Collaborations between not-for-profit and commercial theaters have proliferated in recent years, prompting questions over what such partnerships mean for nonprofit stage groups and their mission, writes The Boston Globe.

A report to be released today by the Center for the Theater Commons at Boston’s Emerson College raises pointed questions about ties to commercial producers that can mount revenue-generating Broadway hits but divert regional stages from their mission of serving their communities and promoting challenging new work.

The report, drawn from a gathering last November of leading figures from both sectors, states that while “commercial partnerships were not perceived [by meeting participants] to be the cause of this erosion of ideals, necessarily,” such deals “have the potential to create a legal and moral slippery slope for nonprofits.”