Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) announces their return to live monthly panels/discussions, with a simultaneous streaming for our friends outside of New York City. Visit https://truonline.org/events/why-are-aanhpi-underrespresented/ to register and request the zoom link. Everyone should receive the zoom link upon registration; if not, email TRUnltd@aol.com to request link.

Co-hosted by Katie Chin, celebrity chef, author and playwright (Holy Shiitake! A Wok Star is Born); Ariel Estrada, actor, singer, arts advocate, producer, founder & producing artistic director of Leviathan Lab creative studio for AANHPI performing artists, past National Diversity & Inclusion Coordinator for Actors’ Equity Association Office of Diversity & Inclusion; Dorothea Gloria, a Filipina theater-maker, actress, and performance artist and the founder of RiffRaff NYC, an artist-led platform dedicated to developing new work and sharing multicultural stories through collaborative performance; Nina Zoie Lam, actor, theater director, dramaturg, arts advocate, founding partner of National Asian Artists Project, a non-profit theater company dedicated to showcasing Asian and Asian American writers and theater artists. Facilitated by TRU executive director Bob Ost.

TRU monthly conversations continue about issues of current cultural significance, with a particular focus on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. We revisit issues of D.E.I. in theater with another look at an ongoing struggle for cultural specificity in casting, as well as the need for a wider diversity of stories that reflect the full range of cultural experience in our country. Though Asian-focused companies like Pan Asian Rep and National Asian American Theater have pushed boundaries, AANHPI representation is still rare in the general theater scene; and though not all Asian identities are interchangeable, the industry still too often treats AANHPI communities as a monolith. Are there Asian communities that are represented, and others that are overlooked? We’ll also consider tokenism versus sustained inclusion, and what allyship and institutional accountability can look like beyond mere statements and “diversity” language.

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 encouraged 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. Free for members of TRU and League of Professional Theatre Women; $15 for non-members (with a $5 ticket “starving artist” option available to anyone who needs it). Please use the bright red reservation box here on our web page, or email or phone at least a day in advance (or much sooner): e-mail TRUStaff1@gmail.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, 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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