Community Education Center (CEC) Meeting House Theater
Vibrant performing arts center in University City
The Experience
CEC’s intimate black-box theater holds its annual New Edge series, which includes an exchange program with New York’s New Dance Alliance, known as the New York Dance Exchange. It sends Philly’s best young dancers to New York and then hosts New York’s finest.
The Kumquat Dance Collective (Group Motion, Rennie Harris Puremovement, Scrap Performance Group, The Bald Mermaids) also holds public performances here, such as the monthly GLUE works-in-progress, Group Motion’s Visiting Artists and Spiel Uhr Series.
Rehearsal space, dance classes, after-school programs, social services, and offices for Kumquat and New Liberty Film Productions keep this old West Philadelphia mansion jumping all day and well into the night. Sunday Scene for Families offers interactive and educational entertainment the first Sunday of each month.
History
Founded in 1973 as a civic and recreational hub for this diverse and then re-emerging neighborhood, CEC has grown into a modest but highly respected performing arts center. Yet another example of how the arts save city life, its lively presence has revivified a struggling business strip. Under present Executive Director Theresa Shockley, programming and services are more ambitious than ever.