TRU Hosts Producing Opportunities Beyond New York Panel 2/17

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU), Audience Extras and Back Stage present the industry panel Producing Opportunities beyond New York: Fringe Circuits, Colleges, Arts Centers and More on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 7:30pm at The Players Theatre Mainstage, 115 MacDougal Street (below W. 3rd Street), NYC.

Think outside the New York box, and consider the advantages of being produced and seen around the country, even the world. The panel will discuss APAP (Association of Performing Arts Presenters), as well as APCA and NACA (the two college circuit conduits) and the Fringe circuit. How do you determiNe Your best markets, and how do you approach them and get booked? Who pays well, who barely covers expenses? What are they looking for? How do you budget, and do you adjust the budget to the market? How do you even start to put together a viable tour that at least pays your expenses, or possibly makes some money?

Panelists will include Nancy Holson, producer/writer (The News in Revue, Bush Wars, Parenting 101); Joshua Kane, writer-performer Wild Baboo Productions LLC (toured internationally with one-man shows, has created and performed works for major museums, arts centers and festivals, including the Smithsonian Museum, the Jewish Museum, the Peabody Museum at Yale, the Ridgefield Museum of Contemporary Art); Dorothy Leeds, writer-performer (has booked her one-woman show Good Lessons from Bad Women, around the country); Dorothy Marcic, writer (her musical Respect has played in 17 cities with over 2200 performances); Ronald Rand, writer-performer (currently tours across America and the world in his solo play, Let it Be Art! as Harold Clurman, founder and publisher of "The Soul of the American Actor," author of "Acting Teachers of America"); Virginia Scott, director-writer (Fringe tours, books shows regionally and in New York City, including The US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, The Theatre at Monmouth in Maine, The Comedy Central Theatre and UCB LA in Los Angeles; and internationally at The Guilded Balloon in Edinburgh, The Centaur Theatre in Montreal, the Grahamstown International Festival in South Africa and festivals throughout Canada).

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. Details of the upcoming TRU musicals series may be found at www.truonline.org/TRUMusicals.htm

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."

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.

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.