NEW YORK CITY: Theatre Communications Group (TCG) has announced new trustees and an updated list of officers for its board of directors. American Conservatory Theater executive director Jennifer Bielstein, Black Trans Liberation founder Qween Jean, and designer and producing creative director of Encores! Clint Ramos will join the board.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Jennifer, Qween Jean, and Clint to the TCG board at this critical moment of reopening and reimagining our field,” TCG executive director Teresa Eyring said in a statement. “They join a dynamic group of trustees who are working with TCG’s staff and the field to advance our renewed mission: to lead for a just and thriving theatre ecology.”
Additionally, TCG has evolved its governance ecology to model new ways of sharing power at the board level. In the place of a single board structure, TCG will be governed by a Viability Board, working alongside task forces in four priority areas: Next Generation, Breaking Barriers, Global Connectivity, and Capitalization.
Actor, playwright, and professor Nikkole Salter will remain as chair of the Viability Board through June along with two returning vice chairs, Ensemble Theatre artistic director Eileen J. Morris and architect John Fontillas. They will be joined by new vice chair Hana Sharif, artistic director of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. Angela Lee Gieras of Kansas City Repertory Theatre will remain as treasurer, and Lisa Portes of the Theatre School at DePaul University will remain as secretary.
The board’s Capitalization task force identifies sources, develops strategies, leverage relationships, and individually and collectively advocates in securing funding for TCG. It is co-chaired by The Theater Offensive executive director Harold Steward and ZACH Theatre managing director Jamie Herlich McIalwain, and is supported by TCG staff members Lisa Patterson and LaTeshia Ellerson.
The Global Connectivity task force identifies and bridges new relationships with theatre ecology influencers and supporters beyond the United States to expand and deepen TCG’s leadership. The task force includes Aurora Theatre co-founder Anthony Rodriguez, Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble co-founder Laurie McCants, Cleveland Public Theatre executive artistic director Raymond Bobgan, Derek Goldman, Mara Isaacs, Monica Risi, Lloyd Nyikadzino, Joanne Seelig Lamparter, Dr. Nabil Bahgat Ahmed, and Howard Shalwitz. It is supported by TCG staff members Big Kongseng and Omar Mardini.
The Breaking Barriers task force seeks to identify systemic, structural, cultural, or narrative barriers to creating a just and thriving theatre ecology and develop strategic recommendations to TCG as to how it can enhance its leadership. The task force is co-chaired by Sharif and Reggie White and includes Salter, Rhonda Wilson, Meredith Suttles, Marya Sea Kaminski, and Marcela Lorca. It is supported by TCG staff members Devon Berkshire, Elena Chang, and Mardini.
The Next Generation task force develops and recommends communications, engagement, and retention strategies directed at next generation theatremakers, practitioners, administrators, and lovers, with a specific focus on young makers in the university theatre community. The task force includes UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and UCLA American Indian Studies professor and artistic director of the American Indian Dance Theatre Hanay Geiogamah, Oregon Shakespeare Festival artistic director Nataki Garrett, Fontillas, SocialScopes Productions director Merrique Jenson, Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama professor Will Davis, Jackson Cooper, Deonte Griffin-Quick, Abigail Vega, Justin Lucero, Mackenzie Duan, Brandall Jones, Evan Aanerud, and Annaleise Loxton.
Returning members for the Viability Board include director May Adrales, Bobgan, wealth management director Ralph Bryan, Playwrights’ Center producing artistic director Jeremy Cohen, Davis, American Repertory Theater executive director Kelvin Dinkins Jr., Eyring, Fontillas, Garrett, Geiogamah, Gieras, McIalwain, Jenson, McCants, Morris, artist Ellen Richard, Rodriguez, Salter, Sharif, and Steward.
Theatre Communications Group is the national organization for theatre and leads for a just and thriving theatre ecology, and the publisher of American Theatre. Through its programs and services, TCG reaches over one million students, audience members, and theatre professionals each year.
