Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) presents the next Writer-Producer Speed Date on Sunday, October 22, 2017 at 5:30pm at NOLA Rehearsal Studio, 244 W. 54th Street, 11th floor, NYC. This unique program is designed to help playwrights master The Art of the Pitch and gain confidence in talking about their work. If accepted into the program, the cost is $70 for TRU members and $85 for non-members. For more details, visit https://truonline.org/events/speed-date-10-17/. Submission deadline is Friday 10/13.
You meet a producer at a party, and have two minutes to interest him in your work. Do you have the skill to sell yourself? Here's a chance to practice pitching with real producers who are open to and looking for new work. Okay, they probably won't option you on the spot, but you'll meet them and have the opportunity to start developing a relationship. And that's what this business is all about. Relationships. You'll also get useful feedback on your pitching and your project.
Eleven producers are lined up, from both the commercial and not-for-profit worlds, all with an interest in new projects; there also may be up to eleven aspiring producers from TRU's Producer Development program and the professional community. So participants will be pitching to as many as 22 producers in total! Come with a willingness to learn, because the real value is the chance to practice pitching, and get invaluable coaching from experts, as well.
Confirmed producers include Patrick Blake, producer (The 39 Steps, Bedlam Theatre's Hamlet/St. Joan, My Life Is a Musical, Play Dead, The Exonerated); Luis Reyes Cardenas, Co-Founder/Co-Artistic Director, Open Hydrant Theater Company; William Franzblau, producer (Tony Award-nominated Best Play Say Goodnight Gracie, American Buffalo and Wonderland on Broadway,the tour of Little House on the Prairie the Musical; off-Broadway Sistas, Jewtopia, Evil Dead the Musical, Respect and Illuminate); Ed Gaynes,producer (Cougar the musical, Zero Hour, Black Angels Over Tuskegee, Fried Chicken and Latkes), theater owner St. Luke's, manager Actors Temple; Cody Lassen, producer (Indecent, Significant Other, The Band's Visit); John Melo,theater and film producer (On the Town); Lawrence D. Poster/Asparagus Entertainment, producer (Rags, Forbidden Broadway Comes Out Swinging, Fingers and Toes); Ken Waissman (original Grease, Agnes of God, Torch Song Trilogy, Josephine); Trish Whitehurst, theater/film producer (The Realistic Joneses, The Gronholm Method in L.A.; film: Clear Blue Tuesday; upcoming Austen's Pride); Shela Xoregos, artistic director of Xoregos Performing Company; and Frank Zuback, commercial producer (Taking Leave, American Soldier, Roof of the World).
To Apply: Visit https://truonline.org/events/speed-date-10-17/ to download an application, then email the completed application to TRUStaff1@gmail.com. Evening limited to 22 writers, deadline to apply is Friday, October 13, 2017.
Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a twenty-five 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 Legislatureand the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, 9th district former Council Member Inez Dickens; and with support from the Montage Foundation and the Friars National Association Foundation.
For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit www.truonline.org or call 212 714-7628.
