Quintessence Theatre opened its latest production over the weekend with an urgent plea to the audience over the state of arts funding: Call your representatives. The Mount Airy theater company is one of dozens of arts organizations in Pennsylvania — and hundreds across the country — that had been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts for the year,

The endowment told arts organizations that it was withdrawing or canceling current grants just hours after President Trump proposed eliminating the agency in the next fiscal year.

Maryland arts groups from a Shakespeare troupe to the film fest scramble to replace lost NEA funds that were yanked earlier this month at the last minute.