Theater Resources Unlimited Announces The 2019 TRU Voices New Plays Reading Series - 6/17-22

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) announces three winning plays for the The 2019 TRU Voices New Plays Reading Series: Passing Parades by Fengar Gael, The New Galileos by Amy Berryman, and Three Months with Pook by Jack Feldstein on Mondays, June 17- July 22, 2019 at 7pm at The Soho Playhouse, 15 Vandam Street, NYC. The readings are free but reservations are required: please email name and number of tickets requested to TRUVoicesSeries@gmail.com, or use the bright red ticketing box at the URLs below, at the end of each play description.

The 2019 TRU Voices New Plays Reading Series is the 20th annual series of new plays by TRU writers produced by TRU producers, followed by talkbacks that focus on producing and further development of the work presented: TRU's "Dollars and Sense" panels featuring prominent commercial producers, artistic directors and general managers. Series is executive produced by Bob Ost, administered by Literary Manager Cate Cammarata and Literary Associate Jessie Shinberg, with technical coordinator Kim Marie Jones. Reservations required. Visit the links for the individual plays - find the URL's below. Or email TRUVoicesSeries@gmail.com or call 833-506-5550.

"I think the theater community has been shaken by the cultural shifts in our country, and this is being reflected in the work of so many playwrights," noted TRU Literary Manager Cate Cammarata. "We had an overwhelming number of exciting, worthy submissions this year: an unprecedented 21 plays got high scores from our readers, which made the task of finding five finalists even more difficult than usual. One thing that emerged was a fascination with strong, brilliant women characters that defy society's expectations. We ultimately chose two of those plays, plus a funny and charming piece about a highly unconventional relationship."

Passing Parade by Fengar Gael, Monday, June 17th, at 7pm. Produced by Pat Flicker Addiss in association with Claudia Zahn, directed by Lorca Peress. Cast to include Broadway's Lauren Molina.

In Atlanta, Georgia, marchers have gathered for the Centennial Suffrage Parade. The Grand Marshal, Lily Pearl Rhodes, mounts the stage to join the organizers when a bomb explodes, maiming many, including Lily who is hospitalized in a coma. When she awakens, Lily claims to be Lydia Morgan Miles, a pioneer suffragist from Boston who died in a similar explosion in the year 1850. Lily's mother and fiancé are appalled at the surfacing of Lydia whose life appears to have been a wretched tale of illness, marital discord and thwarted ambitions. Lydia attempts to adjust to the technological advances of today's world and is the subject of much speculation until she disappears and becomes the object of a citywide search. An explosion of feminist fun and fury! Reserve at truonline.org/events/passing-parades.

Fengar Gael (Playwright): Fengar Gael has had workshops and/or productions at The New York Stage and Film Company, the Sundance Playwrights Lab, the Utah Shakespearean Festival, the InterAct Theatre of Philadelphia, New Jersey Repertory, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, the Salt Lake Acting Company, Moxie Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theatre, the Athena Project, Detroit Repertory, the Landing Theatre of Houston, and in New York City: MultiStages, Urban Stages, The Secret Theatre, The Spiral Theatre, CAP 21, Turn to Flesh Productions, Project Y Theatre, Yonder Window Theatre, Ego Actus Theatre and Playwrights Gallery. She is a recipient of the Craig Noel Award for Devil Dog Six, the Playwrights First Award for Opaline, Manhattan Theatre Works Award for The Draper; and commissions from South Coast Repertory, New Jersey Repertory, the InterAct Theatre, The Hangar Theatre, and a fellowship from the California Arts Council.

Pat Flicker Addiss (Producer): Pat is a native New Yorker, Finch graduate, who ran a promotion company, Pat Addiss Enterprises, for 30 years. Pat's Broadway credits include Little Women, Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life, Bridge & Tunnel, Spring Awakening, 39 Steps, Passing Strange, Promises Promises, A Christmas Story, Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike, Love Letters, Gigi, Eclipsed. Her Off Broadway credits include Award winning Desperate Measures, Dinner With The Boys, Buyer & Cellar, The Housewives of Mannheim. She is on the Boards of NJ REP& League of Professional Theatre Women, Legislative Council of Broadway League, Inspirational Speaker Women's Advocacy & "How to Reinvent Yourself" and is the founder of the YAYA dinners.

Claudia Zahn (Associate Producer): Claudia trained as an actor and director at Carnegie-Mellon University School of Drama (BFA) and Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts (MFA). She also studied in the NYU Certificate program in Arts Administration and at the Foundation Center in New York City. From 1998 to 2008, she was associate professor and Director of Opera and Musical Theater at the University of Washington School of Music in Seattle. Claudia has also directed at opera and musical theater companies throughout the country. From 2013 to 2015, Claudia was Managing Director and on the Board of Directors of the Malibu Playhouse. Since returning to NYC in 2016, she has worked as a producing and development consultant with Mango Baroque, as well as with Welcome Change Productions. She recently joined the Board of the York Theatre Company.

Lorca Peress (Director): Lorca specializes in developing new work, and is Founding Artistic Director of MultiStages. Upcoming: Ominous Men by Desi Moreno-Penson (MultiStages New Works Contest Winner, Fall 2019 at 14th Street Y Theatre). Selected Directing: Temple of The Souls (NYMF Next Link Project, Off-Broadway Acorn Theatre); Desi Moreno-Penson's Comida de Puta (F%&king Lousy Food), Fengar Gael's The Island of No Tomorrows, Theresa Rebeck's What We're Up Against (Life Force Arts), Nichole Thompson Adams' Black Girl You've Been Gentrified (Joe's Pub, Public Theatre), Leonard Bernstein's MASS, Bruce Saylor operas (QC-CUNY), Maya Contreras' Let the Devil Take the Hindmost (NY Fringe). Panelist: TRU, The Fire This Time Festival, No-Passports, NYU, CUNY. Playwrighting judge for contests including Repertorio Espanol Nuevas Voces. Faculty: NYU Tisch Strasberg Studio and Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Memberships: NTC, SDC, AEA, SAG-AFTRA, League of Professional Theatre Women (Co-President 2011-14), Creative Network founding member for Regional Office of Governor of Puerto Rico. Grants/Awards: 2019 Creative Engagement Grant (LMCC/DCA), NYMF 2017 Next Link Project, NYIT Nominations, HOLA Awards, MCAFs (LMCC/DCA), 2017 Cultural Award from Institute of Puerto Rico, Taino Areito Drama Award, National Opera Competition Prizes, Women in Arts & Media Coalition Collaboration Honorable Mentions, La MaMa INKY. She is a Bennington College and NTI graduate. Website: www.multistages.org

Lauren Molina (Actor): On Broadway Lauren played Johanna in John Doyle's revival of Sweeney Todd and Regina in Rock of Ages. Off-Broadway she co-starred in Sondheim's revival of Marry Me A Little (Drama League nomination), originated Bella Rose in Desperate Measures (Lortel and Outer critics nomination), originated Megan in Nobody Loves You at Second Stage. Most recently, she was co-conceiver of the new actor-instrument revisal of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, also playing Lucy at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Lauren has been seen at the Bucks County Playhouse in It's A Wonderful Life: A Radio Play, Meet Me in St. Louis: A Radio Play, and as Janet in The Rocky Horror Show. Regional favorites include Squeaky Fromme in Assassins (Yale Rep), Eileen in Wonderful Town (Goodman), Countess in A Little Night Music (Huntington), Cunegunde in Candide (Goodman, Huntington, Shakespeare Theatre - Helen Hayes Award), Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors(Cleveland Playhouse). She's co-creator and half of the acclaimed comedy-pop duo The Skivvies. www.LaurenMolina.com

The New Galileos by Amy Berryman, Monday, July 1st, at 7pm. Produced by Mightee Shero Productions, directed by Mia Walker. Three female scientists find themselves held hostage by the government for their stance on climate change. The play weaves between their current crisis and their pasts, leading them to an interrogation room where they are forced to reckon with the price of their freedom. Reserve at truonline.org/events/new-galileos

Amy Berryman (Playwright) is a writer and actor originally from Seattle. Her play Walden was the Runner Up in the 2019 Premiere Play Festival, as well as a selection at the 2019 Great Plains Theatre Conference and Title Wave Festival at Bay Street Theater. Her other full length plays include The New Galileos (O'Neill Finalist 2019, Playwrights Realm Fellowship Finalist 2018, Mach 33 Science Driven Plays Semi-Finalist 2019) and Three Year Summer. Her work has been developed with Portland Stage, Premiere Stages, Bay Street Theater, Nomad Theatricals, Caltech, Prop Thtr, Last Frontier Theatre Conference, and Barrington Collective. The short film she wrote, co-produced, and starred in, "You Are Everywhere" premiered in New York Shorts Fest and won "Best Short Drama" in the LA Short Film Festival. As an actor, she was recently seen off-Broadway in The Convent by Jessica Dickey with Rattlestick/Rising Phoenix Rep, Greg Kotis' play Lunchtime at the Brick in NYC, Erin Courtney's I Will Be Gone in the Humana Festival, and the web series #NoFilter. @amyrberryman

Mightee Shero Productions (Producer) is co-founded and led by Executive Producers Liz Mackintosh and Elyse Sholk who are committed to telling the stories of women and girls and providing an artistic platform for effecting change. Past productions include V-Day Taconic 2015, a reading of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues at Taconic Correctional Facility and a benefit performance at Cherry Lane Theatre; V-Day Taconic 2016, a prison and community tour of The Vagina Monologues to Taconic Correctional Facility, The Fortune Society, Edgecombe Residential Treatment Facility, and Queensboro Correctional Facility, as well as a benefit performance at Cherry Lane Theatre; Here To Be Seen: Women and Justice, an original theater piece produced in partnership with the Brooklyn DA's Kings County Re-Entry Task Force that engages the community in issues affecting women involved in the criminal justice system; Raquel Almazan's La Paloma Prisoner at Queensboro Correctional Facility and Greenhope Services for Women. Mightee Shero's work has been profiled in Women in the World in association with The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Quartz, Elite Daily, BRIC TV, and NY1. www.mighteeshero.com

Mia Walker (Director) develops and directs for theater, TV, and film. Mia was recently selected as the Drama League's TV Directing Fellow, for which she shadowed Director/ Executive Producer Tom Verica on the Shondaland/ ABC show For The People. Off-Broadway/Regional Theater directing credits include: Walden by Amy Berryman (Bay Street Theater, Premiere Stages); Storming Heaven (West Virginia Public Theatre); Hang Man by Stacy Osei-Kuffour (Multistages); All Nighter by Natalie Margolin (Fault Line); Into the Wild(Encore Theatre); Blind Date Project (Club Cumming); Normativity, Camp Wanatachi (NYMF); American Sexy by Trista Baldwin (The Flea, Resident Director); various projects with Youngblood (Ensemble Studio Theatre). Broadway/National Tour credits include: Tour Director, current National Tour of Finding Neverland and the recent National Tour of Pippin; Associate Director, Jagged Little Pill and Waitress; Assistant Director, The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, Pippin, and Finding Neverland. B.A. Harvard University. www.miapwalker.com

Three Months with Pook by Jack Feldstein, Monday, July 22nd, at 7pm.Produced by Xander Flynn Chauncey, directed by Ella Jane New. A play with music that tells the story of a gay man and lesbian who have a brief, heterosexual, love affair. As Xavier recalls his experiences, he uses the music of pop icon Melanie Safka. This psychologically incisive tale takes the audience on a joyous and healing adventure about the power of friendship and love in countering abuse. Reserve at truonline.org/events/3-months

Jack Feldstein (Playwright): Jack is an award-winning writer and neon animation filmmaker. His almost thirty neon animation films, including The Ecstasy of Gary Green, The Adventures of James Joyce and A Wondrous Filmabout Emma Brooks have screened worldwide from Lincoln Center and NY's Angelika Cinema to Rotterdam International Film Festival and Sydney International Film Festival. As a writer, his playscripts including A House Like Any Other, The Confessions of Peter McDowell and The Process have won prizes in Australia, Britain and the USA. His playscript of Three Months with Pook was a finalist in the BBC International Play Competition. His plays have been staged with many productions in Australia, New York and all over the USA. Falling in Love with Mr Dellamort, his first foray into the world of musical theater was produced in NYC in December 2017 at The Slipper Room. With songwriter, Rivky Grossman, he is also currently creating the new musical The Kingdom Of Vincent Grapelli. Originally from Australia, he lives in New York City and developed many of his plays at Workshop Theater in Midtown where he was an artist member.

Xander Flynn Chauncey (Producer): Xander's career in the arts has spanned more than 20 years as a producer, writer, director, actor, singer & dancer. No matter his role, Xander is a passionate storyteller and approaches the material from the inside out, connecting the emotional truth of the piece to his audience in every moment. As an actor, he trained in Meisner Technique with the legendary Bill Esper and has been seen in such favorites as Phantom, Cats, Beauty and the Beast and Titanic (Best Actor in a Musical, broadwayworld.com), as well as credits in film, TV, voice-overs and commercials. As a producer and director, Xander has created pieces for film, Off-Broadway, on cruise lines and in theme parks. He currently has multiple projects in various stages of production, including the new musical The Kingdom of Vincent Grapelli and his film The Molok, a modern fable featuring a 13-foot puppet! Xander is a proud member of Actor's Equity, AFTRA and SAG. He lives in Manhattan with his wife, Emily.

Ella Jane New (Director): Ella is a screenwriter & director based in NYC. She was born in Barbados and raised in Uganda, Kenya and England. Ella received her MFA from Goldsmiths, University of London, where she wrote and directed award-winning show Banquet of Chestnuts. Ella's theatre directing credit's include the NY premiere of Six Corners by Emmy Nominated Keith Huff (Mad Men, House of Cards, American Crime) and Falling in Love with Mr Dellamort by Jack Feldstein. Ella has written and directed short films, Earth Beneath My Feet and Sofie, which were nominated for Best Short and Best Script at festivals including, San Francisco Film Festival, Milan Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, Sydney World Film Festival and Glasgow Film Festival. In January 2018 Ella was chosen for Creative Minds Program/Sundance Institute, where she developed her script Car Battery. Ella received of a Women Make Movies Fellowship, for her 60 min documentary feature, The Global Village Project, following the lives of refugee teenage girls resettled in Atlanta. The doc was distributed via BBC Worldwide and Al Jazeera.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a twenty-six 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 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; 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; 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 a 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 public funds awarded through the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, as well as the Montage Foundation and the Leibowitz Greenway Foundation.

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