2018 TRU Voices New Plays Reading Series Announced

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) announces The 2018 TRU Voices New Plays Reading Series, with Jasper on June 11, 2018 at 7pm and Adele's Wayon June 18, 2018 at 7pm at the Soho Playhouse, 15 Vandam St., New York, NY. Tickets are free, but RSVP is required. RSVP by emailing TRUVoicesSeries@gmail.com, or by calling 212-714-7628.

The 2018 TRU Voices New Plays Reading Series is the 19th annual series of new plays by TRU writers produced by TRU producers, followed by the panels on producing, "Dollars and Sense" featuring prominent commercial producers, artistic directors and general managers. Reservations required: 212-714-7628, or email TRUStaff1@gmail.com.

"It is interesting each year to see themes emerge from our submissions, and often a pervasive tone that seems to reflect what is happening in the world around us," notes TRU Literary Manager Cate Cammarata. "This year we were surprised - although we probably shouldn't have been - to see an increase in plays with a serious, often somber tone. We ultimately chose two of those that deal bluntly with issues of life and death, from two dramatically different perspectives. We are proud to support these thought-provoking new works, and look forward to seeing how, in the coming year, our world continues to shape the vision of our writers."

Monday, June 11, 2018 at 7pm

Jasper, by Grant MacDermott, Directed by Katie McHugh, Produced by Frank Avellino/Boz and the Bard Productions, Inc.

Jasper is about a married couple with a severely disabled 8-year-old child whose time is running out. Indeed, the original prognosis was that Jasper wouldn't live to be a toddler, but due to the care and dedication of his parents, he's survived. As the boy's condition worsens, parents Drew and Andrea must begin to consider the fact that Jasper may soon die. On a subway ride home from work, Drew meets Shayla, a successful, attractive, single mother of an adorable, healthy 4-year old boy named Tyler, and Drew begins to see in Tyler the father-and-son relationship he craves but has never had, nor can ever have, with Jasper. This unique, heart-melting story about family, loss, betrayal, and redemption, asks the question: how far will a parent go to feel the love of a child, even if it's not his own?

Grant MacDermott is a playwright and professional actor. Some of his other plays include Kings Richard (Boston Theater Marathon); Sit Down, Daisy(Nylon Fusion Theater); What Men Do Alone on Islands (Heart & Dagger Come As You Are Festival); 10 Reasons Why Hamlet is Totally Gay (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), and Dinner now published by Indie Theater Now after being developed and performed by Project Y Theater in New York City. Grant has been a member of the Interim Writer's Writing Accomplice in Boston and the Project Y Playwrights' Collective, and Athen Theater Writing Collective in New York City. His play, An Independent of Race and the Brain, was a semi-finalist at the 2014 Eugene O'Neill Playwrights' conference and the 2015 PlayPenn Conference and his play without you but also with you too as well was a semi-finalist for PlayPenn in 2017.

Director Katie McHugh is the Founding Director of the Southeastern Teen Shakespeare Company, Co-Founder of the Teen Shakespeare Conservatory, as well as the Artistic Director at Yonder Window Theatre Company (YWTC). Some of Katie's directing credits in NYC include Medea(New School for Drama), and The List by Jennifer Tremblay (NY Fringe 2012, Winner of Overall Excellence in a Solo Performance). In Mexico, Katie has directed The List(Fringe SMA) and Waiting for Goddreau preceded by Shut up Kathleen by Sebastian David (Fringe SMA). Katie's theatre company, YWTC, made its maiden voyage in 2017 with a multidisciplinary, multi-cultural, tri-lingual production called The Dream Project,at Muvart art gallery, SMA, Mexico. Since its maiden voyage Katie has produced and directed three more shows under the YWTC banner: PLACES at NYC's 59E59Theatre's East to Edinburgh Festival, then at The New Town Theatre in Edinburgh where it was performed 24 times; The House on Poe Street by Fengar Gael at the 14th Street Y Theatre, NYC, and The Dream Project 2.0, (the next development phase of this 5-year project), which was held at the GK Art Center in Brooklyn, NY March 2018. Katie is a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women, and received her MFA directing, The New School for Drama. www.yonderwindow.co

Boz and the Bard Productions, Inc. was founded by Frank Avellino and Steve Hess and named in honor of their two favorite writers - Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare. The works of these men have spanned generations and still resonate with that which lies at the core of all humans. It is stories such as these that Boz and the Bard are excited to bring to life on the stage. Boz and the Bard produced the original Off Broadway play, Dead Dog Park, by Barry Malawer, in association with BEDLAM. It was directed by Eric Tucker (artistic director, BEDLAM) at 59E59

Monday, June 18, 2018 at 7pm

Adele's Way, by Dennis Porter, Directed by Joan Kane

Seventy-year old Adele, a distinguished feminist academic and an advocate of rational choice suicide, has taken her own life. At the up-country farmhouse retreat she had long shared with her husband Tim, he is joined after the memorial service by their daughter Rebecca, their son Jeff and their daughter-in-law Lily. Haunted by the potent and combative personality of the absent Adele, the four of them grieve, reminisce, and struggle to come to terms with the shocking event. Through a series of emotionally charged, often tender and occasionally fierce encounters, they seek to understand the impact of her violent death on each of them individually; on their relations with each other; and for the provocative message it sends to a Western society whose demographics are undergoing an unprecedented tilt toward high old age. Adele's Way is scheduled for a showcase presentation in the upcoming Broadway Bound Theatre Festival in August in Manhattan.

A graduate of Cambridge University (BA) and U.C., Berkeley (PhD), Dennis Porter is a reformed academic long based in Amherst, Massachusetts. The author of books on European and U.S. literature and culture (Pursuit of Crime, Yale; Haunted Journeys, Princeton; Rousseau's Legacy, Oxford), he now devotes his writing life exclusively to works for the stage. His plays in a variety genres (from manic farce to psycho-political drama) have received major awards, typically with festival productions or staged readings including full-length Rainbow with Strings (John Gassner Award, Boston); All the Rest (Julie Harris Competition, Beverly Hills Theatre Guild); Adele's Way (HRC Showcase Theatre, Hudson, NY and Capital Stage, Sacramento, CA); Surprised by Love, (translation of Marivaux comedy at Remy Bumppo Theatre, Chicago); Let Them Eat Proust (finalist National Arts Club, Manhattan);Americana (O'Neill Conference, semi-finalist); Sex-Wise (Provincetown Theatre 2012); plus the one-acts Between Men (Dubuque Competition and Midtown International Theatre Festival); Bragging Rights (finalist, Tennessee Williams Contest and Last Frontier Conference, Valdez); Set Piece (Pittsburgh New Works and Provincetown Theatre); Like a Scream (First Stage, Los Angeles).

Joan Kane (director) is the founding Artistic Director of Ego Actus and directed I Know What Boys Want at Theatre Row, Six Characters in Search of an Author in Oslo, Norway and Kafka's Belinda in Prague. She also directed both Safe and what do you mean at 59E59 Theaters and in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, getting four star reviews for each. Joan was awarded Best Director in the 2016 United Solo Festival was named to the Indie Theatre Hall of Fame by nytheatre.com. She has also directed plays and readings for the Lark Play Development Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the NY Fringe Festival, Theater for the New City, Urban Stages, the Bleecker St Theater, the Workshop Theater, Nylon Fusion, Abingdon Theatre, Oberon Theatre, the Samuel French Short Play Festival, the Midtown International Festival, The Players Club, the Lambs Club and The Actors Studio. Joan has an MFA in Directing from The New School, an MS in Museum Education from Bank Street College and is a member of The New York Madness Company, the Dramatists Guild, the League of Professional Theatre Women and the Society of Stage Directors & Choreographers.

Bruce A! Kraemer (producer) is the producer of all Ego Actus shows. He wrote what do you mean which played at 59e59 Theater and in the 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. His Identity Paper was in the 2016 United Solo Festival and he co-wrote Kafka's Belinda which played in the 2015 Prague Fringe Festival and was nominated for an Inspiration Award. He has done lighting design for Roundabout Theatre and Soho Rep and has designed shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Ensemble Studio Theatre, 59E59 Theaters, the NYC Fringe, Theatre Row, and many others. Bruce also does TV and event lighting, audio, technical direction, stage management, production intercom and RF coordination. He has done one or another of those for the Summer and Winter Olympics, the Paralympics, the World Cup, two Papal visits, three Superbowls, the Commonwealth Games, the Goodwill Games, six Tony Awards, the Grammys, three Video Music Awards, the WNBA All Star Game, the NBA All Star game, the NBA Draft, four NFL Drafts, the MLB Draft, ten Christmas Tree Lightings at Rockefeller Center, on Broadway, off Broadway, off off Broadway, for dance, fashion shows, art installations and hundreds of corporate events.

This series made possible with public funds from New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Thanks also to the generous support of The Montage Foundation and the Leibowitz Greenway Foundation.

Visit truonline.org for a full calendar of upcoming events! Join TRU June 10th for their annual Tony Party!

* "Winning Ways: The Meaning of Theater Awards" panel - Thursday 6/28 - click here

* TRU Tony Award Party/Fundraiser - Sunday 6/10 - click here

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a twenty-five 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 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, How to Write a Musical That Works and a Director-Writer Communications Lab; programs for actors include the Annual Combined Audition, Resource Nights and "Speed Dating" as well as actor workshops.

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 the Montage Foundation.

For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit www.truonline.org or call 212 714-7628.