The leading network for developing theater professionals, Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is pleased to announce their annual TRU Producer Boot Camp, Raising Money for Theater: Who, How and When to Ask on Saturday, January 25, 2025, from 12-6:30PM. Registration starts at $125 for TRU members and $160 for non-members and can be completed here. Further discounts and scholarships are also available. For more information visit https://truonline.org/events/raising-money-for-theater-2025/.

The masks are off, live theater is back. Time to move your projects forward. It’s more important now than ever for the voices of theater to be heard so start moving ahead with passion, a plan, and an awareness of how to navigate our current world-in-transition. For producers, one important step will always be finding the money and resources to make it all happen. We invite you to acquire some basic tools and crucial information that will help you to overcome your money shyness, navigate the roadblocks, and effectively reach out to supporters. From pitching techniques and presentation skills to legal requirements and business planning, plus a wealth of first-hand experience from a half dozen producers who are currently active in the Broadway and off-Broadway worlds, we promise you an informative, empowering and inspiring day.

Workshop faculty will include (confirmed so far): Broadway and off-Broadway producer and actress Charlotte Cohn (Here Lies Love, Church and State); Jamie deRoy, award-winning producer with 14 Tonys and over 90 Broadway credits; Patricia Klausner, managing director Shotgun Productions, producer (upcoming London: Little Dancer; Broadway: Tony awards for Pippin and The Band’s Visit, plus Trip to Bountiful, The Scottsboro Boys, Stick Fly; off-Broadway: Clear…, Santa Claus Is Coming Out, The Chaos Theories, Don’t Hug Me); Cody Lassen, producer (How I Learned To Drive, A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet, Indecent, Spring Awakening revival). Plus entertainment attorneys Lee Feldshon and Eric Goldman.

SCHEDULE AND SPEAKERS (subject to change)

11:45am-12:00pm – registration and check-in

12:00 to 12:45 – “Commercial vs Not-for-Profit Asks: Defining the Differences” with attorney Eric Goldman. We will define terms, then focus on the not-for-profit side: the legal paperwork and structure that is necessary in order to ask for donations, and the responsibilities to your donors, plus the ways in which not-for-profits and commercial companies can work together, and new developments during the pandemic shutdown

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12:45 to 1:30 – “Commercial Financing: Formalizing Your Ask” with attorney Lee Feldshon. The required paperwork and structures at every level of development, from front money agreements to private placement to Federal filings. The limitations placed on asking. New paths to take during COVID-19, the impact of force majeure, and other current developments.

1:30 to 2:15 – “Cultivating and Maintaining a Pool of Investors” with Patricia Klausner. Who to go to, what to talk about, how to present material, disclosures and much more. Identifying prospective investors is just the first step. How do you communicate your passion for a project, incentivize a prospect and close the deal? PLUS the business and hierarchy of theatrical producing: definitions of lead producer, co-producer, investors, and appropriate lingo, budgets, capitalization, and recoupment charts.

2:15 to 3:30 – BREAK

3:30 to 4:00pm – “The Investor Perspective” with Jamie deRoy. Tips for closing with that investor prospect. How an investor’s interest in a project may differ from an associate producer’s, why they invest, and best ways to make your ask so it maintains their interest.

4:00 to 4:45 pm – “Raise Money from Anyone, Anywhere for Any Project!” with Charlotte Cohn. Where and how to find the money, and how to ask for it. And close the deal. We will take a look at a basic money raising pitch both from your side and the investor’s side, learning how to speak the same language, exploring how to best communicate your proposal to your target audience. GETTING the money is what it is all about but HOW you go about the process makes all the difference.

5:00 to 5:30 – “Practical Tips and Money-Raising Secrets” with Cody Lassen. Practical tips, tricks, and tools you can use to raise money and manage investor relations. From initial investor research through closing night and beyond, you’ll learn how to create a plan for managing the fundraising process that you can put to use right away.

5:15 to 5:30 – BREAK

5:30 to 6:15 – “Where Do We Go from Here?”, an inter-active talkback. How do we plan for the future with so many unknown factors? What strategies make sense in our reopened world of live performance? How do we win back the key audiences that are still resistant? Panelists will share their current projects and plans, where they are now and how they are dealing with the current roadblocks. Are solutions being found to make the path any easier? Followed by a Q&A with attendees.

6:15 to 6:30pm – breakout/networking

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a thirty-two-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; 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, TRUSpeak: Hear Our Voices evening of short plays about social issues, 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; 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.

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