Theater Resources Unlimited to Host Zoom Talk With Tony Sportiello
Sportiello, artistic director of AMT Theater, will discuss converting spaces into usable performance venues.
Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) will hold this week's TRU Community Gathering via Zoom on Friday, August 28, 2026 at 5pm ET, featuring a conversation titled 'How a Playwright/Producer Found Himself Running a Theater. (More Than One.)'
Now in its sixth year of non-stop weekly Community Gatherings, TRU has led over 300 consecutive conversations about aspects of the arts. The series has offered the theater community information, inspiration, and camaraderie since April 17, 2020. TRU hosts these gatherings every Friday at 5pm ET via Zoom, originally presented to explore the creation of art and theater in the time of shutdown, and now to ensure that these crucial conversations continue going forward.
These gatherings are a service for the theater community and are offered free for TRU members; non-members may also attend for free, though TRU asks that non-members help keep the organization running by buying a $12 ticket, making a donation or joining as a member.
In the room for the August 28 session is Tony Sportiello, playwright (LOL, National Pastime, Tickets, Please, Contract Time), librettist/producer (off-Bway's National Pastime, Sessions, An Evening at the Carlyle, The Devil and Billy Markham), current artistic director of ATM Theater in NYC. The discussion will explore when creative artist Tony dove into the business side of the arts. At one time a playwright actively involved in the running of the artist consortium The Workshop Theater, he went on to form Algonquin Theater Productions and settled into the vacated Blue Heron theater space, overhauling it into The Algonquin Theater with partner Al Tapper. Fast forward to post-pandemic 2022, Tony and Al took over the former 45th Street Theater and turned it into the AMT Theater.
The session will address what Sportiello has learned over the years about space renovation and creating a usable venue, what mistakes he has made along the way, whether this shift in career was a choice or something he jumped in to do because somebody had to, and how he balances his time between writing and running his company. And what do people need to keep in mind when converting a space into a theater? He'll also talk about the mission of AMT, the tech specs of the theater and its availability for developing new works.
Upcoming Gatherings
9/4 - A Theater That Seems to Be Getting It Right: Why the 'B' Gets an A! In the room: Lyndsay Burch, executive artistic director of B Street Theater in Sacramento, now in its 40th year. Winner of an Outstanding Theater acknowledgement at the 2025 National Theater Conference, and originally founded as a theater for children, B Street has built a strong foundation on the idea of theater for all with a special focus on family theater and educational programs. What is their secret for programming consistently successful seasons?
9/11 - Taking Control of Technology: Coming to Terms with A.I. In the room: Kipp Koenig, following a 35 year career in technology, now a playwright; Nuoya Li, technology transformation leader, founder and CEO of PerformaMatch, a casting and career development platform; Tamra Pica, TRU technology director and consultant, as well as a producer and casting director; and Tracy Swedlow, playwright and lyricist, CEO and founder of TMRW Corp, EP of The TV of Tomorrow Show (TVOT). Controversy rages about perceived misuses of artificial intelligence, but it's not going away. The guests have built their businesses with the help of AI, and found it immeasurably helpful.
More information about upcoming dates is available at 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, and non-members are asked to make an optional tax-deductible donation or consider joining TRU at truonline.org/membership to support the organization's ongoing service to the community.
Videos of past Community Gatherings may be viewed on TRU's YouTube channel at youtube.com/channel/UC43rsChi4fA23dNLeloaF_A/
About Theater Resources Unlimited
Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a thirty-three-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 about the arts, and monthly Town Halls about current social issues; offers a Producer Development & Mentorship Program taught by prominent producers and general managers in New York theater; and presents Producer Boot Camp workshops to help aspirants develop business skills. TRU serves writers through the TRU Voices Play Reading Series, TRUSpeak: Hear Our Voices (adapting short plays into films), 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 Leibowitz Greenway Foundation, Stewart F. Lane & Bonnie Comley, Merrie L. Davis, Dunbar Hofmann Productions and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit www.truonline.org.
