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts The Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is a theatre, dance and world music venue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It helped to popularize the works of composers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass; the Center has also hosted shows by performer ...

. They wanted to promote cultural exchange between Ireland and America with a series of touring productions. After the tour around Ireland, they returned to Philadelphia and established InterAct. The theatre's mission was honed over the next few years, switching the focus to contemporary plays with social resonance. In 1997, InterAct gained its own premises at 2030 Sansom Street, Center City Philadelphia, where i
remained located until 2016
"The Adrienne," the former home of

The Wilma Theater 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 ...

, has been the home of many renowned productions. The 2012/2013 season marked InterAct's 25th Anniversary. The company has produced 97 main stage productions, including 45 world premieres, 2 U.S. premieres and over 47 Philadelphia premieres, in all providing employment for more than 800 local artists. They have commissioned new plays from playwrights such as

Lee Blessing Lee Knowlton Blessing (born October 4, 1949) is an American playwright best known for his 1988 work, '' A Walk in the Woods''. A lifelong Midwesterner, Blessing continued to work in regional theaters in and around his hometown of Minneapolis thro ...

, Thomas Gibbons, Jason Sherman, Rehana Mirza, Jen Silverman, Peter Gil-Sheridan, Eric Pfeffinger, Kara Lee Corthron and R. Eric Thomas. At the beginning of the 2016 season, InterAct moved into a newly-renovated, two-theater facility at The Drake, 1512 Spruce Street, Philadelphia.

References

InterAct Theatre CompanyBarrymore Awards for Excellence in Theater
{{Authority control Theatre companies in Philadelphia Theatres in Philadelphia