LHAT'S 28^th Annual Conference & Theatre Tour

Spirit Of The American Historic Theatre Movement:
REBIRTH IN PHILADELPHIA

Based on comments from the attendees and their conference evaluations, the conference was a great success, affording historic theatre representatives, service providers, suppliers, government officials and individuals the chance to: tour the area's landmark theatres, attend professional development sessions about rescue, restoration and operations topics from some of the field's best practitioners, meet the professional providers and suppliers who service the field, and network with their peers to share information, advice and experiences about the topics of most interest to them.

More about the conference:

• Attending were 235 delegates from 34 different states plus England and Canada. More than 87 different historic theatres were represented along with people from more than 58 different service providers and suppliers, not to mention individuals, nonprofit preservation associations and government agencies., including some 45% first-time attendees and 15% new LHAT members.
• The Preconference Theatre Ramble took delegates to visit several Pennsylvania theatres, including: the Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville; the Sovereign Performing Arts Center/Rajah Theater in Reading; the Hershey Theatre in Hershey; the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center in York; and The Fulton Opera House in Lancaster.
• Tours during the main conference included: Philadelphia’s Prince Music Theater, Merriam Theater, Walnut Street Theatre, Forrest Theatre, Boyd Theatre, Academy of Music and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. We also toured the Irvine Auditorium and Perelman Quadrangle at the University of PA and the Grand Opera House in Wilmington, DE.
• We offered 21 professional development workshops covering issues related to rescue and restoration or historic theatre operation and sustainability.
• Our keynote address was delivered by David B. Thornburgh, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Economy League. Representatives of three Philadelphia arts community led an opening plenary panel discussion on the past, present and future of Philadelphia’s theatre community.
• We hosted another successful Meet the LHAT Service Providers reception (the fourth annual!) on the opening afternoon of the conference.
• We hosted a fantastic Opening Night Reception and Banquet at the historic Union League of Philadelphia with a performance by Philadelphia’s own Mummers.
• Many delegates took advantage of our pre-conference tour of the City of Brotherly Love on the open top, double-decker coaches of the Big Bus Company.
• We ended the event with the traditional Closing Night Reception and 2004 Annual Awards Banquet.

In Philadelphia, we continued some new opportunities created in 2003 for the delegates to network with their peers. Daily Peer Discussion Group Breakfasts were again held to allow delegates to discuss topics they told us in advance are most important to them as they rescue, restore, operate and sustain their communities' historic theatres.