TRU Announces Casts, Directors for 2014 TRU VOICES Series, Beg. 1/13

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) announces the 2014 Musical Reading Series on Monday, January 13, Monday, January 20, and February 3, 2014 at 7pm at the Engelman Recital Hall, Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Ave, NYC.

Tickets are free and may be reserved by emailing TRUStaff1@gmail.com or phoning the TRU message line at 212-714-7628. Please note that Wild & Willful Women and Brindlebeast are already sold out, but are taking names for a waiting list. Reservations are still being taken for the third show in the series, Popesical. For more information, visit www.truonline.org/TRUMusicals.htm.

Each reading will be followed by a wine and cheese reception and "Dollars and Sense" panel discussion with prominent New York producers, general managers and artistic directors focusing on potential venues, marketing and budgeting of the works presented.

Monday January 13th, 7pm: producers Kimberly Eaton and Alan Swanke announce the cast of Wild and Willful Women, book and lyrics by Bill Rogers, music by Daniel Doss. This tale of love, lust ... and witchcraft will feature Mimi Bessette (Bonnie & Clyde, On the Twentieth Century, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas); Cole Burden (Les Miz, Applause, Fiction in Photographs); Al Foote (Jesus Christ Superstar, Hair, Macbeth, Henry V); Aaron David Gleason; Amber Iman (Nina Simone in Soul Doctor, currently nominated for a Clive Barnes award); Timatha Kasten; Tony LePage (Rock of Ages, originated the leading role in the Australian cast of Boy from Oz); Natalie Roy ("The Following," The Last Five Years, Lost in Love); and Ann Talman (The Women, Some Americans Abroad, The House of Blue Leaves, The Little Foxes).

When an intolerant Puritan minister suspects that women in his small New England village are becoming too free and independent, he launches an authoritarian campaign to make them behave. His strict religious reformation quickly runs into trouble. Three "wild and willful" women defy his authority by choosing for themselves who to love and how to live. The minister's son is caught in the middle. His father is convinced that the girl he loves is a witch... Does Peter dare defy authority to follow his heart? Directed by Kimberly Loren Eaton.

Monday January 20th, 7pm: producers Nathan Sheffield and Debbie von Ahrens/Fat Chance Productions announce the cast of Brindlebeast, book and lyrics by Anita Riggio, music by Sila Shaman. Directed by Emily Maltby, this new musical in voice and American Sign Language about love, healing and the creative process will feature Eric Kunze (Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, Damn Yankees); Alexandria Wailes (Big River, Mother Courage and Her Children/The Public Theatre); Emily Robinson (The Orphans' Home Cycle/The Signature Theatre); Terese Genecco; Kathy Voytko (Oklahoma!, The Pirate Queen, Next to Normal, The Frogs); James W. Guido; Bryan Seastrom; and Ann Talman (The Women, Some Americans Abroad, The House of Blue Leaves, The Little Foxes).

Brindlebeast blends spoken language and American Sign Language in a contemporary two act musical that braids together three strands: a love story between a hearing man who is a successful graphic novelist and a independent deaf single mother with a 14 year old girl; a story about confronting personal beasts; a chronicle of channeling that confrontation into the creative process of making a book. Directed by Emily Maltby,

Monday February 3rd, 7pm: producer Bailie Slevin announces the director and cast of Popesical, a papal musical comedy with book, lyrics & music by Adam Overett. The director will be Denis Jones (Williamstown Theatre Festival - A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; national tour of My Fair Lady and Damn Yankees; Off-Broadway, Coraline; Paper Mill Playhouse - High School Musical , Smokey Joe's Café, Meet Me In St. Louis, Damn Yankees). Additional casting will be announced shortly.

The Pope is dead, and the Cardinals gather in the Sistine Chapel to choose a new Pope. No one has ever seen what happens -- until now. The backbiting. The sacrilege. The song-and-dance. For whom will the white smoke rise? Overett was also in the 2012 TRU Voices series with My Life Is a Musical, which was optioned from the series and is currently in commercial development.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is a twenty-one 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; 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; TRU 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.

The Engelman Recital Hall at Baruch Performing Arts Center, is a 175-seat acoustically-sound concert hall located at 55 Lexington Avenue. The audience uses the entrance on E. 25th St. between Lexington & 3rd Aves. With near-perfect acoustics, it is a true gem. The NY Times chief classical music critic Anthony Tommasini called the Engelman Recital Hall "a perfect hall for chamber music (4/29/06)."

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 New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, 9th district Council Member Inez Dickens and Council Member Christine Quinn; The Montage Foundation, as well as 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.