Theater Resources Unlimited Announces Additions To The Performance Lineup At 2018 TRU Love Benefit

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) announces exciting additions to the performance lineup at their 2018 TRU Love Benefit. Members of the recent U.S. National Tour, Japan International Tour, upcoming China International Tour and upcoming 50th Anniversary New York City Center productions of A Chorus Line (Mel Cabey, Samantha Cho Grossman, Aaron Patrick Craven, Giovanni Da Silva, Steven Del Col, Veronica Fiaoni, Lauren Garriott, David Grindrod, Ryan Koerber, Laura Pierpont, Zoe Schneider-Smith, Madison Tinder, Jake Vielbig and Baayork's assistant Andrew Winans), plus Sam Simahk (Carousel revival, Curly in Oklahoma! at TUTS, 1st National Company of The King and I), will be joining Tony Award nominated Brenda Braxton (Smokey Joe's Cafe, Chicago); original A Chorus Line co-stars and Tony Award winners Donna McKechnie and Priscilla Lopez; NAAP co-founders Nina Zoie Lam and Steven Eng, as well as selections from MITF musicals Thrill Me! by Stephen Dolginoff, Sistas (the long-run off-Broadway hit) by Dorothy Marcic, Take Me America by Bill Nable, and more! Performance and award show will be directed by Jonathan Cerullo, Broadway/NYC choreography consultant for Say, Goodnight Gracie; assistant director and/or choreographer for Band in Berlin, Anna Karenina, The Three Musketeers, original cast of Legs Diamond; and choreographer for Big Apple Circus' Carnivale! & Picturesque @ Lincoln Center. He will be assisted by Andrew Winans, with music director Lulu Picart and stage manager Jim Semmelman.

The event will honor legendary A Chorus Line co-star and co-founder of the National Asian Artists Project Baayork Lee, who will receive the TRU Spirit of Theater Award for a lifetime of creating opportunities for Asian artists. Ms. Lee is choreographing the upcoming 50th Anniversary celebration of A Chorus Line at City Center, and cast members will be coming to TRU to help celebrate her. TRU is also honoring off-off-Broadway maverick, creator of the former OOBR Awards and the Midtown International Theatre Festival, John Chatterton who will receive the TRU Entrepreneur Award for providing 17 years of developmental opportunities for a range of independent theater artists.

It all takes place on Sunday, November 4, 2018 from 12pm-4pm at Caroline's on Broadway, 1626 Broadway, NYC. Tickets are available at Eventbrite(https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tru-love-benefit-2018-the-power-of-community-tickets-50935196544); details about the gala are at https://truonline.org/events/tru-love-2018/. Tickets start at $50 for the performance only, $115 for performance plus three-course luncheon.

"This is an important time to celebrate community, and to bring diverse people together with the common purpose of creating and appreciating art and theater," says TRU executive director Bob Ost. "Both of our honorees have enriched our community, and have done extraordinary work generating opportunities for so many." Join TRU for cocktails at noon, luncheon at 1pm followed by performances celebrating the honorees. They've made such a difference - help thank them, and support TRU and their community of theater professionals.

Adding excitement to the event is a live auction featuring premium tickets to the Broadway phenomenon Hamilton, a 7 night/8 day Uniworld European River Cruise for two including transfers, shore excursions and well, practically everything (brochure price starts at $6,000 for two), as well as a pair of rare Yankees Legend Suite tickets. General manager and producer Lisa Dozier King (Be More Chill, A Letter to Harvey Milk, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, NAMT Festival) and educator, director/producer, former artistic director of MITF Christen Omantra Callahan have joined the benefit committee assembled to support the honorees: Pat Flicker Addiss, producer (Desperate Measures, A Christmas Story, Promises Promises, The Fantasticks, Spring Awakening); Katrin Hilbe, director, former artistic director of the Midtown International Theatre Festival and artistic director of ManyTracks); Jim Kierstead, producer (Tony awards for Kinky Boots and Pippin revival, The Visit, Side Show, Yank!, Thrill Me - the Leopold and Loeb Story); Priscilla Lopez, actress (A Chorus Line, Henry Sweet Henry, Tony Award for Hollywood/Ukraine, Anna in the Tropics, In the Heights); Donna McKechnie, actress (Tony Award for A Chorus Line, Promises Promises, Company, State Fair, Jerry Herman's Showtune, Annie Warbucks, Follies at Paper Mill Playhouse); Jay Michaels, executive director of Jay Michaels Arts & Entertainment); Emileena Pedigo of The Show Goes in Productions, former general manager of the Midtown International Theatre Festival; and Gerald vanHeerden, director, and former artistic director of the Midtown International Theatre Festival.

Tickets are available at Eventbrite. Prices range from a show-only ticket of $50 to table seating with luncheon from $115 to $225. Friends and colleagues of the honorees may also buy congratulatory ads in the TRU Love Benefit Journal.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a twenty-six 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.
For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit www.truonline.org or call 212 714-7628.