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.

Register here to receive a 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.

10/17 – Checking the Pulse of Indie Theater and Ensuring Its Future Health. In the room: Guy Yedwab, community activist, board president of the League of Independent Theater; Bree O’Connor, co-founder, producing artistic director for Playful Substance, a company that focuses on developing new works for the stage. “Indie” has emerged as a preferred branding for the wealth of small productions brought to life on the smaller stages of New York and around the country. It encompasses the world of showcases, festivals and “off-off-Broadway,” while perhaps suggesting an energy and significance of its own. A safe environment where artists can take risks, indie has survived many shifts in our cultural environment. As with all aspects of the arts and commerce, indie took a mighty blow from the pandemic that isolated us for over a year and continues to inhibit our ability to regain pre-shutdown equilibrium. Our government, which has never adequately supported the arts but has at least respected them, now seems to be waging war on our rights to express ourselves authentically. Will Indie Theater survive? What can we do to assure our voices can continue to be heard? Our guests have access to respected reports that illuminate the importance of Indie Theater and the positive role it plays in the health of New York’s economy, and other studies that make it clear that Indie Theater is worth fighting for. Join us. Click here to register and receive the zoom link.

UPCOMING:

10/24 – East Meets West: Cultural Differences and Common Ground. In the room: Neeraja Ramjee, New York based actor & producer originally from Bangalore India, working in film, TV and theater. We’ll consider the rich cultural heritage of Neeraja’s native India and some of the performing arts modalities that are unique to South Asia. Most of us know Bollywood and popular film influences, while many other performance forms are perhaps unfamiliar to us. Have eastern and western cultures cross-pollinated over the years? What are the influences and inspirations that have shaped Indian art, and are they different from what influences and inspires artists in our western culture? In what ways might British colonialization of India have changed their heritage? And how has Neeraja’s heritage shaped her as an artist? Click here to register and redeive 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 (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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