A dependable haven for artists in isolation, Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is celebrating its fifth year of non-stop weekly Community Gatherings, 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.

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

11/28 – What I Am Thankful for: Focusing on the Positive (in Spite of It All). “It’s just us” gathering of community and friends in celebration of Thanksgiving. In the room: R.K. Greene, producer (Beau the Musical, Harmony, Peter and the Starcatcher, The Lightning Thief tour, Farinelli and the King, A Time to Kill, Cougar: The Musical, Room Service); John Lant, off-Broadway producer (Frankenstein, Wicked Frozen, Lili Marlene, Fabulous), TRU board member; Sandy Silverberg, producer (The Way Out, TRU reading of Control of the Dirt), TRU Board Chair. We’ll talk about coping with the current political climate, and focus on what we can do to stay centered, creative and productive. Click here to register and receive the zoom link.

UPCOMING

12/5 – One Native American Artist’s Approach to Theater: Creative Sovereignty. In the room: Tara Moses (citizen of Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, Mvskoke), director, multi award-winning playwright, and co-founder of Groundwater Arts, a US-based artist collaborative committed to reenvisioning the arts field through a climate justice lens. Equally concerned with the fair treatment of our planet as well as equitable treatment of the multiple populations that inhabit it, Tara will talk about finding her rightful place as an artist, and how decolonization offers a path towards more equal opportunities. She’ll reference a new endeavor from Groundwater Arts, the publication of Start with the Ground: a journal on decolonization ….. Click here to read more, register and receive the zoom link.

12/12 – Two Views of the Latiné Arts Community: Chicago and NYC. In the room: Christin Cato, NYC actor, playwright (Sancocho, O.K.!), freelance writer, dramaturg and educator, 2025 HOLA award for Outstanding Achievement in Playwriting; Justine Bayod Espoz/Torito Arts, arts journalist, producer and performing arts curator, advocate for diversity in the Chicago arts community. What are the challenges to creating genuine inclusion in the melting pot of American arts culture, and have the current strict immigration policies had an effect? Has progress been made in gaining acceptance of authentic latiné voices? … Click here to read more, 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 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-three-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 (adapting short plays into films), 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 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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