Teresa Eyring (#296) - December, 2010

Published: Dec. 1, 2010, 3:21 p.m.

Executive Director of the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), Teresa Eyring, talks about the work of the 50 year old service organization which boasts membership if some 500 of the country's professional theatres. She talks about her own professional journey in theatre, including her youthful encounter with Orson Welles, her college studies in international relations; her job in the very early days of Washington DC's Woolly Mammoth Theatre, "where everyone did everything" and her graduate work at the Yale School of Drama; the work of TCG on fostering professional growth for the next generation of leaders, both artistic and managerial, through a mentorship program; the challenge of keeping people in the field, which despite growing "against all odds" has more artists seeking work than there are jobs; whether she perceives a difference in the institutional theatres as they move far beyond their founders; how TCG responds to criticism of its member theatres, such as the book "Outrageous Fortune" and the monologue "How Theatre Failed America"; TCG's efforts to foster artistic relationships beyond the U.S. borders; and as she travels the country, what message she wants to bring to U.S. theatres -- and what in turn she's hearing from them. Original air date - December 1, 2010.