A dependable haven for theater professionals, Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is in its sixth year of non-stop weekly Community Gatherings, having led over 300 consecutive conversations about aspects of the arts. The series has offered the theater community information, inspiration, and unlimited camaraderie since April 17, 2020. TRU hosts these gatherings every Friday at 5pm ET via Zoom, originally presented to explore the creation of art and theater in the time of shutdown, and now to ensure that these crucial conversations continue going forward.

Click https://truonline.org/events/a-force-for-good/ 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 $12 ticket, making a donation or joining as a member.

8/7 – Theater As a Force for Good: A Commercial Producer with Heart. In the room: Sue Gilad, philanthropist, philosopher, and producer (Tony Awards for The Outsiders, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, and revivals of Company, Angels in America and Merrily We Roll Along; plus Buena Vista Social Club, Jagged Little Pill and more). In addition to being on the producing teams for more than 16 Broadway shows, Sue is a passionate advocate for arts education and philanthropy, supporting initiatives that nurture the next generation of theater artists, and even providing annual grants to students. She also offers insights into the most effective donation strategies for supporting not-for-profit arts organizations, and her belief that the skills honed in a Broadway rehearsal room are directly applicable to the challenges faced in the corporate world. Hear her inspiring perspective on many aspects of the theater world, and come with questions. Click https://truonline.org/events/a-force-for-good/ to register and receive the link.

SUE GILAD is a multi-award-winning theatre producer whose musicals have been honored with 84 Tony Award nominations, 30 Tony wins, and two Grammy Awards. In 2024, new musical The Outsiders earned the Tony Award for Best Musical, and Merrily We Roll Along was awarded the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. Other credits include Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Buena Vista Social Club, Jagged Little Pill, Angels in America, Company, and Funny Girl. The off-Broadway hit Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical is now licensing worldwide. In the works: Purple Rain and Gatsby: An American Myth. Sue is a champion for Arts Education and speaks on stages across the world about theater’s force for good, as well as Broadway lessons applicable to business and beyond. Visit InFineCompany.com for more info.

UPCOMING

8/14 – Free Introduction to the TRU 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-BroadwayAbsolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey, The 39 Steps, Ann) and Foundations instructor Blair Russell, Tony-nominated producer whose experience ranges from fringe festivals (Edinburgh) to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows (Slave Play, Still and Sweeney Todd). 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, register, and receive the link.

8/21 – Celebrating the Power of Music: Bringing Three Worlds Together in One Spotlight. In the room: members of the crossover consortium pianoFORTEpianoFORTE!: avant-garde jazz-classical pianist Ethan Iverson, classical-to-contemporary pianist Beth Levin, and vocalizing contemporary pianist Kathleen Supové. We’ll talk with these three diverse artists about their chosen artistic paths, what shaped their musical aesthetic and their careers, how they met and came together to create pianoFORTEpianoFORTE!, and how their individual styles offer contrasts and complements. What do they find inspiring about each other? Click here to read more, register, and receive the link.

8/28 – How a Playwright/Producer Found Himself Running a Theater. (More Than One.) In the room: Tony Sportiello, playwright (LOL, National Pastime, Tickets, Please, Contract Time), librettist/producer (off-Bway’s National Pastime, Sessions, An Evening at the Carlyle, The Devil and Billy Markham), current artistic director of ATM Theater in NYC. When did creative artist Tony dive into the business side of the arts? At one time a playwright actively involved in the running of the artist consortium The Workshop Theater, he went on to form Algonquin Theater Productions and settled into the vacated Blue Heron theater space, overhauling it into The Algonquin Theater with partner Al Tapper. Fast forward to post-pandemic 2022. Tony and Al took over the former 45th Street Theater and turned it into the AMT Theater. Click here to read more, register, and receive the link.

More information about upcoming dates 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, Stewart F. Lane & Bonnie Comley, Merrie L. Davis, Dunbar Hofmann Productions 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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