Perspectives, Paula Tomei

2004-2005 was yet another inspiring year at TCG, and from my vantage point as Board President, I was witness to the optimism, creativity and resiliency that continue to characterize our field. Our 436 member theatres span 47 states and the District of Columbia and reflect the diversity that is the American not-for-profit theatre. According to Theatre Facts2004, the not-for-profit American theatre community employed more than 67,000 artists, administrators and production staff who produced over 169,000 performances and attracted an audience of over 32 million people.

TCG continues to meet the challenges of the field head-on and, despite facing financial challenges, our members are rallying their communities and planning for the future. Direct feedback from our audiences in the form of individual gifts, high attendance and survey results reinforced the fact that American not-for-profit theatres are greatly valued by their communities.

TCG awarded approximately $3 million to the field in fiscal year 2005 through successful partnerships with corporate, government and foundation funders. Grants to theatres directly support new American premieres and foster environments in which theatre artists can collaborate, research, take risks and develop new work. We were able to expand grantmaking activities in several of our core programs, including our flagship New Generations: Future Leaders and Future Audiences grant programs. With generous support from the Ford Foundation, we were able to bolster the the NEA/TCG Career Development Program and the Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights. Our Affiliated Writers program, offered in partnership with the Jerome Foundation, continued to help young writers develop careers in arts journalism and theatre criticism and diversify the coverage of American Theatre magazine.

TCG Books once again published the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the year, Doubt by John Patrick Shanley. The play also won the Tony, the Lortel, Outer Critics Circle Awards and Drama Desk Awards. Other new titles this year included The Long Christmas Ride Home by Paula Vogel, Thom Pain (based on nothing) by Will Eno, Brooklyn Boy by Donald Margulies, and Swimming to Cambodia, a reissue of the work by the late Spalding Gray. In addition, TCG published Caroline, or Change, book and lyrics by Tony Kushner and music by Jeanine Tesori, which was nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Book for a Musical and Best Musical.

In our ever expanding role as the service organization for the not-for-profit Amreican theatre, we convened, organized and sent delegations to national and international gatherings. Our flagship 2005 TCG National Conference, entitled Creating the Future: Theatre in a Polarized World, took place from June 16-18 in Seattle, Wash., and marked the first time that this crucial gathering was held in the Pacific Northwest. With 825 participants in attendance it was the largest gathering the not-for-profit theatre field has ever seen. The conference is now an annual event and planning is well under way for our next National Conference, slated for Atlanta in June 2006.

We are very excited that in the coming year TCG will feature a fresh new look throughout the organization. American Theatre, our signature periodical publication, underwent major changes in design and content in November 2005 in order to appeal to a wider subscription base. The TCG website will experience a significant redesign in spring 2006 and remain an ever-more valuable resource for the theatre community. And as evident in this annual report, TCG has undergone a marketing/rebranding campaign changing the corporate look of TCG.

Free Night of Theater, our first ever audience development initiative was launched on October 20, 2005. This year TCG collaborated on this exciting pilot program with local service organizations in Austin, Philadelphia and San Francisco. The program is expected to experience significant expansion to more cities in 2006, and then in 2007 it will become a truly national event empowering all member theatres with the aim of generating new and diversified audiences for the field.

As the 2005-2006 board and staff embark upon vital new endeavors and face many new challenges, it is with immense gratitude and affection that we say good-bye to our departing board members: Oskar Eustis, Todd Haimes, Jayne Baccus Khalifa and Susan Medak, and thank them for their guidance, wisdom and support. We will miss you all.

I would like to thank the outstanding TCG staff for their passion, ideas and commitment and, in particular, Joan Channick for her support and counsel. I am forever grateful to Ben Cameron for his inspiring leadership, boundless enthusiasm and extraordinary commitment to the advancement of the American theatre. It has been a marvelous privilege for me to have served as board president and I am proud and honored to pass the gavel to TCG president, Abel López. We will be in very capable hands under his leadership and I look forward with optimism to exciting new challenges and greater success in the coming year.