TRU Announces January Panel - Breaking The Silence: The Voices Of Theater Around The World

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) presents the TRU January Panel -Breaking the Silence: The Voices of Theater Around the World on Tuesday, January 30, 2018 at 7:30pm (doors open for networking at 7pm) at The Playroom Theatre, 151 W. 46th Street, 8th fl., NYC. For more details, visit https://truonline.org/events/breaking-the-silence/. Free for TRU member; $12.50 for non-members in advance ($15 at door), free for TRU. Please use the bright red reservation box at https://truonline.org/events/breaking-the-silence/, or call at least a day in advance (or much sooner) for reservations: 212-714-7628; or e-mail TRUStaff1@gmail.com.

Speakers to include Teresa Eyring, Executive Director of Theater Communications Group (TCG); Philip Himberg, Artistic Director of Sundance Institute Theatre program; others TBA.

Art can be dangerous, especially when the voices of artists express views contrary to their country's leadership. Many have been silenced, but others have overcome oppression and managed to be heard and sometimes listened to. We will look at how art is perceived, respected or repressed in various countries, and the part it plays in the lives of the communities that it serves. Are there ever ways for getting those in power to listen? Or is the better tactic to engage the population and inspire them to raise a unified voice? We will look at the impact theater in particular has had in effecting social change around the world, including our own country. Among many Americans, there is concern today that their voices are not being heard, and their needs are being ignored. Can art illuminate issues in ways that can generate greater understanding? Can theater be an effective tool for voicing concerns and stimulating discussion, and perhaps change? Is it even possible to get those who disagree with you to consider your viewpoint? And how do you do that?

For more details, visit https://truonline.org/events/breaking-the-silence/.

Teresa Eyring, Executive Director and CEO of Theatre Communications Group, is also co-President of the US Center for the International Theatre Institute and co-founder of the Global Theatre Initiative, in collaboration with the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown.

Philip Himberg, Artistic Director of Sundance Institute Theatre program, will also join the panel. Under his leadership, the Theatre Program's international activity has grown from a handful of international observers at the Theatre Lab in Utah to over 14 years of deep peer-to-peer intercultural engagement in six East African countries and, currently, in the Middle East & North Africa.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a twenty-five year old 501c3 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, goods and productions; presents the TRU VOICES Annual New Play Reading Series and Annual New Musicals Reading Series, two new works series in which TRU underwrites developmental readings to nurture new shows as well as new producers for theater; offers a Producer Development & Mentorship Program whose mentors are among the most prominent producers and general managers in New York Theater, and also presents Producer Boot Camp workshops to help aspirants develop the business skills they need. TRU serves writers through a Writer-Producer Speed Date, a Practical Playwriting Workshop, How to Write a Musical That Works and a Director-Writer Communications Lab; programs for actors include the Annual Combined Audition, Resource Nights and "Speed Dating" as well as actor workshops.

Programs of Theater Resources Unlimited are supported in part by public funds awarded through the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature the Montage Foundation.

For more information about TRU membership and programs, visitwww.truonline.orgor call 212 714-7628.