A dependable haven for artists in isolation, Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is in its sixth year of non-stop weekly Community Gatherings, and celebrating its 300th consecutive conversation this Friday. The series has offered the theater community 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.

2/13 – Designs for a Living: How Clothes Make the Character. In the room: Jeff Mahshie, costume designer for Broadway (The Little Dog Laughed, Next to Normal, Left on Tenth, revivals of She Loves Me and Kiss Me Kate) and Off-Broadway (Babe, Good for Otto, Hurlyburly, Becky Shaw, Gruesome Playground Injuries, Marie and Bruce). Jeff started as a sportswear designer for Carmelo Pomodoro and went on to design for the likes of iconic Giorgio di Sant Angelo, the Italian house of Byblos, Chaiken and the legendary Halston. How did he find his way to theater design, and what was the transition like? What did he bring to the job, and how did he have to adapt? Does he have an aesthetic that informs his designs? Why would a producer/director pick him for their show? Jeff assures me he has some unconventional answers. We’ll also talk about how a producer can make a designer’s job easier (or even possible), and what makes it harder, as well as the importance of working with other stage designers, and how collaborative it needs to be. Click here to register and receive the link.

UPCOMING
2/20 – Keeping the Flame Alive: Honoring the Legacy of Artists We Have Lost. In the room: actress Marilyn Chris and director Jim Semmelman of Giggling Granny by the late TRU member Marsha Lee Sheiness; andSandy Silverberg, producer of The Way Out by the late TRU member, his wife Diana Amsterdam. Some of us may not always get to see our work performed in our lifetime. What a labor of love it is when someone champions that work when we are gone. And what a delicate process it can be as well. Making artistic decisions, interpretations and perhaps even script revisions is one thing when you’re bringing Shakespeare to the stage, but when the writer was someone near and dear to you, you may take extra care to be true to their spirit. How can you be sure you are fulfilling their vision? … 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 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.