TRU Presents April Panel Via Zoom - SOLO STRATEGIES: FINDING YOUR STORY (AND THE PEOPLE WHO'LL WANT TO HEAR IT)

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) presents the April Panel Solo Strategies: Finding Your Story (and the People Who'll Want to Hear It) on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 via Zoom. Networking begins at 7pm and the panel starts at 7:30pm. Reserve a spot on the event page at https://truonline.org/events/solo-strategies/ or by emailing TRUStaff1@gmail.com and you will be put on a list to receive the Zoom link.

A message from Bob Ost, executive director of TRU:

"Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all TRU live events are being rescheduled while we wait for the all clear. To help bridge the gap of social distancing, this panel will be held virtually via Zoom. Email TRUStaff1@gmail.com to be added to the invitation list and join our community. Stay positive, test negative, be safe!"

In this time of required isolation, solo performance is uniquely positioned for effective virtual presentation. Solo performance guru and writer/director Gretchen Cryer will guide audiences through the creative journeys of five solo artists with whom she is working, including son Jon Cryer. We'll consider how an outside eye may be essential to help shape a story and find the universal truths in personal details, as well as bring out a dramatic arc that generates audience engagement and genuine drama. But ... writing and performing is only part of the picture. Most writers have a hard time embracing that marketing is also an art form creating a demand for a product through creative communication. Abby Stokes and guests will share guerilla marketing techniques -see marketing through a new lens and be shown how to think outside the box, identify and maximize a play's resources, along with step-by-step tools for organizing a strategic plan.

Speakers include director/writer Gretchen Cryer (I'm Getting My Act Together.., Obie-winning The Last Sweet Days of Isaac) and teacher of "Creating Your Own Solo Performance"; Jon Cryer, actor (Emmy winner for TV's Two and a Half Men, Lex Luthor in Super-girl; films Pretty in Pink, No Small Affair), writer (So That Happened); writer/actor Linda Manning (Perfect Love, Bite the Apple); writer/actor Brian Sheridan (I Was a Hot Monk, off-Broadway's Sirens of Titan); Abby Stokes, writer/actor (A Good Girl Doesn't), author of best-selling "Is This Thing On? A Friendly Guide to Everything Digital..."; and Steve Wruble, singer/songwriter and storyteller (Escape from Daddyland) and co-author of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.

Zoom room opens at 7:00pm for networking and roundtable introductions of attendees - come prepared with your best 20-second summary of who you are, and what you need. Panel starts at 7:30. Free for TRU members; pay what you can, everyone else - to keep TRU up and running (and yes, you may click the button for a free ticket). Please use the bright red reservation box on our web page, or email TRUStaff1@gmail.com

to be put on the invite list. (Note: Zoom space is limited so RSVP early.)

Gretchen Cryer is most well-known for writing the book and lyrics and starring in I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road (with music by Nancy Ford), which won the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Musical, Best Actress, and a Grammy nomination for the album. Cryer has written numerous other shows with Nancy Ford: Now Is the Time for All Good Men (Lortel Theatre), The Last Sweet Days of Isaac (Obie Award -Best Musical, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award), Shelter (Golden Theatre), Hang On to the Good Times (Manhattan Theatre Club), Eleanor (Williamstown), The American Girls Revue (American Girl Place - Chicago, New York, Los Angeles), Circle of Friends (American Girl Place - Chicago and New York,) and Anne of Green Gables (Theaterworks USA). Cryer has also won acclaim for her course, "Creating Your Own Solo Performance." She has directed and developed dozens of solo performance pieces that have evolved into fully realized works, seen on stages across the country. She is on the Dramatists Guild Council and is President Emeritus of the Dramatists Guild Fund.

Jon Cryer has been a professional actor since he was four years old. He earned two Emmy Awards for his work as 'Alan Harper' on the CBS hit comedy Two and a Half Men and most recently, portrayed the ultimate villain, Lex Luthor, on the CW's Super- girl. Cryer initially gained attention on the big screen opposite Demi Moore in No Small Affair, followed by his iconic performance as the endearing misfit, Ducky Dale, in John Hughes' Pretty in Pink. Other film credits include Hot Shots, Hiding Out, and will soon be seen opposite Pete Davidson in Big Time Adolescence.

Linda Manning is a playwright, screenwriter, and actor. She has written five full length plays, including Bite the Apple (2019 Finalist for the Kentucky Women Writers Prize; staged reading at TheaterLab NYC 2016; produced as part of the NY International Fringe Festival, 2012). She has co-written and acted in two short films and has won multiple awards for her writing.

Brian Sheridan has appeared Off-Broadway in Sirens of Titan (directed by David Cromer) and in various onscreen projects on Amazon Prime, Lifetime, NBC, and CBS.

Abby Stokes is the best-selling author of "Is This Thing On?" A Friendly Guide to Everything Digital for Newbies, Technophobes, and the Kicking & Screaming helping more than 300,000 Digital Immigrants (those over 40 who were not born with a key- board or a mouse in their hand) cross the digital divide. Stokes studied theatre at the O'Neill Theatre Center, performed off-off Broadway as well as in comedy clubs, did extra work in film and television, industrials, and voiceovers and founded and was Artistic Director of an improvisation company At A Moment's Notice.

Steve Wruble is an accomplished singer-songwriter and storyteller. He has won the Moth StorySLAM and performs standup comedy in NYC and Berlin. He is also co- author of the New York Times best-selling book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, where he wrote a chapter called, "Trump's Daddy Issues - A Toxic Mix for America." In addition, Wruble is a board-certified child and adult psychiatrist in private practice.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a twenty-seven-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, goods and productions; 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 Vices Play Reading Series, Writer-Producer Speed Date, a Practical Playwriting Workshop, How to Write a Musical That Works and a Director-Writer Communications Lab; programs for actors include the Annual Combined Audition.

Programs of Theater Resources Unlimited are supported in part by the Montage Foundation and the Leibowitz Greenway Foundation.

For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit www.truonline.org.