Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) announces that Joanna Gleason, Jenny Powers, Fisher Stevens and Ramsey Faragallah will perform at the Ninth Annual TRU Love Benefit. Gleason is a Tony Award-winner for Into the Woods, star of Broadway's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and appeared in the movies Hannah and Her Sisters, Sex and the City and The Wedding Planner; Powers made a splash as Rizzo in the recent revival of Grease and has appeared in the musicals Little Women and Happiness; Faragallah is a film and TV actor who appeared off-Broadway in Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, Betrayed and Afterplay; and Stevens played Jigger in the revival of Carousel on Broadway, Chuck Fishman in TV's Early Edition and appeared in the movies Short Circuit and Hackers. They will be joining Nancy Anderson (A Class Act, Wonderful Town, Fanny Hill), Brian Dykstra (Clean Alternatives, Cornered and Alone, A Play on Words), Mark Mozingo and Eli Zoller. The TRU Love Benefit will be held on Sunday, November 8, 2009 from noon-4pm at Caroline's on Broadway (at 49th Street), NYC.
The theme of the benefit is "Opening Doors," and performances will include representative scenes and songs from shows developed and nurtured at the theaters of this year's two honorees,
Elysabeth Kleinhans of
59E59 Theaters and
Allan Buchman of
Culture Project. The show will include a song from Gutenberg the Musical, Mozingo and Zoller reprising their roles from the hit spring 2009 production of Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge, Clean Alternatives with writer/actor Dykstra and excerpts from The Exonerated and Guantanamo performed by Gleason, Stevens and Faragallah. TRU will also present songs from upcoming musicals being developed by TRU producers:
Jenny Powers will preview a song she will sing in TRU advisory board member
Randall Wreghitt's upcoming Broadway musical Pure Country, and
Nancy Anderson will preview one of her solos from TRU producer friend
Pam Koslow and mentee Maren Berthelsen's Yank!, which will open at the York Theatre in February 2010.
Honoree Kleinhans will receive the TRU "Spirit of Theater" Award for her ongoing generosity towards TRU as well as the off-Broadway producing community in general and Buchman will be acknowledged with the TRU Humanitarian Award for his dedication to bringing politically and socially conscious works to life in New York theater, and successfully using the arts for social change. The theme of this year's benefit - "Opening Doors" - is in recognition of both the nurturing homes the honorees have provided for the development of new work and new opportunities; and for their dedication to keeping open doors of communication for political and international conversations in New York theater. "And it also refers to the fact that a successful benefit helps TRU keep its own doors open," said TRU president
Bob Ost.
The event begins with a cocktail hour at noon followed by a full luncheon plus performances and the awards ceremony. Friends and supporters of the honorees who are lending their names to the Benefit Committee include actor/producer
Bob Balaban, critic
Michael Feingold, Elliott Fox and
Andrew Leynse of
Primary Stages, Dr. Gail Furman, Stephen and
Ruth Hendel, George Heslin of Origins Theatre, Peter Kleinhans, Barbara Iams Korein,
Cara Reichel of Prospect Theater Company, actor
Fisher Stevens,
Peter Tear of 59E59 and producer
Cheryl Wiesenfeld.
The event will also feature a Silent Auction with tickets to A Steady Rain, Fela!, Memphis, Superior Donuts, The Toxic Avenger and other Broadway and off-Broadway shows; plus a Day at the Races at Meadowlands, a Sutton Place brunch for four with critic
Michael Feingold, VIP tickets to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, plus dozens of gift items and services. Many items will move from the event to an Online Auction; to be an auction bidder, email TRUnltd@aol.com with your name, phone number and address.
The TRU Love "Opening Doors" Benefit will take place Sunday afternoon, November 8th at 12 noon, at Caroline's on Broadway (at 49th Street), with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at noon, luncheon at 1pm and performances and awards ceremony starting at 2pm. Tickets are $175 for Premium Patron level seats in the first tier, $150 for Patron level 2nd tier and $100 for general admission. Tickets may be purchased online at www.truonline.org, by clicking the link to the TRU Store. Inquiries may be made by phone at 212/714-7628 or by email at TRUnltd@aol.com.
TRU was founded in 1992 to promote a spirit of cooperation and support within the general theater community by providing information and a variety of entertainment-related services and resources that strengthen the business capability of producing organizations, individual producers, self-producing artists and other theater professionals. The company holds monthly seminars on a wide range of subjects important to theatrical producers and artistic directors conducted by panels of experts from both the commercial and not-for-profit segments of Broadway, Off-Broadway and the motion picture industry. TRU also publishes a monthly email community newsletter of services, goods and productions; produces the TRU VOICES Annual New Play Reading Series and the TRU VOICES Annual New Musicals Reading Series in which TRU underwrites developmental readings of new works for theater; gives annual scholarships to The Commercial Theater Institute, to encourage the development of aspiring producers; and most recently created a Producer Mentoring Program whose mentors are among the most prominent producers and general managers in New York theater.
Programs of Theater Resources Unlimited are supported in part by public funds awarded through the New York State Council on the Arts and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, as well as generous support from the Friar's National Foundation Association.
Photo credit: Walter McBride
