A dependable haven for artists in isolation, Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is celebrating its fifth year of non-stop weekly Community Gatherings this Friday, 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.

7/11 – Is New York Really a Safe Haven for School Arts Programs? A follow up to our 6/25 conversation about Arts and Education. In the room: Peter Avery, director of theater for the NYC Department of Education. New York has the largest public school system in the nation and is known as a major center for the arts in America, and our guest is focused on the significant impact a dedicated theater education has for all youth, their teachers and school communities. Avery prioritizes producing innovative theater programs focused on youth artistry, access, equity and inclusion for NYC public school students of all ages and abilities. We’ll look at the range of successful programs Avery has helped generate, consider what more may still need to be done and whether current political trends might have a negative impact on the progress we have made. Are these programs unique to New York, or can other areas of the US learn from what we do here? And vice versa? Click here to register and receive the zoom link.

Peter Avery is the Director of Theater for the New York City Department of Education–focused on the significant impact a dedicated theater education has for all youth, their teachers and school communities in the nation’s largest public school system. Avery prioritizes producing innovative theater programs focused on youth artistry, access, equity, and inclusion for NYC public school students of all ages and abilities. A few of the dynamic initiatives he has launched include the Shubert High School Theatre Festival on Broadway, the international Digital Theatre Project, the Arthur Miller Foundation Teacher Fellowship Program and New York City’s first ever All IN(clusive) All-City Theatre Ensemble for teens of all backgrounds and abilities who collectively compose and produce an original musical together. A leading voice in the field of theater education, Avery presents nationally and internationally, studying theater in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2017 as one of seven international artists to receive the Likhachev Foundation Fellowship. With professional experience directing and working in nonprofit theaters, teaching at universities, leading the theater education charge in government, and partnering with Broadway, Avery brings a unique ability to create space for diverse perspectives, producing lasting programs that serve current youth and communities as well as those not yet served.

UPCOMING:

7/18 – Theater Awards: What They Mean and Why We Give Them. In the room: Bob Blume, an executive producer of the Drama Desk Awards from 1999-2018; Peter Breger of the OB Alliance Awards; Cat Parker of New York’s IT Awards; Charles Wright, co-president of the Drama Desk Awards. The unique identity and purpose of different theater awards, the complex and probably exhausting process of managing and administering an annual awards ceremony and how it functions in stimulating the development of our theater culture…. Click here to read more, and to register and receive the zoom link.

7/25 – Free Introduction to our 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-Broadway Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey, The 39 Steps, Ann) and Foundations instructor Blair Russell (Slave Play, Sweeney Todd off-Broadway). 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, and to register and receive the zoom link.

8/1 – A Lost Opportunity, Found: The Return of the Midtown International Theatre Festival! In the room: John Chatteron, founder and executive producer and Jay Michaels, manager, marketing and promotion of the newly revived and rethought Midtown International Theatre Festival. One of the best steps a writer can take in the development of new work is to self-produce or be produced in a festival. Though there are always costs involved in producing anything, the shared resources and festival marketing umbrella is a relatively low-cost option for getting a show up on its feet in front of an audience. … Let’s all find out what the plans are for this new incarnation of a New York landmark…. Click here to read more, and to register and receive the zoom link.

8/8 – Making Music in Minnesota (and the Line between Musical Theater and Opera). In the room: Ben Krywosz, artistic director of the Nautilus Music-Theater. Founded in 1986 as The New Music-Theatre Ensemble, a program of the Minnesota Opera, Nautilus has grown into an essential platform and incubator for the creation, development and production of new operas and other forms of music-theater that are, in Ben’s words, “emotionally expansive, dramatically engaging, and spiritually stimulating.” Nautilus also offers multiple training opportunities for artistic growth … Click here to read more, and to register and receive 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 evening of short plays about social issues, 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 Montage Foundation, The Storyline Project and 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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