{"id":78494,"date":"2026-01-05T18:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T18:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/78494\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T18:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T18:02:07","slug":"citywide-pass-offers-3-james-ijames-plays-in-3-theaters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/78494\/","title":{"rendered":"Citywide pass offers 3 James Ijames plays in 3 theaters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Philly\u2019s Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames<\/a> hopes a Philly-first theater marketing experiment works. Three theaters, all clients of a single marketing firm, have united to offer a Citywide subscription to see three of Ijames\u2019 plays \u2013 three plays, three different theaters, one pass.<\/p>\n

The first play begins this month at the Arden Theatre Co<\/a>. \u201cGood Bones\u201d<\/a> runs Jan. 22 through March 8. Next is \u201cThe Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington\u201d<\/a> at the Wilma Theater<\/a> March 17 through April 5. The last, \u201cWilderness Generation,\u201d<\/a> is a world premiere at the Philadelphia Theatre Co.<\/a> from April 10 through May 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was really cool,\u201d Ijames said about The Citywide James Ijames Pass, which sells for $130<\/a> and includes parking discounts and a signature Ijames yellow beanie.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always a little anxious when I\u2019m the face of something,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I liked the idea of the theaters working together. I think more and more theaters should be doing [similar projects], trying to pool their resources, trying to get their audiences grafted on to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ijames trifecta was strictly coincidental, but the folks at En Route Marketing<\/a>, a city business that represents all three theaters, noticed.<\/p>\n

\"\"Akeem Davis and Kishia Nixon pose in the beanies that come with the Citywide James Ijames Pass. Davis will be directing the Arden\u2019s upcoming Philadelphia premiere production of Ijames\u2019s play \u201cGood Bones\u201d from January 22 to March 8. (Courtesy of Arden Theater Co.)<\/p>\n

It seemed like an opportunity for some kind of promotion, but what?<\/p>\n

En Route staffers envisioned, then discarded, a Hollywood red-carpet-style publicity event. Good for photos, but their clients had a different goal. \u201cWe needed to make sure we\u2019re bringing butts to seats,\u201d said Billy Cook, one of the En Route public relations crew. \u201cIt had to result in people coming to see the shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually the Citywide idea emerged.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw it, I was definitely intrigued,\u201d said Jason Lindner,<\/a> a nonprofit marketing professional and board president of Theatre Philadelphia,<\/a> the umbrella theater marketing organization that sponsors the Barrymore Awards, Philly\u2019s version of the Oscars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t seen anything that centered on an artist,\u201d he said. \u201cOne of the things a marketing person wants to do is to create an event that\u2019s outside the publicizing of an [individual] show. Anything that involves multidisciplinary always catches the eye.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there were logistical problems. Each theater had its own ticket-selling apparatus, so how could any of them sell tickets to another theater? Who would offer the tickets and how could ticket buyers pay for them?<\/p>\n

The answer was TKTS Philly,<\/a> the last-minute discount ticket-selling organization imported from New York in 2024. It had the ability to manage ticket sales to multiple venues, both online and in-person. Housed in the Independence Visitor Center at 6th and Market streets, TKTS is readily available to tourists and locals.<\/p>\n

\"\"Philadelphia Theatre Company\u2019s Co-Artistic Director Tyler Dobrowsky and Managing Director Margo Moskowitz celebrate the upcoming world premiere of James Ijames\u2019s newest play, \u201cWilderness Generation,\u201d onstage at PTC from April 10 to May 3. (Courtesy of Philadelphia Theatre Co.)<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia Visitor Center Corp,<\/a>, \u00a0the nonprofit which operates the Independence Visitor Center, cooperates with Philadelphia tourism agencies who are looking for any way to promote the city, including as a theater destination.<\/p>\n

Whether the Ijames Citywide experiment succeeds depends on marketing. As of early December, 50 subscriptions had been sold, according to Michael Hogue, director of marketing and communications at the Arden, who was encouraged by the number.<\/p>\n

At that point, none of the three theaters had links to the Citywide easily obvious on their websites. Nor did Theatre Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Hogue said that Arden promotes the Citywide via social media. He\u2019s hoping for 100 subscriptions and expects sales will pick up near or during the first play\u2019s run at the Arden.<\/p>\n

The easiest way to find the tickets is through the Philadelphia Visitor Center website,<\/a> searching for Ijames.<\/p>\n

The playwright said he\u2019s happy that the Citywide is happening in the city that has impacted his career.<\/p>\n

These days Ijames lives mostly in New York. He still has a house in Philadelphia, though, which is where he lived when his play, \u201cFat Ham,\u201d<\/a> won a Pulitzer Prize in 2022. (At the time, he was one of three co-artistic directors at the Wilma Theater.)<\/p>\n

Theatergoers will have the rare opportunity to watch Ijames\u2019 work evolve.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really looks at me at the beginning of my career, at the middle of my career and one where I\u2019m headed at now. It\u2019s rare for a playwright to get to do that at any point in their career,\u201d Ijames said.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Wilma Theater\u2019s Co-Artistic Directors Morgan Green and Yury Urnov are joined by Hothouse Company Member Brett Ashley Robinson, who will also direct the theater\u2019s production of Ijames\u2019s play \u201cThe Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington\u201d \u2013 onstage from Marcy 17 to April 5. (Courtesy of the Wilma Theatre)<\/p>\n

So, what will Citywide pass holders see?<\/p>\n

First up is \u201cGood Bones,\u201d<\/a> a mid-career work at the Arden, starting in January. The play description begins, \u201cA new sports stadium is being built in the middle of a neighborhood.\u201d If it sounds familiar, it really isn\u2019t. Because even if it appears that Ijames drew inspiration from the failed Sixers plan to build a stadium next to Chinatown, he actually began writing the play much earlier, in 2016.<\/p>\n

Ijames said he extensively rewrote \u201cGood Bones\u201d prior to its fall 2024 run at The Public Theater in New York. During rehearsals, Ijames remembers telling the crew, \u201cThis is literally happening down the street in Philadelphia. It was weirdly imprinted on this production while I was rewriting it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next is one of Ijames\u2019 earliest plays, \u201cThe Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington,\u201d<\/a> at the Wilma, starting in March. Ijames describes it as his first professional production. It\u2019s based on a historical fact \u2013 that President George Washington had promised to free his enslaved people after his wife, Martha Washington, died.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was afraid they would kill her,\u201d Ijames said. \u201cMartha has a fever dream, and she is surrounded by people who have served them her entire life. She\u2019s unsure, she\u2019s afraid,\u201d he said. She, and, by extension, the audience are asked to reckon with the nation\u2019s founding ideals \u2013 what they meant then and what they mean now.<\/p>\n

Last is a world premiere, \u201cWilderness Generation,\u201d<\/a> about five cousins, at the PTC starting in April.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a play I\u2019ve been working on for a year and half,\u201d Ijames said. Part of the inspiration comes from his own family. His grandmother, in her 90s, is the matriarch who unites the cousins, aunts and uncles. But how do families continue when the elders pass?<\/p>\n

Ijames said he specifically wanted to work with PTC\u2019s co-artistic directors Tyler Dobrowsky and Taibi Magar,<\/a> whom he knew before they came to the PTC several years ago. Magar will direct \u201cWilderness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are very led by the writer,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s not a whole lot of pressure on what they want from the production. They question to see if the decisions they are making is supporting the thing that I\u2019m trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ijames has another innovative partnership in the works. He was recently commissioned to create a new stage adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston\u2019s\u00a0Their Eyes Were Watching God by the Arden Theatre Company in partnership with Orlando Shakes and the University of Central Florida. They will develop the production together and co-premiere the result in Florida and Philly. Details, including performance dates, are not yet available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Philly\u2019s Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames hopes a Philly-first theater marketing experiment works. Three theaters, all clients of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[22591,4877,564,40030,22592,69,71,70,31962,17700],"class_list":["post-78494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-arden-theatre","tag-arts","tag-featured","tag-james-ijames","tag-performing-arts","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philadelphia-theatre-company","tag-wilma-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}