Industry Panel 'New Trends in Marketing for the Art' Held at Players Theatre March 7

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU), Audience Extras and Back Stage present the industry panel New Trends in Marketing for the Arts and Effective Uses of the Internet on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 7:30pm at The Players Theatre Mainstage, 115 MacDougal Street (below W. 3rd Street), NYC.

The internet has become an essential tool for marketing all businesses these days, but not everyone knows how to use it effectively. This upcoming TRU industry panel will delve into the importance of a web presence and what goes into a well-designed website, secrets of successful e-commerce sites, techniques for driving people to your web page, social networking do's and don'ts, and how inter-active marketing has changed the way we all do business. The panel will also cover the relative costs of marketing through the internet, and what else you might need to drive your ticket sales.

Panelists will include Jim Glaub, Creative Director of Art Meets Commerce; Zach Overton, VP of Sales for Plum Benefits, former Director of Marketing for Broadway.com; and others to be announced.

Doors open at 7:00pm for networking and refreshments, panel starts promptly at 7:30pm. FREE for TRU members; $12 for non-members. Please call at least a day in advance for reservations: 212/714-7628; or e-mail TRUnltd@aol.com. The panel will be co-moderated by Sherry Eaker, editor-at-large of Back Stage.

TRU was founded in 1992 to promote a spirit of cooperation and support within the general theater community by providing information and a variety of entertainment-related services and resources that strengthen the business capability of producing organizations, individual producers, self-producing artists and other theater professionals. The company holds monthly seminars on a wide range of subjects important to theatrical producers and artistic directors conducted by panels of experts from both the commercial and not-for-profit segments of Broadway, Off-Broadway and the motion picture industry. These educational forums have been a core program of TRU since its inception, and in recent years executive director Ost has partnered with Ms. Eaker to generate topics of interest to both TRU membership and Back Stage readers. "Through TRU, Back Stage is able to reach beyond its actor base to a wider theater community," said Ost, "and we get more visibility through the Back Stage connection."

Panel sponsor Audience Extras (AE) is a "papering" system that was established by Mr. Peter Copani and his son John-Vincent to benefit the Performing Arts in innovative ways, by screening for responsible, dependable and discreet people to put in an empty seat when a producer needs extra audience; and by distributing "paper" complimentary tickets in a way that can develop future audiences, on a "free sample" introductory basis.

The historic Players Theatre is a landmark theater on Macdougal Street, a space for New York performances and rehearsals and the home to TRU. The building includes, a main stage 248 seat Off Broadway theatre, a 50 seat Off Off Broadway black box theatre, four rehearsal studios, an office suite for arts organizations and the famous Cafe Wha?, which has been a Greenwich Village mainstay since the 1960's. Built in 1907 and converted into a theatre in the late 1940's, The Players Theatre has been a jewel in the midst of beautiful Greenwich Village, serving as a magnet for performing artists and their audiences. The theatre has been home to such long run productions as An Evening with Quentin Crisp, Psycho Beach Party and Ruthless starring an 8yr old Brittany Spears, Natalie Portman and Legally Blonde the Musical's Laura Bell Bundy.

TRU also publishes a monthly email community newsletter of services, goods and productions. In addition, TRU served as the umbrella organization for a co-production by several of its member companies as a part of the first annual New York Fringe Festival. From that experience, the organization has expanded its production efforts by creating the TRU VOICES Annual New Play Reading Series and the TRU VOICES Annual New Musicals Reading Series in which TRU underwrites developmental readings of new works for theater. In 2001, TRU began giving annual scholarships to The Commercial Theater Institute, to encourage the development of aspiring producers, created a Producer Mentoring Program whose mentors are among the most prominent producers and general managers in New York theater, and presents Producer Boot Camp workshops to help aspirants develop the business skills they need. In March '08, TRU was associate producer of its first Equity showcase, Missives at 59E59 Theatre, a play that was developed in the 2006 TRU reading series. TRU programs for actors include an Annual Audition Event, Resource Nights and "Speed Dating" as well as free monthly actor events, including workshops.

Programs of Theater Resources Unlimited are supported in part by public funds awarded through the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, as well as generous support from the Friar's National Foundation Association.

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