A dependable haven for artists in isolation, Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is in its sixth year of non-stop weekly Community Gatherings, having led over 300 consecutive conversations. The series has offered the theater community 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.

Visit https://truonline.org/events/minnesota-arts-scene/ to receive this Friday’s Zoom link. These gatherings are a service for the theater community and are offered free for TRU members; non-members may also attend for free, but we ask that non-members help keep us running by buying a ticket, making a donation or joining as a member.

4/3 – Minnesota: The Healthiest Theater and Music Ecosystem in America? In the room: Beck Lee, New York publicist (NY Irish Center, Origin Theatre Company, Spiderwoman/the Downtown Indigenous-feminist company), now a Minneapolis-based playwright, producer and cultural convenor. His non-profit, the Cultural Fluency Initiative, creates events and performances that bring people of different backgrounds together to share their cultural traditions, stories and food. Beck will share his enthusiasm for what he sees as a healthier-than-average arts scene with a rich acting pool, solid arts infrastructure, impressive number of theaters and the highest level of State support of the arts per capita in America. Plus corporate support and individual patronage. “And here’s the clincher: the arts in Minnesota are viewed as a civic asset … something that make us special, something that justifies living through our hellish winters!” What impact have the ICE invasions of the Twin Cities, and a frigid political climate, had on the arts scene here? Plenty, and Beck will share some of that as well as his belief in the resilience of his new home state. Visit https://truonline.org/events/minnesota-arts-scene/ to register and receive the link.

UPCOMING

4/10 – The Other Side of the Table: What Auditions Look Like to the People Who Do the Casting. In the room: Robin Carus, casting director; Jonathan Cerullo, director-choreographer (Broadway: Anna Karenina; off-Bway Mr. Puppy, The Musical!, Yes, A Cat Named Marty Cohen, The Boys From Syracuse, Bubbling Brown Sugar(50th Anniversary Production Benefit Concert); Helene Galek, casting director; Jim Kierstead, producer (Dog Day Afternoon, The Fear of 13, Buena Vista Social Club, Titanique; Tonys for Hadestown, Pippin revival, Kinky Boots, The Inheritance); and Tamra Pica, LA-based casting director and indie producer. 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 casting directors, a producer-casting director, a Broadway producer and a director-choreographer – the 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). For more information, visit here.

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 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-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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