Since The 1960s This Visionary Nonprofit Has Nurtured Countless Theaters And Artists

For more than six decades Theatre Communications Group, (TCG), has been a fierce champion for theater in the United States. With a mission to creating “a just and thriving theatre ecology” the organization is devoted to the theater community serving resident theater companies and artists with wide-ranging programs and services. Each year TCG reaches more than one million students, audience members and theater professionals.

If that’s not enough, TCG is also the largest independent trade publisher of dramatic literature in North America. They also publish American Theater Magazine and have a robust grant program that has supported legions of artists and theaters. And for many decades TCG has been doing non-bipartisan advocacy in Washington D. C. on behalf of the arts.

“As an organization, we have stood for freedom of expression, equity and justice in our field, and that has evolved over time,” says Teresa Eyring, TCG’s CEO who has also been the organization’s executive director for 17 years. “We are very concerned about those values for artists and all theater makers.”

At the TCG Gala the theme of the evening was “our stories.” Each person who spoke on stage at the Edison Ballroom before the packed crowd was asked to share a story about how they fell in love with theater.

The stories were as multi-faceted and as the inspiring honorees, Schele Williams, David Rockwell, Brian Anthony Moreland, The Shubert Foundation and Teresa Eyring. The presenters, who included theater titans Kandi Burruss, Todd Tucker, Harvey Fierstein, André De Shields, LaChanze, Kenny Leon, Michael Greif and gala co-chairs Rick Miramontez and Lauren Reid, were just as passionate.

Tony-winner André De Shields, a Baltimore native, shared how he was not permitted to enter the Hippodrome Theatre when he was growing up during the 1950s and 1960s “because of the melanin in my skin,” said De Shields. Years later he took his young nieces and nephews to that same theater to see Hairspray there and asked to briefly speak to the company. “I wanted them to know,” he said.

History-making director Schele Williams, the first Black woman to direct a Broadway musical in close to 50 years, shared the profound impact of the TCG recognition. “This honor will serve as a reminder to tell stories that require me to be brave—to expand my understanding of humanity and to foster creativity, collaboration and unabandoned imagination,” said Williams who is making her Broadway debut directing two shows, the Wiz and the Notebook. “And it’s a reminder to never forget that the stories we create are indelible impressions that inspire generations that follow us.”