Tonya Pinkins and Jay Armstrong Johnson Join 2016 TRU Love Benefit

Tickets are now on sale for the 2016 TRU Love Benefit, Embracing the Unlimited: A Celebration of Inclusion in the Arts, and an initial lineup of top performers for the event have been announced.

After 10 years of Sunday brunch benefits, TRU is moving into the evening hours on November 6, 2016 beginning at 6pm with pre-show cocktails at the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center lobby, awards and performance in the Bruno Walter Auditorium, plus a cocktail and hors d'oeuvres reception afterwards at the upcoming Lincoln Center exhibition of costumes from Olivier and Tony Award winning musicals, Curtain Up: Celebrating 40 Years of Theatre in London and New York.

Reception will feature a Silent Auction and a Live Auction whose prizes will include an $8000 cruise to anywhere in the world. VIP Honoree tickets are $200 and will include reserved seating at both performance and reception; VIP tickets are $150 and will include performance and unreserved seating at reception and exhibition. There will also be a $90 show-only general admission ticket. Tickets are on sale at truonline.org/events/2016-tru-love.

A performance celebrating the achievements of the honorees has just been announced. It will be directed by director/choreographer Jeff Whiting (Bullets Over Broadway, Scottsboro Boys, Big Fish, Young Frankenstein), who is also the creator/founder of StageWrite Software for notating stage direction and choreography, and Founding Artistic Director of The Open Jar Institute.

The show is scheduled to feature appearances by Tony Award-winning Broadway star Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change, Play On!, Holler If Ya Hear Me, Tony winner for Jelly's Last Jam), also known as Livia Frye on the soap opera All My Children; Jay Armstrong Johnson (On the Town revival, Hands on a Hardbody, Catch Me If You Can, Hair original revival cast, Working at Prospect Theater Co., The Most Happy Fella at City Center Encores!, Sweeney Todd at Avery Fisher Hall); Drama Desk winner Lauren Worsham and Lisa O'Hare from the original cast of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder; Joe Iconis, Jonathan Larson Award- and Ed Kleban Award-winning song writer; Julianne Wick Davis, winner of the Jonathan Larson Award for the transgender-centered musical Southern Comfort; transgender actor Em Grosland; and Jonathan Larson Award winning writer Sam Salmond.

TRU will be proudly recognizing three people who are each helping to change the landscape of theater in highly individual ways. The 2016 TRU Spirit of Theater Award will be awarded to theater and film producer Ron Simons (Hughie with Forrest Whitaker, The Gin Game with Cicely Tyson and James Earl Jones, revivals of A Streetcar Named Desire and Porgy & Bess, Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike, Turn Me Loose with Joe Morton) for expanding opportunities for African-American artists in commercial theater, and encouraging narratives that dig deeply into the under-represented communities' struggle for dignity and acceptance; the TRU Humanitarian Award will be presented to Shakina Nayfack, transgender activist, actor (TV's "Difficult People") and producer, for her work nurturing and developing new voices through the Musical Theater Factory as well as giving the transgender community a strong, eloquent political voice; and the TRU Entrepreneur Award will go to Jennifer Ashley Tepper, theater historian, producer, Director of Programming at Feinstein's/54 Below, author of The Untold Stories of Broadway historical series being a leading force in bringing the discussion of Broadway histories and traditions to contemporary musical theater and successfully tapping into the cultural zeitgeist.

"If theater is to survive, it needs to recognize and reflect the variety of lives and experiences all around us. This year we take special pride in acknowledging the achievements of people who are working to expand our cultural experience," says TRU executive director Bob Ost. "We're celebrating diversity, and everyone's invited to the party!" The celebration will take place on Sunday November 6, 2016 at the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts Bruno Walter Auditorium and the second floor exhibition space, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023. It will begin at 6pm. (Use of library space for this program does not indicate endorsement by The New York Public Library.)

The proceeds from this event directly benefit the programs of Theater Resources Unlimited, a not-for-profit service organization that educates people in the business of the arts, with a focus on producers, emerging theater companies and self-Producing Artists. Programs include monthly panels, workshops, a Producer Development and Mentorship Program, a new plays and new musicals reading series and a community e-blast of jobs, services, resources and theater events.

For inquiries about the event, email TRUStaff1@gmail.com or call 212-714-7628. For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit www.truonline.org or call 212-714-7628.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a twenty-four 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, Resource Nights and "Speed Dating" as well as actor workshops.

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 and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, 9th district Council Member Inez Dickens; and with support from the Montage Foundation and the Friars National Association Foundation.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride