By David C. Barnett
Hundreds of non-profit theater professionals are coming to downtown Cleveland, this week, to attend the 25th annual Theater Communications Group --- or TCG --- conference.
Each year, this meeting draws managers, directors and actors from across the country. The theme of this year’s conference is “Game Change”, and that includes discussions of ways to attract new audiences and funding in an age when people have many options for spending their entertainment dollars. TCG Executive Director Teresa Eyring thinks theater is up to the challenge.
“People have been predicting the death of theater for a long time, based on competition from other mediums. When television came along, everybody thought, ‘Oh, there goes theater’. But, theater kept growing. And when the internet came along, there were some people who said ‘Theater will never survive this’, but theater continues.”
She adds, “One of my colleagues has said, if theater’s dying, it’s the longest death in the history of man.”
An example of theatrical survival can be found right here in Northeast Ohio. Eyring says that one reason TCG picked Cleveland as the site of this year's conference was to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Cleveland Play House, one of the country's oldest professional theaters, and winner of as Tony award, this past week.
