TRU Hosts First Meeting of Producer Development and Mentorship Program

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) celebrated the season's first meeting of the TRU Producer Development & Mentorship Program on Monday, September 23 at Langham Place, 400 Fifth Avenue in midtown New York City. The evening was an opportunity for 53 mentee members to meet and mingle with the program directors, producers Michael Alden (Becoming Dr. Ruth, The King's Speech on stage, Grey Gardens, Sarah Jones' Bridge & Tunnel, Bat Boy), Patrick Blake (The Exonerated, In the Continuum, Play Dead) and Patricia Klausner producing manager of Shotgun Productions and commercial producer (Pippin, The Trip to Bountiful, Stick Fly, The Scottsboro Boys), plus prospective mentors for the coming year who will guide and advise them on their producing goals.

The illustrious guests and mentors for the evening included an impressive roster of New York theater notables: Broadway producers Margot Astrachan (Nice Work If You Can Get It, On a Clear Day.... revival, Ghost the musical current tour), Van Dean of The Broadway Consortium (Porgy & Bess revival, Cinderella revival, Matilda, Evita revival, Bonnie & Clyde), Bruce Robert Harris (Pippin , Nice Work If You Can Get It, Clybourne Park, The Scottsboro Boys), R.K. Greene (Peter and the Starcatcher, Room Service, Cougar the musical), Michael Jackowitz (Pippin, How to Succeed... revival, The Best Is Yet to Come, Daddy Long Legs, Séance on a Wet Afternoon), Alia Jones-Harvey (The Trip to Bountiful revival, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof revival, Streetcar Named Desire revival), Meredith Lucio (Grace, The Gershwin's Porgy & Bess, Rooms: a Rock Romance), Jana Robbins (Little Women, I Love You Because..., Ragtime revival, Through the Night); producers/general managers David Elliott and Martin Platt of Perry Street Theatricals (Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike); theater owner/producer Ed Gaynes of The Actors Temple and Theatre at St. Luke's; writer-producer Dorothy Marcic (Sistas, Respect: A Musical Journey of Women), general manager Peter Bogyo (The Trip to Bountiful, Stick Fly, Time Stands Still, A Moon for the Misbegotten w/Kevin Spacey, Sly Foxw/Richard Dreyfus, Fortune's Fool, Madame Melville, The Unexpected Man) and attorney-producer Ben Feldman (Pippin).

Members of the Producer Development & Mentorship Program include career producers, self-Producing Artists, and individuals producing in the not-for-profit world. Membership is dependent upon an application and interview process. For details about the program, and how to apply next year, email TRUMentor@gmail.com. More information about the program is also available at www.truonline.org/PDMP2.htm.

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 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.

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

Pictured: (top) TRU program member Kathryn Jones pitches herself to the room and the invited guest mentors. Seated behind, from left to right: Martin Platt and David Elliott of Perry Street Theatricals, Alia Jones-Harvey of Front Row Productions, Dorothy Marcic, Ed Gaynes of the Theatre at St. Luke's and Actor's Temple, Margot Astrachan (hidden), Ben Feldman (hidden), Jana Robbins, program director Michael Alden, program director Patricia Klausner, Meredith Lucio and program director Patrick Blake. (side) Program mentors and guests at Langham Place, Monday evening 9/23. From left to right Z: Van Dean of The broadway Consortium, program director Michael Alden, R. K. Greene, Michael Jackowitz, Jana Robbins, David Elliott and Martin Platt of Perry STreet Theatricals, program director Patrick Blake, Ed Gaynes, program director Patricia Klausner, Bruce Robert Harris, Dorothy Marcic, Margot Astrachan, Ben Feldman, Meredith Lucio, Peter Bogyo, Eileen Weiss, Alia Jones-Harvey of Front Row Productions, TRU president Bob Ost. Photos by Studio 7 NYC Photography.