With generous sponsorship from Tony Winning producer Merrie L. Davis and writer/producer Elizabeth Coplan, Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) presents their first live gala since 2019, the 2024 TRU Love Benefit: Passion…Pass It On! on Sunday, November 17, 2024, from 1pm to 5pm ET at Green Room 42, 570 10th Avenue (at 42nd Street), NYC. Tickets start at $165 and are discounted 20% for TRU members (email TRUStaff1@gmail.com for the discount code). Tickets can be purchased at https://truonline.org/events/tru-love-benefit-passion/

Join TRU for a celebration of theater now and tomorrow, featuring a VIP cocktail hour with hors d’oeuvres stations, a 3-course luncheon, performances celebrating two women who have enriched our theater community and inspired a generation of new theater lovers, and a video remembrance of a dear TRU friend. Writer, actor, director Jordan E. Cooper (Tony nominee and Obie winner for Ain’t No Mo’, Emmy-nominatee for The Ms. Pat Show), Lauren A. Marchand (2023 Roger Rees Awards Emerging Artist and 2023 Jimmy Awards Winner) and Isaiah Baston (2024 Roger Rees Awards Outstanding Performer Winner) will be joining the awards show along with Broadway star and Tony nominee Norm Lewis (Side Show, Les Miserables, The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess, Phantom of the Opera, Chicken and Biscuits) and pop legend Nona Hendryx of Labelle (“Lady Marmalade”, “I Sweat (Going through the Motions)”). Co-hosts for the event will be theater journalist and host of the Theatre World Awards Peter Filichia; and actress, activist and educator Dominique Sharpton. Jonathan S. Cerullo will be directing, with Lulu Picartas music director and Jim Semmelman as stage manager.

For this year’s gala, TRU honors Irene Gandy, publicist and producer, recipient of the TRU Spirit of Theater Award for being uncompromisingly authentic and igniting a passion for the arts in so many and Susan E. Lee, founder of Camp Broadway and the Broadway Education Alliance, recipient of the TRU Humanitarian Award for innovative thinking that has inspired generations of theater lovers past, present and future. TRU also honors the memory of producer Ron Simons, 2016 TRU Spirit of Theater Award recipient, 4-time Tony winning producer (The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess, Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike, A Gentleman’s Guide…, Jitney revival; plus Thoughts of a Colored Man and for colored girls… revival) as well as an actor and film producer.

The prestigious Honoree Benefit Committee celebrating this year’s honorees and supporting this event includes Brian Curran, COO of Broadway Education Alliance; Tony-winning producer Merrie L. Davis; critic and theater historian Peter Filichia; producer Don Frantz of Town Square Productions; Theo Lencicki, artistic director of Camp Broadway; Broadway and TV star Phylicia Rashad; 8-time Tony Award winning producer Jeffrey Richards; legendary Harlem-born off-Broadway and Broadway producer Voza Rivers; actress. educator and activist Dominique Sharpton; press agent Keith Sherman; Aaliytha Stevens, founder of the Ashé Collective; Suzanne Toback, senior director of events at Serino Coyne; and 4-time Tony winning producer Cheryl Wiesenfeld.