TRU To Host Community Gather Via Zoom - How A Regional Theater Serves Its Community (and Survived Shutdown)

A dependable haven for artists in isolation, Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is now into its second year of non-stop weekly Community Gatherings this Friday, having offered to date over 100 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. Ask questions, bring answers, be part of a community - it's an opportunity to network with theater professionals and talk about how we kept theater alive during shutdown, and what we are doing now, going forward.

To receive the Zoom invitation for future 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.

Friday 2/24 - How a Regional Theater Serves Its Community (and Survived Shutdown). In the room: Mike Sablone, producing artistic director of The Warehouse Theater in Greenville, South Carolina. Priding itself on being "more than just theater," this local institution - the only AEA house for hundreds of miles - selects productions with stories that challenge the status quo and yet are relevant to the Greenville audience. What goes into the play selecti0n process? What are the themes that speak to its community? And what keeps the audiences coming back? Challenged by big expenses and one of the smallest venues in town, how does Mike overcome the challenges and keep this 50-year old theater going? (Did we mention their Upstate Shakespeare Festival?)

Check back at TRU's web page for the 2023 schedule: truonline.org/tru-community-gathering.

Videos of past Community Gatherings may be viewed on TRU's YouTube channel atyoutube.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 (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a twenty-nine-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; 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, 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. For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit truonline.org.