ENHANCED

My sense is that the South Carolina Theatre Association (SCTA) annual conference has seen better days.

Having just spent more than half a weekend with the group on the campus of Coastal Carolina University, I head back to Greenville with doubts about the organization’s long-term viability.

The organization—founded with a mandate to educate Palmetto State theatre artists and audiences—appears to be almost exclusively focused on secondary school drama programs. University involvement in SCTA is in decline. Youth, community, and professional theaters are almost completely non-existent.

An immediate solution might be shifting the group’s annual gathering to the summer months when educators have more availability and conference facilities are less expensive.

The long-term solution for SCTA is a renewed emphasis on truly enhancing the lives and work of South Carolina theatre artists and audiences.

At present, I think we’d all be just fine without our SCTA.