TRU Community Gathering Via Zoom Amplifying Asian And American-Asian Voices: Meet Leviathan Lab

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 nearly 200 conversations and unlimited camaraderie since April 17, 2020.

TRU hosts their Community Gatherings every Friday at 5pm ET via Zoom, to explore the creation of art and theater in the time of COVID-19, and to ensure that these crucial conversations continue going forward as theater reopens.

3/8 - Amplifying AANHPI Voices: Meet Leviathan Lab. In the room: Ariel Estrada, actor, singer, arts advocate, producer, and Founder & Producing Artistic Director of Leviathan Lab; and LGBTQ/neurodivergent/biracial Korean American writer Scott Sickles (Marianas Trench, Emmy nominated and 5-time Writers Guild of America winner for General Hospital). Leviathan Lab is an award-winning not-for-profit creative studio whose mission is the advancement of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander performing artists and their work. Learn the history, how it achieves its mission, how it has evolved (including the challenges of shutdown), and the goals of its founder: to open spaces that promote social justice, bridge communities and assert the power of art to change the world. We'll also discuss the current partnership with the TRU Diversity initiative in presenting Scott's new play, Marianas Trench.

Visit https://truonline.org/events/leviathan-lab-2/ register and receive the Zoom link.

UPCOMING:

3/15 - TRU Success: The Play that Found Producers at the TRU Speed Date! In the room: the director of TRU's producing Master Class, producer Jane Dubin (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; upcoming: Village of Vale); Heather Cohn, Executive Producer of Colt Coeur, a Brooklyn-based theater company, producers of the upcoming production of Still; and playwright Lia Romeo (Still), playwriting fellow at Juilliard, published by TRW, Broadway Licensing, and others, associate artistic director with Project Y Theatre Company. Jane will discuss the experience of Speed Date, and how Lia's pitch broke through, and the subsequent partnership formed with Blair Russell and Colt Coeur's upcoming production off-Broadway at the DR2 Theatre starring Jayne Atkinson and Tim Daly. We'll also discuss the delicate producer-writer dynamic, including the partnership with Colt Coeur, and the expectations on all sides of this artistic equation. Visit https://truonline.org/events/the-play-that-got-optioned/ to register and receive the Zoom link.

3/22 - Write Who You Know: A Conversation with the Son of Actress Eileen Heckart. In the room: Luke Yankee, writer (The Last Lifeboat, The Lavender Mafia and TRU Voices finalist The Jesus Hickey), director, producer, actor and teacher, former Producing Artistic Director of the Long Beach Civic Light Opera and the Struthers Library Theatre. And the son of theater and film legend Eileen Heckart (Oscar winner for Butterflies Are Free, nominee for The Bad Seed; Tony nominee for Butterflies Are Free, Invitation to a March and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs; and on Broadway as recently as 2000 in The Waverly Gallery and recipient of a Tony lifetime achevement award that same year). What's it like being raised by a star, and living "just outside the spotlight"? How did it shape Luke's esthetic and style as a writer? His play Marilyn, Mom and Me is currently in development, and yes, it's about that Marilyn. What is the creative process like taking people you know and moments you've lived and dramatizing them effectively and objectively? Visit https://truonline.org/events/write-who-you-know/ to register and receive the Zoom link.

Check back at TRU's web page for future 2024 gatherings: 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 during these challenging times.

Videos of past Community Gatherings may be viewed on TRU's YouTube channel at youtube.com/channel/UC43rsChi4fA23dNLeloaF_A/. And a new 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

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a thirty 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. For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit www.truonline.org.