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.

6/6 – Will We Ever Learn the Lesson? The Importance of Arts and Education. In the room: Kimberly Olsen, executive director of Arts in Education Roundtable; and Lucy Sexton, executive director of New Yorkers for Culture and Arts. The importance of Arts and Education cannot be stressed enough. There is a crucial need to offer young people the option of discovering the arts for the purpose of self-enrichment as well as to develop the audiences and artists of tomorrow. The arts show us who we are and how we got here, and they suggest paths forward. They offer a window into being human. We’ll consider how the US stacks up against many other countries that often seem to respect the arts more than we do, or at least prioritize them both in schools and in society itself. What impact might the current administration have, or is already having, on arts programs in schools? What are the implications of restricting conversations in classrooms and banning books in our libraries? Click here to register and receive the zoom link.

UPCOMING:

6/13 – From Page to Stage to Hybrid to Film: How a Writer Adapts. In the room: playwright Alex Goldberg, whose play Guellen, Kansas was part of our 2023 “TRUSpeak: Hear Our Voices!” evening of short plays filmed for zoom. Alex embraced the process of rethinking a stage play for the film medium and successfully collaborated with director Jordan Richards to create a work that was cinematic enough to be submitted to film festivals. That experience gave him the motivation and the knowledge to adapt another of his plays, Broad Daylight, into a film that he himself directed and shopped to festivals, and has screened at nine film festivals so far, including Santa Fe International Film Festival and Sedona Film Festival. What are the essential differences between stage and film scripts? What does a writer need to know to make the transition? Click here to register and receive the zoom link.

6/20 – Pooling Resources: How Three Women-led Companies Joined Forces. In the room, the three companies that combined to create The Femme Collective. Meet D-Davis of Eden Theatre Company, Kate Mueth of the Neo-Political Cowgirls and Lorca Peress of MultiStages. After the profound financial and cultural disruptions caused by COVID-19, these three companies made a comeback by rethinking the theater landscape. By sharing resources, space, and creative energy, Femme Collective not only confronted the economic challenges of a post-pandemic world, but also provided a platform to amplify diverse voices, foster community resilience, and redefine how theater can empower and sustain its artists and audiences. Click here 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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