The Citywide James Ijames Pass adds theater to Philly’s 250th celebrations

Hatching a new subscription

When PTC, the Arden and the Wilma realized last spring that their 2025/26 seasons all included work by Ijames—a Philly-based actor/director/playwright whose Fat Ham premiered at the Wilma (here’s the BSR review) before winning the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Drama—they decided to join forces in a new way. The companies each hope to reach the others’ audiences while expanding visibility and excitement for regional theater in general.

En Route, a Philly-based marketing agency that serves local arts and culture organizations, facilitated the three-way brainstorming that led to the Citywide Pass. To avoid any potential ticketing snafus, the group enlisted TKTS and the Independence Visitors Center to handle sales. You can purchase Citywide Passes online or in-person at the Visitors Center.

For $130, you get a ticket to each of the featured Ijames productions, plus other discounts and benefits (like parking, hotel, and restaurant deals) available to regular season subscribers. (Arden, PTC, and Wilma subscribers who already have their season tickets are also welcome to purchase a Citywide Pass—organizers hope these folks will share the extra ticket with friends, expanding the project’s reach.) And there’s merch! The egg-yolk yellow Citywide beanie with the playwright’s iconic black architect’s glasses on the cuff must be picked up at the Independence Visitors Center.

What’s onstage?

The Arden kicks off the series, from January 22 through March 8, with the Philadelphia premiere of Good Bones, a drama that explores home ownership and upward striving in Black families. Gentrification and sexual tension serve as catalysts for additional drama. The inclusion of a controversial new stadium in the play will remind Philadelphians of our own stadium debacle. (Cameron Kelsall reviewed the 2024 New York production.)

The Wilma follows, from March 17 through April 5, with The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington. This raucous satire puts the widowed and sickly first First Lady on trial for the Washingtons’ use of enslaved labor. Ijames has called Miz Martha not only a reckoning for Martha Washington but “a trial of the American mythology of our Founding Fathers.” Coming during America’s semiquincentennial celebrations and the aggressive whitewashing of US history by the current presidential administration, this is an especially apt, audacious programming choice.

PTC rounds out the package with the world premiere of Wilderness Generation, running April 10 through May 3. This play, set in the contemporary Tidewater South, delves into family ties, trauma, and healing, with deft use of music and humor. Like Good Bones it showcases Ijames’s exquisite ear for dialogue and his ability to dance on the knife’s edge of love and loathing in intimate relationships.

The Citywide Pass offers an antidote for people who feel that their lived experience seldom shows up on stage. Actor/director/devisor Brett Ashley Robinson, who is directing the Wilma’s Miz Martha, notes that the focus on three works by Ijames is “a phenomenal opportunity for Black theater makers and Black actors in this city to have three shows that are dedicated to their experience and touch really deeply into who they are.”

A much-needed boost for the sector

The arts and culture sector in Philadelphia is still trying to recover from Covid-era shutdowns, followed by draconian NEA claw-backs and other cuts from the Trump administration, and an ongoing public transit crisis. The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and PA Humanities released research in summer 2025 revealing that 71 percent of museums and libraries have recovered to pre-pandemic attendance levels, while only 41 percent of theaters have regained their equilibrium. This helps motivate the search for new ways to stand out in a noisy entertainment market. Mike Hogue, marketing director for the Arden, envisions the CityWide Pass as “a subscription for theater people” whose loyalty to one company might be expanded through exposure to others.

Wilma marketing director Rachel Robbins is eager to reach “theater-curious” people who may have never subscribed anywhere, but could be excited by a local Black playwright who has become a national phenomenon. Fat Ham earned five Tony nominations, including Best New Play, when it ran on Broadway in 2023. “I want people to realize that great theater can come from anywhere and Philadelphia is doing that,” says Robbins. PTC’s marketing director, Carolina Vargas, emphasized that “this is not about individualism. This is about how we can come together … for the people of Philadelphia.”

Other ways to engage

No extra performances were added to the runs of the three plays. However, PTC secured a grant from the Willam Penn Foundation for additional community engagement because Wilderness Generation will be a world premiere. According to Josh A. Campbell, PTC’s director of education and public programs, they are reaching out to many Philadelphia neighborhoods that have been chronically underserved by Center City’s cultural institutions. Campbell is developing a mixture of partial readings and workshops around the themes of the show, including “home ownership, mental health and wellness, and the way we build spaces and amplify stories.”

Schools, churches, and libraries will partner in these activities and PTC will have someone available to sell tickets onsite. Even students as young as middle-schoolers can get involved by reading a scene and discussing how it relates to their own families, building skills around how to start difficult conversations and resolve conflicts.

All three theaters have regular schedules of post-show talkbacks and special affinity nights, as well as relaxed performances, shows with audio description and open captions, special access pricing, and other accessibility offerings. Shows geared towards particular audience needs are marked on the individual play calendar on each theater website. Visit online for details.

Excitement for the future

As of this writing, 58 Citywide Passes had been sold, yielding $7,540 in revenue. However, everyone involved feels that growth in awareness and enthusiasm for Philly performing arts is more valuable than any financial outcome. Already, excited theater staff are thinking about new collaborations that might follow. What about a play paired with a Michelin-starred restaurant meal? Or a Citywide Pass dedicated to new Philadelphia playwrights? Sadly, no formal feedback mechanism for the Pass is planned, but box office activity, press coverage, and future subscription numbers will be revealing…not to mention yellow beanie sightings on a street near you.

At top: Playwright James Ijames. (Photo by Justin DeWalt.)

Editor’s note: Before you go, did you know that BSR is celebrating 20 years at our Party with the Critics event on January 15? All are welcome! Get your tickets now.