TRU and Back Stage Host Theater Education Panel Discussion 10/22

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) and Back Stage will host the networking panel, I’ll Create an Educational Program and I’ll Get Funding … Won’t I?, on Wednesday, October 22 at 7:30pm at The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street (below W. 3rd Street), NYC.

Panelists include Linda Ames Key, education director of Vital Theatre Company; Jan Hacha, managing director of Amas Musical Theatre; Michael Pizzi, artistic director of Touching Humanity; David Shookhoff, president of the arts in education roundtable and director of education for Manhattan Theatre Club; and Suzanne Von Eck, artistic director of Gilgamesh Theatre Group.

The panel’s focus is to inspire companies to create educational programming for the right reasons, to dispel the misconception that educational programs will solve funding woes, and to explain how to create a program that a donor will consider supporting.  Topics for discussion will include:

* contracts with the Department of Education,

* how educational programming ties into (or changes) a company’s mission,

* whether it is ever useful as a revenue stream, and

* the difficulties of administering an educational program

The panel will be co-moderated by Sherry Eaker, editor-at-large of Back Stage.  Doors open at 7:00pm for networking and refreshments, panel starts promptly at 7:30pm.  Admission is FREE for members of TRU; $12 for non-members.
 
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.”

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, and most recently created a Producer Mentoring Program whose mentors are among the most prominent producers and general managers in New York theater.  In March, 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 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.

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