Founded by John E. Allen, Jr. in 1966, Freedom Theatre is Pennsylvania's oldest African-American theatre. In 1968 Robert E. Leslie joined Freedom Theatre and founded the Performing Arts Training Program in 1971.

Today, Freedom Theatre consists of two components: the Barrymore Award-winning Performing Arts Training Program, (Patricia Scott Hobbs, Director) and Facilities Rental (Gail Leslie, Director). These components work hand-in-hand to provide  training in the performing arts and comprehensive customer service and community access.