Theater Resources Unlimited Announces January Panel Getting Past the Gatekeepers: Opening the Doors for Greater Diversity in Theater

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) presents the January Panel, Getting Past the Gatekeepers: Opening the Doors for Greater Diversity in Theater on Thursday, January 24, 2019 at 7:30pm (networking at 7pm) at Polaris North, 245 W. 29th St. 4th floor, NYC, 10001. This panel is free for TRU members;$12.50 for non-members in advance ($15 at door). Please reserve using the bright red reservation box at https://truonline.org/events/getting-past-the-gatekeepers/ or e-mail TRUStaff1@gmail.com.

Panel to feature Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins (Jelly's Last Jam, Caroline or Change; TV's All My Children, Fear the Walking Dead); Adrian Budhu, Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer at Theatre Communications Group (TCG); Nina Zoie Lam, co founder of National Asian Artists Project; Ludovica Villar-Hauser, founder and artistic director of Parity Productions.

Theater in the US has evolved with many of the same structural inequities that exist in our larger society. Many believe that it is urgently important to give artistic voice to a range of human stories that more accurately reflect the diversity of our country and our world. In the current political climate, this work becomes even more important. Are diversity, equity and inclusion becoming more central as values and practices in theaters here and around the country? Or are there still "gatekeepers" whose personal interests, and assumptions about their audiences, influence them - perhaps unconsciously - to gravitate repeatedly toward the same collaborators and kinds of stories. Are they becoming more inclusive at the board and staff levels? Where are the producers who have a stake in bringing diversity to the stage? And how do we partner with a wide range of communities who will trust that their stories are being told truthfully--and that they are truly welcome?

Doors open at 7:00pm for networking and refreshments, roundtable introductions of everyone in the room will start at 7:30pm - come prepared with your best 30-second summary of who you are, and what you need. Free for TRU members; $12.50 for non-members in advance ($15 at door). Please use the bright red reservation box at https://truonline.org/events/getting-past-the-gatekeepers/, or email at least a day in advance (or much sooner) for reservations: e-mail TRUStaff1@gmail.com

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 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 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.

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, as well as the Montage Foundation and the Leibowitz Greenway Foundation.

For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit www.truonline.org.