The Arden Theatre, Wilma, and Philadelphia Theatre Company have formed a landmark collaboration to offer tickets to three James Ijames (pronounced EYE-ms, rhymes with “chimes”) plays at the three Philadelphia theaters.
The theaters have launched the Citywide James Ijames Pass, a $130 multi-theater subscription granting access to three Ijames plays across Arden, Wilma, and PTC, with a $90 option for two shows. Subscribers will also receive a mustard-colored beanie, one of Ijames’ signature accessories.
The three productions featured are Arden Theatre’s Good Bones (Jan. 22–March 22), Wilma Theatre’s The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (March 17–April 5), and Philadelphia Theatre Company’s Wilderness Generation (world premiere, April 10–May 3).
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Good Bones centers on an affluent Black woman returning to her blue-collar hometown, exploring themes of gentrification and homecoming. Miz Martha Washington follows the title character, Martha Washington, through a fever-dream trial as enslaved people tend to her. Their sense of freedom rises as she faces death. Wilderness Generation follows five cousins in the U.S. South reuniting to discuss past secrets after spending several years apart.
Ijames, a 46-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and educator, is known for Fat Ham and has deep ties to the Philadelphia area. He taught at Temple and Villanova before moving to Columbia University in 2025 to lead the playwriting program.
According to The Conversation, Ijames’s work is noted for nuanced, character-driven portrayals of queer Black experiences, expanding representations of identity and religion beyond traditional tropes. His body of work includes plays like White, TJ Loves Sally 4Ever, and Reverie. More recently, he partnered with collaborators such as Australian pop singer Sia on a musical called Saturday Church.
“With theater’s ever-changing and unstable financial landscape, I believe the Citywide James Ijames Pass is an exciting new subscriber model,” wrote Beth Daley for The Conversation. “The collaboration highlights Philadelphia’s theatrical talent and banks on local theaters working together to build audiences instead of treating each other as competition — a new development that could change how regional theater scenes operate.”