TRU Now Accepting Submissions for 2012 New Musicals Reading Series

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is extending the submission deadline for the 2012TRU Voices New Musicals Reading Series to August 23 (for musicals without a producer) and August 30 (with a producer attached). Two to three musicals will be chosen and read on Mondays in December at a theater to be confirmed. Submission guidelines are available at www.truonline.org/Musicals12guidelines.htm.

The application is available at www.truonline.org/Musicals12application.htm.

Each reading will be followed by a reception and a "Dollars and Sense" panel with top industry professionals - commercial producers, general managers and artistic directors - who will discuss the further development of the show that is read. "Not only do we introduce audiences to new works, we also offer them an insider's look at the producing process," says TRU president Bob Ost.

The TRU Voices New Musicals Reading Series encourages submissions from emerging and established producers who are interested in testing the waters with a new work, and offers an opportunity for them to forge relationships with writers. TRU also accepts submissions from writers and tries to match them with a sponsoring producer for the series. Shows that started in the series include Pied-à-Terre, which played off-Broadway at The Kirk, Theatre Row; The Great American Trailer Park Musical by Betsy Kelso and David Nehls, which enjoyed an off-Broadway run and is currently touring; Normal by Yvonne Adrian, Cheryl Stern and Tom Kochan, which played a limited run in fall '06 in the East Village starring Barbara Walsh and tours throughout the country; and Saint Heaven by Martin Casella and Keith Gordon, which has had successful runs at the Stamford Center for the Performing Arts and the Village Theatre in Issaquah WA. A finalist in the 2006 series, Missives by Garret Jon Groenvald, had a production at 59E59 Street Theatres directed by Elysabeth Kleinhans, and was well received and well reviewed; TRU was a co-producer with Animated Theatreworks and PlayGround.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is a twenty-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 theater. 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 whose mentors are among the most prominent producers and general managers in New York Theater; and also presents Producer Boot Camp workshops to help aspirants develop the business skills they need. TRU serves writers through a Writer-Producer Speed Date, a Practical Playwriting Workshop and a Director-Writer Communications Lab; programs for actors include an Annual Combined Audition and quarterly Resource Nights and "Speed Dating" as well as free monthly actor workshops, in partnership with Weist-Barron Studios. TRU's monthly panels have been a core program of TRU since its inception, and in recent years executive director Ost has partnered with Back Stage to generate topics of interest to both TRU members and Back Stage readers.

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 and programs, visit www.truonline.org or call 212-714-7628.