When Theaters Join Forces, the Story Gets Bigger

Erica Sutherlin, Avery Anderson, and Clareann Despain gather for a podcast taping as the the Studio@620 and Powerstories Theatre partner together on the upcoming production of Cadillac Crew. (Photo by Jarrett Haas)

By Avery Anderson

In Pittsburgh, three of the city’s largest theaters are staring down spreadsheets that look like horror scripts. The Pittsburgh CLO, Public Theater, and City Theatre have admitted they’re on “the brink of financial failure,” and consultants are already floating the once-taboo word: merger.

Meanwhile in New York, Off-Broadway and regional companies are testing the opposite of turf wars: Long Wharf Theatre, the Sol Project, Latinx Playwright Circle, and WP Theatre are all co-producing a single show. That’s four artistic directors, four boards, four sets of donors—all in one kitchen trying to cook one meal. A few years ago, that would’ve sounded like chaos. Now it looks like strategy.

Across the country, regional theaters are in the same boat—and sometimes the boat is on fire. Ticket sales are unpredictable, philanthropy is shrinking, and costs keep climbing. The old model of “every theater for itself” is cracking.

Which makes what’s happening in St. Petersburg this November more than just a local story.

Collaboration by Choice, Not Crisis

Powerstories Theatre and The Studio@620 are teaming up on Cadillac Crew, Tori Sampson’s play about the women whose work powered the Civil Rights Movement but rarely made it into the history books. The production runs Nov. 6–16 at The Studio@620.

“This play asks us to reckon with a question that is still urgent today: whose voices do we amplify, and whose labor do we overlook?” said Erica Sutherlin, The Studio’s artistic executive director and the show’s director.

On its face, it’s a co-production. Zoom out, and it’s a case study in how Tampa Bay theaters might adapt to the same pressures squeezing companies nationwide.

Earlier this year, the two organizations even began sharing staff, with Director of Production John Milsap splitting his time between them. It’s not a last-ditch move—it’s a deliberate one. While Pittsburgh considers consolidation to avoid collapse, Tampa Bay theaters are experimenting with collaboration to grow.

The Power of Partnership

For Powerstories, Cadillac Crew closes a milestone 25th anniversary season. For The Studio@620, it opens one.

“Closing our 25th season with Cadillac Crew is both intentional and deeply meaningful,” said Fran Powers, Powerstories founder. “This play embodies everything Powerstories stands for—amplifying women’s voices that history tried to silence.”

Clareann Despain, Powerstories’ artistic director, cut even closer to the bone: “Cadillac Crew is more than history on stage. It’s a mirror. It shows us how progress is often built on women’s invisible labor—and it challenges us to ask how much of that truth still holds today.”

You could say the same about the partnership itself. For decades, theaters have fought for attention, funding, and audiences like rival sports teams in the same division. Increasingly, the winning move is to pass the ball.

More Than a Play

The show is the centerpiece of a month-long civic conversation. Leading into the run: a Hidden Figures film screening, a community panel on women’s roles in the Civil Rights Movement led by journalist and playwright Jake-Ann Jones, and an exhibition called The Unseen Thread: Women Art as Movement.

It’s a reminder that theater is rarely just about what happens on stage. When institutions collaborate, they can create ecosystems of events that stretch across disciplines and audiences—something no single company could pull off alone.

Why It Matters Now

The national story is one of contraction. The local story could be one of reinvention.

Partnerships like this don’t erase the hard math—tickets still need to sell, donors still need to give—but they do something else: they flip the narrative from scarcity to solidarity.

Or, as Cadillac Crew itself suggests, they reveal the hidden labor holding everything up.