Hello Azuka Friends & Family!

Even though we are between seasons, there’s a lot happening right now—and we want you to see it, not just hear about it.

Our Summer Sprint is underway, and the work you care about is already taking shape: artists gathering around new ideas, collaborations growing deeper, and plans for the season ahead coming into focus. We’re continuing to build on our partnership with Simpatico Theatre while investing in the bold, intimate, and challenging work that has always defined Azuka.

As we close one fiscal year and begin the next, your support not only helps us to plan ahead—it helps sustain the work that is already happening.

Together, we can create theater that invites curiosity, sparks conversation, and helps us see one another more clearly. Stories that don’t offer easy answers. Stories that trust audiences to lean in. Stories that stay with us long after we leave the theater.

Director Yury Urnov and playwright/actor Priyanka Shetty are currently in the rehearsal room working on new material to be included in our production of #CHARLOTTESVILLE.

“Few organizations have played as meaningful a role in my artistic life as Azuka and Simpatico. [They] understand that new work doesn’t appear overnight—it requires trust, investment, and a willingness to nurture artists over time. Their belief in courageous storytelling and community engagement creates space for artists like me to develop ambitious work and connect deeply with audiences.
As an immigrant artist, finding spaces of genuine belonging can be rare. Azuka and Simpatico have created an artistic home for creatives like me, fostering relationships that extend far beyond a single production. They invest in artists, nurture artistic growth over time, and bring communities together through storytelling. That sense of connection and share purpose is invaluable, and it’s what makes their work so vital to Philadelphia’s cultural landscape.”
- Priyanka Shetty

The work is already happening. Your support helps ensure it keeps growing.

Our goal is to raise $10,000 over the next nine weeks to carry this momentum into the season ahead. Every early gift helps stabilize the work in real time and ensures the conversations, collaborations, and creative work already underway can continue to grow.

If you are able, your support today makes sure this work doesn’t pause between projects. It helps keep artists working, stories developing, and audiences connected.

Give Now

Thank you for being part of this community and for believing in the work alongside us.

Warmly,

Allison Heishman
Artistic Director

Mark H. Andrews
Managing Director

Autumn Blalock
New Play Development Director

P.S. Early gifts help set the pace for everything that follows. If our Summer Sprint and our creative work resonates with you, there’s no better time to join us! Donate today.

Prefer to donate by check? Mail it to:
Azuka Theatre, ATTN: Mark Andrews
1700 Sansom Street, Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA, 19103

View Week 1 Letter >>