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About PST

WHO IS POWER STREET THEATRE? 

PST was founded to create meaningful change in the theatre world and within multicultural communities. We know access to the arts has the ability to transform lives, preserve our stories, and mobilize people towards positive action from all walks of life.​

Co-Artistic Directors Gabi Sanchez and Erlina Ortiz reflecting on 2019 production and coinciding community programming. 
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Our Mission

Power Street Theatre (PST), is dedicated to art for social change by investing in creative thought leaders, multidisciplinary artists and community voices through prioritizing  representation, accessibility, education, arts advocacy and joy.

Power Street is a member of The CultureTrust of Greater Philadelphia.  We're so thankful to CultureWorks who provides a charitable home and affordable shared management resources for arts and heritage programs of diverse disciplines and cultural traditions.

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Our Values

Art and Social Change

 

PST nurtures a culture of access, advocacy, and appreciation for the arts. We utilize theatre to create spaces that encourage dialogue about political and social issues. 

We believe we are creating art of radical resistance and that honoring the stories of our community is revolutionary. 

 

​Collective Power 

 

As theatre artists, we believe in rising together. PST’s success has spawned from coming together as artists for a bigger dream beyond our own individual artistic successes. We can accomplish a lot as individuals, but we also acknowledge that we free ourselves from oppressive systems by coming together in movement work. We give and take, learn to negotiate, share our talents and resources, and know that our liberation is bound up with yours.

 

Equity 

 

PST works to dismantle hierarchies in order to build a more just and equitable future. We pay our artists. We believe in co-facilitation, and we strive to keep collective work centered in our organization. We invest in leadership of BIPOC and women. We compensate our neighbors for their expertise. We put money back into the community we work with. We cultivate community by striving to create safe and joyful spaces that allow for open communication outside of the limits of white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal hierarchies. Wepa! 

 

Transparency 

 

PST’s resident artists work together with the agreement to actively listen without assumption or prejudice. We are dedicated to holding ourselves accountable- we normalize receiving critique and feedback within ourselves, the artists we work with, and the community we want to continue growing with. We are not afraid to be vulnerable and share the ups and downs of our growth. 

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Cross-Cultural Experiences 

 

We are committed to centering the intersectionalities of our identities. We prioritize sharing and supporting the narratives and leadership of Black, Indigenous, People of Color, women, immigrants, refugees, the LGBTQ+, and disAbled communities. We are always interested in continuing to expand our table and reach more communities. We know that preserving and uplifting cross-cultural experiences is vital to our multicultural society. 

 

Wellness 

 

In order to be the best versions of ourselves as leaders and collaborators, we prioritize well-being. Part of prioritizing wellness is making sure we have systems in place that support us- we pay our workers fair wages; we have grievance policies in place; we have sustainable workloads. Prioritizing mental and physical wellness is a domino effect; when we take care of ourselves, we can take care of our homes, our communities, and our environment. For us, wellness also means centering rest, recuperation, pleasure, and joy, as well as accepting when you are not well, being vulnerable, and asking for support. Centering wellness is paramount to a sustainable and healthy life. 

 

World-Building  

 

Nurturing our community through the arts creates a healthier, empathetic, and more well-rounded society. We bring radical joy to the world of theatre in non-traditional spaces and invite our neighbors to use their freedom of expression by taking up space; with our bodies, our language, our cultures, and our HERstories. By telling and preserving our stories as innovators, leaders, artists, designers, survivors, and historians we assert that we belong, we exist, and we’ve always been here. The impact of the work we do is consciousness-shifting: an understanding that WE have the power and theatre belongs to all of us.

 

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“I believe that all organizing is science fiction - that we are shaping the future we long for and have not yet experienced.”

― Adrienne Maree Brown, Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good

The Core Team

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Gabriela Sanchez
Co-Artistic Director
& Producer

​"Our vision is a direct call to action to build a table among BIPOC leaders to innovate, collaborate and strategize on the future of theater in Philadelphia."

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Erlina Ortiz
Co-Artistic Director, General Manager &
Resident Playwright

"Having PST as my home has been a dream come true. PST has nurtured me being able to write new plays, engage meaningfully with the community, and practice being the kind of leader I wish I had. ”

Jose Alicea .HEIC

Jose Alicea
Marketing Director & Cultural Curator

"I open up the doors for unlimited potential by bringing the best of creative worlds together- digital technology and multicultural communities." 

© 2023 by Woman PWR. Proudly created with Wix.comTerms of Use  |   Privacy Policy

© 2023 by Woman PWR. Proudly created with Wix.comTerms of Use  |   Privacy Policy

Power Street Theatre is sponsored by;

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Independence Media Foundation 2022
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PST is fiscally sponsored by the Culture Trust of Greater Philadelphia.

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