Theater Resources Unlimited Will Host 'A Light Still Shines: Art in a Time of War'

A dependable haven for artists in isolation, Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is in its sixth year of non-stop weekly Community Gatherings, with over 300 consecutive conversations. The series has offered the theater community unlimited camaraderie since April 17, 2020. TRU hosts these Community Gatherings every Friday at 5pm ET via Zoom, originally presented to explore the creation of art and theater in the time of COVID-19, and now to ensure that these crucial conversations continue going forward.

Click here to receive this Friday’s Zoom link. These gatherings are a service for the theater community and are offered free for TRU members; non-members may also attend for free, but we ask that non-members help keep us running by buying a ticket, making a donation or joining as a member.

3/20 - A Light Still Shines: Art in a Time of War. In the room: Chris Grady, director at CGO Institute, fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts. Chris has just returned from a week in Kyiv and Lviv exploring the arts and culture scene amidst airraid warnings and against a backdrop of the devastation of the front as Ukraine pushes back the invading russian forces and seeks to protect Europe. How can US and International theatremakers help? What can we do to support fellow writers, actors, producers and cultural leaders? One thing we can do is to help to dispel the soviet propaganda. We can celebrate Ukrainian culture and contemporary arts/inventions. And we can offer creative collaboration with those Ukrainians displaced from their Country now in the USA, UK and beyond. Chris adds: "I will be back there in May for a theatre festival, and I hope others will soon get to see the amazing theatre - both physical and musical - I was lucky enough to experience in this trip." Click here to register and receive the link.

CHRIS GRADY is a facilitator, workshop leader and trainer specialising in the support of the next generation of creative producers and practitioners. He is a qualified life support coach working with sole traders and small businesses across the arts and the wellness industries. He works nationally and internationally. Over the last 40 years, Chris has run, built, marketed, and created numerous theatres and festivals. He has worked in senior marketing and management roles at Bristol Hippodrome (Assistant Theatre Manager); Plymouth Theatre Royal (Head of Marketing); Edinburgh International Festival and Traverse Theatres (Head of Marketing); Highland Hospice (Appeal Coordinator); and Buxton Opera House (CEO and Programmer/Founding Director of the Festival of Musicals). He also produced London’s Vivian Ellis Prize and the Society of London Theatre’s (SOLT) Stagefair and Window on the West End (Event & Exhibition Producer) at venues including Drury Lane Theatre, London Palladium. Chris’s other work has included: New Musicals Alliance (Founder), Musical Theatre Network (Founder), Cardiff BBC Wales (Musicals Festival/Voice of Musical Theatre Project Developer), Keswick Theatre by The Lake (Co-project Build Coordinator), Bury St Edmunds Theatre Royal (Head of Marketing and Development). He also worked internationally as Head of Licensing for Cameron Mackintosh working on Miss Saigon, Les Miserables and Witches of Eastwick in variously Mexico City, Tokyo, Seoul, Prague, Moscow, Sao Paolo and Berlin.

UPCOMING

3/27 - How Golden Wings Took Flight: A Do-It-(Almost)-Yourself Path of Development. In the room: playwright Coolidge Harris II, 2021 TRU Voices finalist for the play Golden Wings; Tom Polum, co-founder of Streaming Musicals; Jayse, editor at Milliron Studios, a partner of Streaming Musicals; and Janel C. Scarborough, consulting producer. We'll follow the path of the play from its selection by the TRU Voices Series committee and Zoom presentation to its subsequent full stage production. Coolidge will talk about the pros and cons of being a self-producer, and the relationship he formed with his consulting producer; Janel will address the journey of the play's ultimate connection with the online theater platform Streaming Musicals. From there Tom and Jayse will discuss the process of translating a stage play into a viable film, including the technical aspects and the value of having a filmed version as a marketing tool. Click here to register and receive the zoom link.

More information about upcoming interviews 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, 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/. And a podcast series, TRU Talks About Theater, featuring 2023 Community Gathering conversations, is available wherever you get your podcasts; or tune in at ElectraCast: https://electracast.com/?s=Theater+Resources

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.