TRU and The Players Theatre Present March 2014 TRU Panel, THE NEW NORMAL? Today

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) announces the January panel The Commercial/Not-for-Profit Collaboration: The New Normal? tonight, March 19, 2014 at 7:30pm at The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, Mainstage Theatre, NYC. Doors open at 7pm for networking and refreshments, presentations and roundtable introductions start at 7:30pm (come prepared with your best half-minute summary of who you are, and what you need).

Guests will include Andrus Nichols, producing director of Bedlam Theatre; Patrick Blake, producer (Bedlam Theatre's Hamlet/St. Joan, In the Continuum, The Exonerated, Play Dead); Andrew Leynse, artistic director Primary Stages; David Elliott, co-director of Perry Street Theatricals (Bedlam Theatre's St. Joan/Hamlet, Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike, In the Continuum, An Oak Tree), Meredith Lucio, producer (Bedlam Theatre's Hamlet/St. Joan, Porgy & Bess, The 39 Steps, Rooms: a rock romance).

As expenses in commercial theater have soared, the development of new work has grown increasingly dependent on strategic partnerships with not-for-profit and regional theaters. We'll look at the process involved in making an appropriate match, what stage in development a commercial theater might want to find a not-for-profit partner (and vice versa), as well as discuss the intricacies of enhancement deals. For the most part these arrangements can be seen as win-win, but there are cautions that need to be considered.

Admission is $12 (free for TRU members). RSVP at least a day in advance (or much sooner) for reservations: 212/714-7628; or e-mail TRUStaff1@gmail.com.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is a twenty-two 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 theater. 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; TRU 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 and a Director-Writer Communications Lab; programs for actors include an Annual Combined Audition, scheduled for April 5th and 6th this year, and quarterly Resource Nights and "Speed Dating" as well as free monthly actor workshops, in partnership with Weist-Barron Studios.

Built in 1907 and converted into a theatre in the late 1940's, the Players Theatre, host of the monthly TRU panels, has been a jewel in the midst of beautiful Greenwich Village, serving as a magnet for performing artists and their audiences. The mainstage theatre has been home to such long run productions as An Evening with Quentin Crisp, Psycho Beach Party and Ruthless starring an 8 year old Brittany Spears, Natalie Portman and Legally Blonde the Musical's Laura Bell Bundy. The Steve & Marie Sgouros Theatre, a 60-seat loft space on the 3rd floor offers an intimate home for TRU's panels, as well as a range of new works. For more information, visit www.theplayerstheatre.com.

For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit www.truonline.org or call (212) 714-7628.