TRU Community Gathering via Zoom – Santa’s Coming to Town in Spite of COVID: Developing New Shows for the Holidays

A dependable haven for artists in isolation, Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is now into its second year of non-stop weekly Community Gatherings this Friday, having offered to date over 80 conversations and unlimited camaraderie since April 17, 2020. TRU hosts their Community Gatherings every Friday at 5pm ET via Zoom, to explore the creation of art and theater in the time of COVID-19. These crucial conversations will continue going forward as theater reopens. Ask questions, bring answers, be part of a community – it’s an opportunity to network with theater professionals and talk about keeping theater alive during shutdown, and what we are doing now, going forward. 

To receive the Zoom invitation for future 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 a tax-deductible donation – or consider joining TRU – to support the organization during these challenging times.

12/17 (5:00pm) – Santa’s Coming to Town in Spite of COVID: Developing New Shows for the Holidays. In the room: Stephanie Rosenberg, Tony Award-Winning producer (Moulin Rouge!, Anastasia, Matilda, On The Town and now Santa’s Sing-A-Long!), CEO and Founder of The Empress Productions, co-CEO and Founder of BroadwayApproved; and Jim Semmelman, writer of the musical Mooseltoe which he wrote and directed for stage, adapted into a book and is currently a holiday offering on Streaming Musicals. Stephanie is bringing her Santa to town following a holiday tour of Philadelphia and other markets; Jim developed his show as a way to promote a stuffed Christmas animal, with a series of tours across the US, and more recently a live pre-COVID tour and a run at the Gateway Playhouse in Long Island, and presently a holiday offering on StreamingMusicals.com with a knockout all-star Broadway cast. We’ll discuss how the challenge of developing new works was further complicated by a year and a half of shutdown, and how both shows have triumphed in their own ways. CLICK HERE to register and receive the zoom link: https://truonline.org/events/santas-coming/.

The TRU Virtual Community Gathering will take the holidays off for Christmas and New Year’s Day but will be back on Friday January 7th and continue our weekly schedule of inspiring and illuminating conversations about theater. Check back at our web page for the 2022 schedule: https://truonline.org/tru-community-gathering/

Videos of past Community Gatherings may be viewed on TRU’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/channel/UC43rsChi4fA23dNLeloaF_A/.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a twenty-eight-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, goods and productions; presents monthly panels as well as the new weekly Community Gatherings; 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 the TRU Voices Play Reading Series, 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 Montage Foundation, The Storyline Project and the Leibowitz Greenway Foundation. For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit www.truonline.org.