Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) announced today an upcoming live Town Hall panel, Being Nonbinary in a Predominantly Binary Business, set for Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at Polaris North Studio, 245 W. 29th Street, 4th Floor. Mingling begins at 6:30PM, and the event begins at 7PM. This marks TRU’s return to live monthly panels/discussions, with a simultaneous streaming for friends outside of New York City. When registering, please note there are options to buy either a live or a virtual ticket. Register at https://truonline.org/events/being-nonbinary/.

The event is moderated by TRU’s Bob Ost (he/him) as well as Jaye Hunt (they/them), a multi-disciplinary theater artist and literary manager of Parity Productions. Co-hosts include Mac Gay Anderson-Cooper (they/them), director, writer, producer; Kimi Handa Brown (they/them), stage and screen actor, playwright, intimacy director; Gylanni Carrington (they/them), inter-disciplinary artist; and Jess Ducey (they/them), writer, producer.

TRU monthly conversations continue about issues of current cultural significance. We further expand our conversations about cultural assumptions and how they undercut equal treatment in our society, as well as the challenges of being gender-expansive in our supposedly enlightened business. Is it entirely on non-binary shoulders to incorporate non-binary/trans themes into the art we are bringing to stage and screen? Is the work of cis-gender advocates welcome or intrusive? With the majority of commercial plays and musicals conforming to cisgender- hetero-normative stories and themes, how does an Enby find their place, and to what degree does our business show a willingness to be accepting? Does the way one experiences gender affect the way one creates/perceives art? For actors who identify as non-binary, how can they present themselves authentically at auditions if most roles are binary, and do productions discriminate if an actor identifies as non-binary on their resume? TRU offers this as an opportunity for everyone to learn from actual experiences and find ways to support each other while exploring initiatives that might bring us closer to genuine respect and acceptance.

All attendees are welcome to participate in this conversation. Doors open at 6:30PM for networking and roundtable introductions of everyone in the room – come prepared with your best 20-second summary of who you are, and what you need. The Open Forum will start at 7:00PM. The event is free for members of TRU, Polaris North and Polarity Productions; $15 for non-members (with a $5 ticket option available to anyone who needs it).

Parity Productions identifies, develops, and produces new work exclusively by women, trans, and gender-expansive playwrights. At all phases of development and production, their creative teams are comprised of 80-100% women, trans, and gender-expansive artists. Their work unrelentingly centers the experiences of women, trans, and gender-expansive individuals onstage and off to provide urgent perspective to our audience and the industry, and to create greater momentum in achieving gender parity within the American theatre.

Panelists

MAC GAY ANDERSON-COOPER (they/them) is a queer, feminist, antiracist director, playwright, producer and filmmaker from Lexington, Kentucky, trained in Chicago and now based in New York City. Mac writes and directs stories that launch queerness (of gender and society) into the spotlight using spectacle, absurdism, physical comedy and magical realism. With roots in the South, they do not shy away from challenging themes of our time including homophobia, class and racism, believing that theater is the tool that teaches people most efficiently and effectively how (and why) to see the world with deeper perspective. They are drawn to queer-forward, lady-forward plays and adaptations which challenge and change us as artists and audiences. Directing credits include Sensitive Guys by MJ Kaufman, an all-femme production of George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan, and the world premiere of Everybody Is Gone, an immersive, theatrical journalism experience in Berlin, Germany highlighting the Uyghur diaspora. They are currently in production on the documentary Take Wings: A Chuck Smith Story, co-directed by Wardell Julius Clark, and developing Girls on Ice with playwright Abigail Brooke. Their work has been seen at The Flea, The Tank, Goodman Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, and Chicago Shakespeare Theatre.macgay.com

KIMI HANDA BROWN (they/them) is a multi-hyphenate artist from California and with their BFA in Musical Theater from the University of Utah. From screen to print to stage to studio, they spend their time doing many things! Recently, seen on stage in Light + House: a Play in Three Channels at the Cell Theater and Freedom’s Last Stand with Peculiar Works Project at Target Margin Theater. Their play Manic Pixie Nightmare made its way to the National Women’s Theater Festival where they were nominated for best actor and won Best of Triangle Theater & Dance Cultural voice North Carolina. They performed in The Weathervanes 58th season and won Outstanding supporting Actor at the New Hampshire Theater awards for their performance in the World Premiere of “Primary” by Kelly Strandemo. Most recently intimacy directed Trash, Beau, As Time Goes By and See What I Wanna See at Out of the Box Theatrics, Science Park at the Gym at Judson, and Sex and the Abbey at The Brick. Their play Shakespearean Support Group is streaming on all platforms and Manic Pixie Nightmare short film is streaming on YouTube. Follow them on Instagram: @Kimilawls

GYLANNI CARRINGTON (they/them) is a queer non-binary artist from pre-gentrified Brooklyn. An interdisciplinary artist, Gylanni is adept in theatrical design, installations, and creative direction. They specialize in immersive theatrical experiences that allow audience members to become participants, shifting the traditional theatrical experience from voyeuristic to collectively focused. Gylanni loves new work, and projects that are weird, experimental, and concept-heavy with challenging design elements. An authority on aesthetics, they value performance art pieces that are a feast for the eyes. Gylanni has a B.A. in Theatre/Gender, Literature, and the Arts from Hunter College, where they studied the impact and influence of art on society. They believe the future of art lies in diverse storytelling and prioritizes works that are inclusive and accessible. Gylanni is an abolitionist and knows that the art they wish to make can only be made possible in a liberated world. Unsettling (Park Avenue Armory), A Landfill/Sacred Ground(A.R.T. New York Theatres), Translucent (Teatro Circulo), {hurricanes in your mouth} (Abrons Art Center) www.gylannidesigns.com

JESS DUCEY (they/them) is a writer, producer, fundraiser, and occasional clown with a penchant for new work and (queer) joy. They are on the board of National Queer Theater, co-director of Ring of Keys, and co-producer of Down to Clown, a community for new work. Jess also works with Recent Cutbacks (catch Hold On To Your Butts at Soho Playhouse through 15 March!), Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre, and Moxie Arts NYC. They have produced work at Fringe festivals on three continents, and also created EdFest, a festival of Edinburgh previews at The Tank. Outside of theatre, Jess is a proud member of UAW Local 2320 and serves as secretary of the national executive board. Jess previously worked in Aotearoa New Zealand, where they managed and advised arts campaigns for NZ’s first crowdfunding platform, co-founded and produced Queer AF, Wellington’s first festival of queer art, and created Unfinished Business, in which artists shared works in progress over a dinner party in their flat. Their writing has appeared in RNZ, Landfall, and off-Broadway in Primary Stages’ Echoes residency. Jess enjoys nature, dinner parties, public transit, books, unions, cheese, other people’s dogs, cycling (slowly!), knitting, and creating order from chaos. فلسطين حرة @thejduce



JAYE HUNT is a multidisciplinary theater artist. They have collaborated with playwrights on developing many new plays and have extensive experience serving as assistant director on both new works and works in the American theatrical canon. Their recent work includes a workshop of Strange Fish by Reid Pope, readings of The Brian Wilson Space Experiment by Jenna Rush and Let Me Not Be Myself by M Sloth Levine, and short plays with Sapphest and Blank Page Theatre Company. Jaye is the Literary Manager of Parity Productions, a theatre company dedicated to producing the works of women, trans, gender-expansive, and intersex theatre artists. Jaye’s work examines and questions normativity. They work to create equity onstage and backstage. www.jayehunt.com

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.

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