THERE are three shows by community theater groups opening this weekend in the Quad-Cities.

New Ground Theatre has the comedy-drama “The Drawer Boy,” Ghostlight Theatre is staging “Gilligan’s Island: The Musical” and Playcrafters is opening the mystery “Murder in Green Meadows.”

Whether this is good or bad news depends on your perspective.

It’s a positive to note that three different theater groups are opening shows this weekend in that it shows that the Quad-Cities has an active and vibrant theater community. And each group is doing something out of the ordinary — New Ground’s going with a sericomic play, Ghostlight presenting a kitschy musical and Playcrafters staging a dramatic mystery.

But it’s a negative to report that all three of the groups’ shows are on stage almost at the same times in the same days. (Ghostlight and New Ground’s shows run two weekends, Playcrafters for three.)

This isn’t even counting a children’s show opening at Black Hawk College, and the continuing run of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse.

While every theater organization is looking for an audience — those who would enjoy a live performance than be entertained by a movie, TV show or DVD — opening three shows at once splinters that audience.

Staggering opening dates on shows might give potential theater audiences a bit less of a choice, but it would eventually give more opportunities for them to see a variety of shows, instead of being confined to one or two weekends.

It would also give some breathing room for the press, spreading out and strengthening our coverage.

That same stack-’em-up theory has increased in other events in the Quad-Cities over the past few years.

The last weekend in June this year, for instance, has both the Quad-City Air Show and Taste of the Quad-Cities. The Tug Fest and Ya Maka My Weekend are both on the second weekend of August.

There’s not a huge amount of overlap in those audiences, but still there’s likely enough.

The theory, as it was once explained to me by a local event organizer, was that scheduling multiple events increases the attendance for each, but I would also think it commits an audience’s time, money and energy to one or the other.

In the past few years, an organization called the Quad-City Presenters has been formed as a support group for arts organizations, letting them work together to solve various problems that are common to each.

Shouldn’t one of the projects of the group be to work together to spread the wealth — in this case, the audience?

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.