TRU to Host 'WHICH FESTIVAL AND WHY?' Panel This Month

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) and The Playroom Theatre present the TRU March Panel - Where Do I Fit In: Which Festival and Why? on Tuesday, March 21, 2017 at 7:30pm (doors open for networking at 7pm) at The Playroom Theater, 151 W. 46th Street, 8th floor, NYC 10036. For more details, visit truonline.org/events/which-festival.

The summer festival scene is a hotbed of opportunity for the development of new work. Which festivals provide the best environment for your production? How do you submit, and what are some of the secrets to giving your submission a competitive edge? Once accepted, what is expected of you? More importantly, what goals along your developmental path can you reasonably expect to achieve from a festival showcase? And how do you distinguish yourself in the marketplace so that once you build it, they really will come?

With panelists John Chatterton, founder of Midtown International Theatre Festival (MITF); Abby Judd, general manager Broadway Bound Theatre Festival; Jay Michaels, marketing and public relations for Midtown International Theatre Festival, Planet Connections and Spotlight-On Festival; Brock H. Hill, producing artistic director Planet Connections Theatre Festivity; Michael Scott-Price, artistic director Dream Up Festival at Theatre for the New City; Liz Ulmer, general manager NY Musical Festival (NYMF).

Doors open at 7:00pm for networking and refreshments, roundtable introductions of everyone in the room will start at 7:30pm - come prepared with your best one-minute summary of who you are, and what you need. Free for TRU members; $15 for non-members ($12.50 in advance online at truonline.org/which-festival). You may also reserve by phone at least a day in advance (or much sooner): 212-714-7628, or e-mail TRUStaff1@gmail.com.

The Playroom Theater, a small theater with a purpose on West Forty Sixth Street. Created by longtime theatrical producer Eric Krebs, The Playroom Theater features a 62-seat boutique theater, appropriate for rehearsals, readings, auditions, producers' presentations and workshop productions. Conceived of as an artists' workspace for writers, directors, composers, actors, producers and others committed to the professional theater arts and its industry. "The idea of The Playroom has grown out of my desire to create a small and financially manageable space in the heart of the theater district," commented Krebs. "I want this to be a place where industry professionals can pop over for a reading, a backer's audition or a small production of a work in progress." For more information on The Playroom Theater, call Adam Brunner at 212-967-8278.

Theater Resources Unlimited(TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a twenty-four 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 and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, 9th district former Council Member Inez Dickens; and with support from the Montage Foundation and the Friars National Association Foundation.

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