TRU to Host Weekend Intensive for Showcase Producing This Month

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) presents their annual Producer Boot Camp: Weekend Intensive for Showcase Producing on Saturday, April 29, 2017 and Sunday, April 30, 2017 from 10am-6pm at Nola Studios, 244 W. 54th Street, 11th floor Studio C. For full details of curriculum and faculty, visit truonline.org/events/weekend-intensive-2017.

If you're going to produce or self-produce, do it right, do it smart, do it cost-effectively. Learn the ins and outs from experts with this once-a-year weekend workshop that offers basic and not-so-basic training for producers, geared to those producing at the in-the-trenches reading and Equity Showcase level. And with particular application for those planning to produce in the upcoming summer festivals. It's called a "Boot Camp" but TRU will help your transform an uphill battle into a victory.

You will meet a phenomenal lineup of experts including keynote speeches from Broadway producers Cheryl Wiesenfeld (4-time Tony winner for Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike, Porgy & Bess, All the Way, Elaine Stritch: At Liberty) and Cody Lassen (Indecent, Significant Other, The Band's Visit). The intensive will cover everything from Legal Requirements to Production Timeline and Budgeting to Raising Money and Marketing. Every aspect of showcase producing is broKen Down into easy-to-understand step-by-step modules, including a discussion of the differences between producing in a festival and producing on your own. Which is the best route for your project? Which will make you the most profit?

"I am very grateful to you and everyone at TRU for an extraordinary boot camp experience. The speakers hit the mark 90 percent of the time - which is an extraordinary percentage. [They] clarified so many areas of concern that it felt like you were reading my mind." - Judith Estrine, Prism Theatre Company

"It was a great weekend. Very well-planned and comprehensive." - Tom Rowan, casting director, writer.

"Not only am I amazed by how much I've learned but also how organized you are and most importantly how genuinely NICE you, the guests and the other 'students' are. So professional and open to everyone. You should be so proud of what you have shared and accomplished for so many in such a diplomatic, kind and encouraging and inspirational way. I wish I had found you and TRUtwenty years ago. You've made me believe in myself again, in others again, and in theater again!" - Antonia Kasper, writer

IF YOU GO:
Cost: $270 for non-member (early bird $210 before April 15th); $225 for TRUmembers (early bird $175 before April 15th). Membership/Workshop Package: $290 ($245 before April 15th).
Second attendee: $100. FESTIVAL SPECIAL: registrants accepted into Planet Connections, MITF, Dream Up, NYMF or other festivals take $20 off (email TRUStaff1@gmail.com for code)

Please download and fill out application at truonline.org/weekend-intensive-2017.

Visit website at truonline.org/weekend-intensive-2017 for details for the following curriculum, and speaker bios:

Saturday, April 29, 2017

9:30-10am - coffee and pastries/bagels
10:00 - keynote speaker: Cody Lassen
10:15-10:45 - "Clarifying Your Goals: Why Are You Producing This?" with producers Patrick Blake and Patricia Klausner.
10:45-11:30pm -"What You Need to Know Before Asking for Money" with attorney Erach Screwvala.
11:45-12:30pm - "Legal Schmegal: Contracts, Options, Underlying Rights and More" with attorney Eric Goldman.
12:30-1:00 -"Producing Published Works: Licensing Made Painless"

1:00-2:00 - LUNCH

2:00-2:30 - "Project Management: Setting Timelines, Managing Teams, Defining Outcomes" with financial advisor and producer Bailie Slevin.
2:30-3:15 - "Creative Fundraising (Please Don't Put It on Your Credit Card!)" with Bailie Slevin.
3:30-4:15 - "Union Codes & Contracts: Equity, SDC, DG, 802".
4:15-5:15 - "Producing Smart: Fringes and Festivals, or On Your Own?" moderated by TRU president Bob Ost, with producer Jeremy Handelman and others.
5:30pm-6:00pm - networking reception

Sunday, April 30, 2017

9:30-10am - coffee and cake/bagels
10:15-10:45 - "Putting Together Your Production Team" with John Lant, technical director of Carnegie Hall.
10:45-11:15 - "How to Find (and Book) the Right Space" with John Lant.
11:30 -12:30 - "Watching Your Figures: Putting Together a Smart Budget"

12:30-1:30 -"LUNCH

1:30-2:00 - "How to Run an Efficient Audition, and When, Why and How to Use a Casting Director" with casting director Jamibeth Margolis.
2:00-2:30 - "Box Office and Ticketing Options" with Dan Irwin.

2:30-2:45 - BREAK

2:45-3:30 - "Finding Your Audience: An Overview of Marketing" with Jay Michaels of Jay Michaels Arts & Entertainment.
3:30-4:15 - "The Essentials of Successful PR" with Joe Trentecosta of JTPR.
4:30-5:15 - "Next Steps: What Happens After That Showcase (and How to Prepare)?" moderated by 4-time Tony winner Cheryl Wiesenfeld.
5:15: - Keynote speaker: Cheryl Wiesenfeld
5:30-6:00pm - networking reception

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 TRUunderwrites 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. TRUserves 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 Legislatureand 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.