The Prince Theater is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

theatrical Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

producing organization located in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 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 ...

and specializing in

music theatre Music theatre is a performance genre that emerged over the course of the 20th century, in opposition to more conventional genres like opera and musical theatre. The term came to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s to describe an avant-garde approach ...

, including

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

, music drama,

musical comedy Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ...

and experimental forms. Founded in 1984 as the American Music Theater Festival by Marjorie Samoff,

Eric Salzman Eric Salzman (September 8, 1933 – November 12, 2017) was an American composer, scholar, author, impresario, music critic, and record producer. He is known for advancing the concept of "New Music Theater" (in his compositions and his large ...

and Ron Kaiserman, for the first 15 years AMTF performed in various venues throughout Philadelphia. In March 1999, AMTF moved into the renovated Midtown Theater and changed its name in honor of Broadway producer and director

Harold Prince Harold Smith Prince (born Harold Smith; January 30, 1928 – July 31, 2019), commonly known as Hal Prince, was an American theatre director and producer known for his work in musical theatre. One of the foremost figures in 20th century America ...

,. AMTF/Prince Theater has produced 92 world premieres and has sent 81 productions to theaters in New York and worldwide.

Works

The Prince Theater productions (primarily as the American Music Theater Festival) have included the world premieres of *

Julie Taymor Julie Taymor (born December 15, 1952) is an American director and writer of theater, opera and film. Her stage adaptation of ''The Lion King'' debuted in 1997, and received eleven Tony Award nominations, with Taymor receiving Tony Awards for Best ...

Elliot Goldenthal Elliot Goldenthal (born May 2, 1954) is an American composer of contemporary classical music and film and theatrical scores. A student of Aaron Copland and John Corigliano, he is best known for his distinctive style and ability to blend various ...

and

Sidney Goldfarb Sidney Goldfarb (born November 23, 1942 in Peabody, Massachusetts) is a Harvard College-educated American poet and experimental playwright, whose work continues the tradition of poetic theater. Goldfarb co-founded the acclaimed Creative Writi ...

's ''The Transposed Heads'' * Anthony Davis' ''

X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X ''X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X'' is an opera with music by Anthony Davis and libretto by Thulani Davis, to a story by Christopher Davis. It is based on the life of the civil rights leader Malcolm X. Performance history The opera premiered i ...

'' *

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

's ''Queenie Pie'' * Emily Mann,

Ntozake Shange Ntozake Shange ( ;
FilmReference.com. Retrieved October 27, 2018. October 18, 1948 – October 27, 2018) ...

, and

Baikida Carroll Baikida Carroll (born January 15, 1947) is an American jazz trumpeter. Carroll studied at Southern Illinois University and at the Armed Forces School of Music. Following this he became a member of the Black Artists Group in St. Louis, where he dir ...

's ''Betsy Brown'' *

Bob Telson Robert Eria Telson (born May 14, 1949) is an American composer, songwriter, and pianist best known for his work in musical theater and film, for which he has received Tony, Pulitzer, and Academy Award nominations. Biography Robert Eria Telson wa ...

and

Lee Breuer Esser Leopold Breuer (February 6, 1937 – January 3, 2021) was an American playwright, theater director, academic, educator, filmmaker, poet, and lyricist. Breuer taught and directed on six continents. Career Breuer was a founding co-artistic ...

's '' Gospel at Colonus'' *

David Henry Hwang David Henry Hwang (born August 11, 1957) is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City. He has won three Obie Awards for his plays '' FOB'', '' Golden Child'', and '' Yellow ...

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

and Jerome Sirlin's ''

1000 Airplanes on the Roof ''1000 Airplanes on the Roof'' is a melodrama in one act by Philip Glass which featured text by David Henry Hwang and projections by Jerome Sirlin. It is described by Glass as "a science fiction music drama". The work was commissioned by the D ...

'' * ''

Frida ''Frida'' is a 2002 American biographical drama film directed by Julie Taymor which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Starring Salma Hayek in an Academy Award–nominated portrayal as Kahl ...

'', composed by

Robert Xavier Rodriguez Robert Xavier Rodríguez (born June 28, 1946) is an American classical composer, best known for his eight operas and his works for children. Life and career Rodríguez received his early musical education in his native San Antonio and in Aus ...

, libretto by Hillary Blecher and

Migdalia Cruz Migdalia Cruz is a writer of plays, musical theatre and opera in the U.S. and has been translated into Spanish, French, Arabic, Greek, and Turkish. Her works have been produced in venues as diverse as Playwrights Horizons in New York City, the ...

* ''Black Water'' by John Duffy and

Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels '' Bla ...

, based on her 1992 novel *

Adam Guettel Adam Guettel (; born December 16, 1964) is an American composer-lyricist of musical theater and opera. The grandson of musical theatre composer Richard Rodgers, he is best known for his musical '' The Light in the Piazza'', for which he won the To ...

and

Tina Landau Tina Landau (born May 21, 1962) is an American playwright and theatre director. Known for her large-scale, musical, and ensemble-driven work, Landau's productions have appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regionally, most extensively at the ...

's ''

Floyd Collins William Floyd Collins (July 20, 1887 – February 13, 1925) was an American cave explorer, principally in a region of Kentucky that houses hundreds of miles of interconnected caves, today a part of Mammoth Cave National Park, the longest ...

'' * Philip Glass'

Hydrogen Jukebox ''Hydrogen Jukebox'' is a 1990 chamber opera featuring the music of Philip Glass and the work of beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Its name is taken from a phrase coined by Ginsberg, from his 1955 poem Howl. History Of the project, Glass said: In ...

(concert version) - a staged version appeared later at the Spoleto Festival *

Harry Partch Harry Partch (June 24, 1901 – September 3, 1974) was an American composer, music theorist, and creator of unique musical instruments. He composed using scales of unequal intervals in just intonation, and was one of the first 20th-century com ...

's ''Revelation in the Courthouse Park'', staged by Jiri Zizka with choreography by

George Faison George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd President ...

's ''3hree, '' a trilogy of one-acts with music by

John Bucchino John Bucchino (born 1952) is an American songwriter of both lyrics and music, an accompanist, a cabaret performer, and a teacher. He has been called "super-talented". Stephen Schwartz said his songs have "insightful lyrics and gorgeous melodies", ...

, Robert Lindsey Nassif and Laurence O'Keefe * ''Chasing Nicolette'' by

Peter Kellogg Peter R. Kellogg (born September 5, 1942), is an American businessman with a net worth estimated by Forbes at around $3.4 billion, primarily derived from his leadership of Wall Street firm Spear, Leeds & Kellogg. Personal Peter attended the Rec ...

and David Friedman *

Albert Innaurato Albert Francis Innaurato Jr. (June 2, 1947 – September 24, 2017) was an American playwright, theatre director, and writer. Early career Innaurato was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1947. After graduating from the prestigious Central Hi ...

's ''Gemini, The Musical,'' with music by

Charlie Gilbert Charles Mader Gilbert (July 8, 1919 – August 13, 1983) was an American professional baseball outfielder who appeared in 364 games, mostly as a center fielder, in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1940), Chicago Cubs (1941–1943 ...

* ''The Green Violin'' Revivals have included '' Strike Up the Band, Love Life,

St. Louis Woman ''St. Louis Woman'' is a 1946 American musical theatre, musical by Arna Bontemps and Countee Cullen with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Johnny Mercer (lyrics). The musical opened at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York on March 30, 1946, an ...

, Pal Joey,

Lady in the Dark ''Lady in the Dark'' is a musical with music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and book and direction by Moss Hart. It was produced by Sam Harris. The protagonist, Liza Elliott, is the unhappy female editor of a fictional fashion magazine who ...

,''

's '' Myths & Hymns,

Dreamgirls ''Dreamgirls'' is a Broadway musical, with music by Henry Krieger and lyrics and book by Tom Eyen. Based on the show business aspirations and successes of R&B acts such as The Supremes, The Shirelles, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, and others,Gro ...

, Annie Get Your Gun,

Hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and f ...

'' and '' Ain't Misbehavin'.''

Reviews

Notable press has included... * "The foremost presenter of new and adventurous music theater works in the country." ''TIME Magazine'' * "Philadelphia's Premiere Factory." ''The Washington Post'' * "''Floyd Collins''... has large ambitions, and lives up to them." ''The New York Times'' * "Long Live The Prince!" ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' * "Hey, They Do Write 'Em Like They Used To... Everything old can seem new again... That is the delightful lesson of ''3hree''...presented in a snappily renovated former movie house, the Prince Theater." ''The New York Times'' * "Spotlighting emerging musical theater artists, ''3hree'' demonstrates that even the most talented among us need a place to begin, to wrestle with a complex, collaborative art form in manageable pieces. The show... lifts off and soars... inspiring great hope for the future of the American musical." ''Variety'' * "Enterprising and ambitious productions" ''Philadelphia City Paper'' * "Once in a great while, it happens in the theater that someone extends an arm into the heavens and, to our amazement, snatches down a lightning bolt. It happened last week with ''Revelation in the Courthouse Park'', the orgy musical that capped the American Music Theater Festival's fourth annual season. With an astonishing concentration of theatrical forces, the production, which hit with earthquake force... renewed the festival's franchise on a certain kind of excitement in this town." ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''

References

External links

website of the Philadelphia Film Center, formerly the Prince Theater
{{Philadelphia Theaters Theatres in Philadelphia Musical theatre companies Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia Musical groups established in 1984 1984 establishments in Pennsylvania