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 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.

4/11 – The Other Side of the Table: What Auditions Look Like to the People Who Do the Casting. In the room: Robin Carus, casting director; Cody Lassen, producer (How I Learned To Drive, A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet, Indecent, Spring Awakening Deaf West revival); Denis Jones, director/choreographer (Tony noms for Tootsie and Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn, Honeymoon in Vegas; plus Kennedy Center Guys and Dolls, NY City Center ENCORES Paint Your Wagon, Eurydice at The Met); and Tamra Pica, indie producer and casting director. Many actors are terrified of auditions, others love the process. Not all of them understand it from a casting person’s perspective. We’ve invited a casting director, producer and director-choreographer – the three main voices in the process – to share their experiences, both live and virtual. And how they differ. Who does what, best practices for running a professional session, what they each look for and what they each wish every actor would know when they come into the room. Part of the TRU Audition Conference for Theater (ACT). Click here to register and receive the zoom link.

UPCOMING:

4/18 – Celebrating 5 Years of Community: How We Zoomed Our Way Through Shutdown, and What We’ve Learned. In the room: Patrick Blake, San Francisco based producer and a TRU board member; Glynn Borders, NYC based theater and film director; Michael diGaetano, NY-based writer; John Ewing III, South Carolina based producer of film and theater; R.K. Greene, NYC based theater producer; Rob Hofman, Minnesota based producer and fundraising consultant; Emma Wood, Australia based writer; Patricia Zehentmayr, LA based writer. Our invited guests will start us off by telling us how they found their way to TRU and what our Friday gatherings have meant to them, with a focus on building a global community and why that matters, perhaps now more than ever. We will open up to the room as we consider the importance of community and thinking beyond our geographic locations. For some, finding TRU has changed their life. Hear their stories and (we hope) be inspired. Click here to register and receive the zoom link.

4/25 – Back on Everyone’s Radar: That Festival We Thought We’d Lost. In the room: Mark Russell, founder and artistic leader of the Under the Radar Festival, in residence at the Public Theatre from 2006 to 2023. The last time we talked to Mark he had literally just learned that the Public Theatre was no longer able to support his annual presentation of contemporary cutting edge “theater that investigates the nature of the theater experience.” And he had no idea what he would do next or if he would find a new way to share his vision with the rest of us. Yet, within a year he had bounced back and found a new producing partner, ArKtype, and had reformatted his festival by running it at multiple venues throughout New York City. How did he do it? We’ll talk about how the pieces came together, and how the rebooting has required rethinking and hard work. What, if anything, has been lost? And what has been gained? Click here to register and receive the zoom link.

More information about upcoming interviews is available at: truonline.org/tru-commun….

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/UC43…. 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: electracast.com/?s=Theat…

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 truonline.org.