A dependable haven for artists in isolation, Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is celebrating its fifth year of non-stop weekly Community Gatherings this Friday, having offered to date over 250 conversations and unlimited camaraderie since April 17, 2020. TRU hosts these Community Gatherings every Friday at 5pm ET via Zoom, originally presented to explore the creation of art and theater in the time of COVID-19, and now to ensure that these crucial conversations continue going forward.

Register here to receive a Zoom link. These gatherings are a service for the theater community and are offered free for TRU members; we ask that non-members help keep us running by buying a ticket, making a donation or joining as a member.

7/18 – Theater Awards: What They Mean and Why We Give Them. In the room: Bob Blume, an executive producer of the Drama Desk Awards from 1999-2018; Peter Breger of the OB Alliance Awards; Cat Parker of New York’s IT Awards; Bevin Ross, executive director of The Drama League; Charles Wright, co-president of the Drama Desk. The unique identity and purpose of different theater awards, the complex and probably exhausting process of managing and administering an annual awards ceremony and how it functions in stimulating the development of our theater culture. Come learn the history of some of our current theater awards and why each was created, the philosophies behind each, and their differences in terms of esthetics (if there are differences). What do they look for? What do they value? You will learn about eligibility, of course, and how the awards are run and produced. Should art even be competitive? Are awards healthy acknowledgments that offer artists something to aspire to? Isn’t this inevitably subjective, or are there ever objective criteria to consider when choosing nominees and winners?

UPCOMING:



7/25 – Free Introduction to our Producer Development & Mentorship Program. In the room: Master class instructor Jane Dubin, producer (Is This a Room, Dana H., The Prom, Tony winning The Norman Conquests, Farinelli and the King, Bandstand, Peter and the Starcatcher and An American in Paris; plus off-Broadway Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey, The 39 Steps, Ann) and Foundations instructor Blair Russell (Slave Play, Sweeney Todd off-Broadway). A free meet-and-greet info session about our Producer Development and Mentorship Program, the only theater production program to offer in-depth instruction from accomplished producers at an affordable price…. Click here to read more, and to register and receive the zoom link.

8/1 – A Lost Opportunity, Found: The Return of the Midtown International Theatre Festival! In the room: John Chatteron, founder and executive producer and Jay Michaels, manager, marketing and promotion of the newly revived and rethought Midtown International Theatre Festival. One of the best steps a writer can take in the development of new work is to self-produce or be produced in a festival. Though there are always costs involved in producing anything, the shared resources and festival marketing umbrella is a relatively low-cost option for getting a show up on its feet in front of an audience. … Let’s all find out what the plans are for this new incarnation of a New York landmark…. Click here to read more, and to register and receive the zoom link.

8/8 – Making Music in Minnesota (and the Line between Musical Theater and Opera). In the room: Ben Krywosz, artistic director of the Nautilus Music-Theater. Founded in 1986 as The New Music-Theatre Ensemble, a program of the Minnesota Opera, Nautilus has grown into an essential platform and incubator for the creation, development and production of new operas and other forms of music-theater that are, in Ben’s words, “emotionally expansive, dramatically engaging, and spiritually stimulating.” Nautilus also offers multiple training opportunities for artistic growth … Click here to read more, and to register and receive the zoom link.

More information about upcoming interviews is available at: truonline.org/tru-community-gathering.

To receive the Zoom invitation for weekly meetings, email TRUnltd@aol.com with “Zoom Me” in the subject header. These gatherings are free for TRU members, non-members are asked to make an optional tax-deductible donation or consider joining TRU at truonline.org/membership to support the organization’s ongoing service to the community.

Videos of past Community Gatherings may be viewed on TRU’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/channel/UC43rsChi4fA23dNLeloaF_A/. And a podcast series, TRU Talks About Theater, featuring 2023 Community Gathering conversations, is now available wherever you get your podcasts; or tune in at ElectraCast: https://electracast.com/?s=Theater+Resources

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a thirty-two-year-old 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization created to help producers produce, emerging theater companies to emerge healthily and all theater professionals to understand and navigate the business of the arts. Membership includes self-producing artists as well as career producers and theater companies.

TRU publishes an email community newsletter of services, opportunities and productions; presents weekly Community Gatherings about the arts, and monthly Town Halls about current social issues; offers a Producer Development & Mentorship Program taught by prominent producers and general managers in New York theater, and also presents Producer Boot Camp workshops to help aspirants develop business skills. TRU serves writers through the TRU Voices Play Reading Series, TRUSpeak: Hear Our Voices evening of short plays about social issues, Writer-Producer Speed Date, a Practical Playwriting Workshop, How to Write a Musical That Works and a Director-Writer Communications Lab.

Programs of Theater Resources Unlimited are supported in part by the Montage Foundation, The Storyline Project and the Leibowitz Greenway Foundation; and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit www.truonline.org.

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