Theater Resources Unlimited Presents June Discussion On Festival Theatre

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) presents the June Panel, What It Takes to Run a Festival. (And What It Takes to Produce in One.) Thursday, June 13, 2019 at 7:30pm (networking at 7pm) at Polaris North Theatre, 245 W. 29th Street, 4th floor, NYC. This panel is free for TRU members; $12.50 for non-members in advance ($15 at door). Please reserve using the bright red reservation box at https://truonline.org/events/festivals-2/ or e-mail TRUStaff1@gmail.com.

With confirmed panelists Suzanna Bowling, producing manager for NYTheaterfest (Summerfest, Winterfest); Gene Fisch, Jr., festival director New York New Works Theatre Festival; West Hyler, producing artistic director of New York Musical Festival (NYMF); Lou Lopardi, executive director of Fresh Fruit Festival; Jay Michaels, publicist for Fresh Fruit Festival, Downtown Urban Theatre Festival, Planet Connections; Michael Scott-Price, artistic director Dream Up Festival at Theatre for the New City; others to be confirmed.

This panel will approach the festival scene from two different angles. First we'll hear the history, background and purpose of the festivals run by the guest speakers, how the producing environment perhaps has changed over the years and how their organizations adapted to maintain sustainability. Then we'll look at the festival scene as a hotbed of opportunity for the development of new work. Which festivals provide the best environment for your production? How do you submit, what are the deadlines, 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?

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 30-second summary of who you are, and what you need. Free for TRU members; $12.50 for non-members in advance ($15 at door). Please use the bright red reservation box on our web page, or email or phone at least a day in advance (or much sooner): e-mail TRUStaff1@gmail.com / phone 833-506-5550

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a twenty-six 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 taught by prominent producers and general managers in New York theater, and also presents Producer Boot Camp workshops to help aspirants develop business skills. 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.

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, as well as the Montage Foundation and the Leibowitz Greenway Foundation.

For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit www.truonline.org.