A dependable haven for artists in isolation, Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is now in its fourth year of non-stop weekly Community Gatherings this Friday, having offered to date over 150 conversations and unlimited camaraderie since April 17, 2020. TRU hosts their Community Gatherings every Friday at 5pm ET via Zoom, to explore the creation of art and theater in the time of COVID-19, and to ensure that these crucial conversations continue going forward as theater reopens. Ask questions, bring answers, be part of a community – it’s an opportunity to network with theater professionals and talk about how we kept theater alive during shutdown, and what we are doing now, going forward.

To receive the Zoom invitation for future 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 during these challenging times.

9/15 – Broadway Producer. Playwright. Novelist. More. The Many Lives of Jennifer Manocherian. In the room: Jennifer Manocherian, Tony winning producer (awards for War Horse, La Cage Aux Folles revival, August: Osage County, Spring Awakening, The Norman Conquests revival, Thoroughly Modern Millie; and she’s also been on 24 other Broadway shows), film writer/producer (Family Blues, formerly Hudson River Blues; in production Boundary Waters), screenwriting teacher, playwright-librettist (Marry Harry, Cockroaches & Cologne). Meet a media-hopping multi-tasker who perhaps has found a happy medium with her newly released novel, Alpha Bette, which features a seance and … a medium. How has being a producer influenced her writing career? How (and why) does she move from one form to another? How do different mediums satisfy her artistically? Are there common themes that appear throughout her work, and did those influence her choices in shows that she helped produce? And btw, which came first: writing or producing? Click here to register and receive the zoom link.

UPCOMING:

9/22 – Follow the Leader: How TheaterWorksUSA Serves Youth and Family Theater. In the room: Barbara Pasternack, artistic director since 2000. We’ll look at the founding of TWU by Jay Harnick and Charles Hull, and what it was like for Barbara to follow in their footsteps. How did she leave her own mark? What lessons were learned over the years, and how has the company adapted and changed? Click here to register and receive the zoom link.



9/29 – A More Affordable Way to Develop New Works for Theater: Cabaret. In the room: Sherry Eaker, producer of the annual Bistro Awards, former editor-in-chief of Backstage. Cabaret has become an easy and accessible part of the developmental process for bringing new works to the stage…. Click here to register and receive the zoom link.

10/13 – Time to Move on: Two Leaders of Downtown Theater and the Legacies They Leave Behind. In the room: Robert Lyons, founding artistic director of The Ohio, The New Ohio Theater, and the Obie Award-winning Soho Think Tank; and Kristin Marting, the founding artistic director of the form-breaking performance space HERE in New York, and a director and producer of hybrid work. Two of the driving forces of the downtown theater scene are both moving on after impacting and shaping the New York theater scene for decades…. Click here to register and receive the zoom link.

Check back at TRU’s web page for the 2023 schedule: truonline.org/tru-community-gathering.

Videos of past Community Gatherings may be viewed on TRU’s YouTube channel atyoutube.com/channel/UC43rsChi4fA23dNLeloaF_A/. And a new 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-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; 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, Writer-Producer Speed Date, 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 Montage Foundation, The Storyline Project and the Leibowitz Greenway Foundation.

For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit truonline.org.

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