Spreading the Light

 

 

The People’s Light & Theatre Company

Since its founding in 1974, The People’s Light & Theatre Company has grown from an $18,000 organization into a thriving, $4.5 million cultural institution in Chester County, Pennsylvania. While it reaches thousands of people through hundreds of productions and educational programs each year, the organization’s leaders wanted to attract more diverse audiences and have a broader impact on their community. Through an Organizational Development Fund grant from PCMI, People’s Light created a new department, Audience Development and hired a director for the program.

 

The new initiative allowed People’s Light to hold open houses, create special programs at the theater and area community centers, and bring in diverse solo artists such as hip-hop performers and storytellers. Through these efforts (with a matching grant from the Theatre Communications Group New Generations Program), the Theater deepened relationships with community organizations and achieved marked increases in African-American attendance at its productions and theater school.

 

“We’ve brought more people into the theater and we have created new relationships with many community organizations that we did not know before,” said Managing Director Grace Grillet. “We are creating programs that are more diverse, but also are seeing more people of color attending plays such as Julius Caesar and String of Pearls. The impact of this program has been felt throughout the theater”

 

Through the Professional Skills Development Fund, PCMI also provided a grant for Grillet to attend Stanford University’s Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders in the Arts in 2003. “It was a total immersion in business,” she said. “We worked with professors on case studies and discussed different ways to solve problems in various kinds of businesses. The emphasis was on self-renewal and learning to be a change agent for your organization.”

People’s Light continually strives to extend its reach and better manage its growing organization. “PCMI provides organizational assessment, development and professional development support,” Grillet said. “These three areas have helped us develop and improve the basic structures that make future growth possible.”