Teresa Eyring, the executive director and CEO of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), will depart the national organization for theater in June 2024 at the end of her contract. Eyring joined TCG as executive director in 2007, when she became the first woman to hold the post. Prior to that, she held various leadership positions at theaters across the U.S.
TCG has hired a team from Creative Evolutions to help with the leadership transition over the next year. The group will be led by Calida N. Jones, Douglas R. Clayton and Rebecca Novick.
During her tenure, Eyring led TCG through three strategic plans. First, in 2007, she laid the groundwork for TCG to support national theater during the 2008 financial crisis. Then, in 2011, Eyring paved the way for the organization’s Audience (R)Evolution program and Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Initiative. Finally, in 2020, TCG’s prioritized workplace culture, programming that uplifts marginalized theatermakers and organizations as well as new income streams for TCG.
Over the last 16 years, Eyring spearheaded rapid response programming during the COVID-19 pandemic, established audience-building programming and anti-racist and anti-oppression training, bolstered TCG’s research efforts and issued original reports about budgeting, audiences, leadership transitions and more.
“It has been my absolute honor to work with TCG’s staff, board and the field over these tumultuous years of challenge and opportunity,” Eyring said in a statement. “In that time, I’ve come to appreciate the extraordinary diversity and vitality of our interdependent theater ecology.”
Eyring continued, “There is no single narrative that could possibly encompass the abundance of our field nor the resilience of those who lead it. That leadership comes from many places: from artistic and managing leaders, from trustees and artists, from teachers and students, from staff and freelance theatre workers, and from everyone who continues to call the theatre home. We are truly blessed with wide-ranging artistry that underscores the invaluable connection between theatres and their communities.”
TCG provides networking and knowledge-building opportunities through research, events and more; awards grants and scholarships to artists; and publishes dramatic literature as well as American Theatre magazine.
Founded in 1961, TCG includes more than 700 member theaters and affiliate organizations as well as more than 7,000 individual members.
