Theater Resources Unlimited Submissions Open For TRU Voices New Plays Reading Series Submissions Due January 12

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is accepting submissions for the TRU Voices New Plays Reading Series. For information, submission guidelines, and to apply, please visit https://truonline.org/2019-play-guidelines/.Submission fee is free for TRU members, $25 for non-members. Submission deadline is January 12, 2019 (with a one-week extension for TRU members and plays that are submitted with a producer attached).

TRU will produce a New Plays Reading Series in June 2019 that will consist of 2-3 selected new works presented on Monday evenings at an Off-Broadway venue with 120 seats or more. Created to nurture producers as well as writers, TRU VOICES seeks producer-driven projects, and also matches writers with producers. Each reading is followed by a "Dollars and Sense" panel discussion with prominent New York producers, general managers and artistic directors focusing on potential venues, marketing and budgeting of the work.

TRU welcomes a diverse range of new works, as long as they are full length (minimum of 80 minutes), and have not been performed in front of a paying audience in the New York area. According to TRU executive director Bob Ost, "We are equally interested in commercial works and the non-traditional and unconventional, and we have a special interest in finding works with multi-cultural significance."

"I direct a lot of these readings. But the event last night (and the whole experience) had to have been one of the most helpful, well thought out, useful readings I've ever been a part of."
~Jeremy Dobrish, director (Hell Hole Honeys)

What a night! We were all thrilled with the outcome of the reading, and there was some interest from some of the panelists to continue discussion about the play's next steps, so we're very excited about that opportunity. Great series! ~Frank Avellino, producer (Jasper)

Thank you so much for including Ego Actus in your TRU Voices Reading Series. It was a wonderful and informative experience for us. The panel discussion was very insightful and things we learned there will inform a lot of our decisions going forward, both on Adele's Way and future projects. ~Bruce A! Kramer, producer (Adele's Way)

"We have built an impressive record of shows being optioned for development right out of our series," notes TRU Literary Manager Cate Cammarata. "Early on, The Great American Trailer Park Musical went on to play off-Broadway. Taxi to Jannah and Missives were both at 59e59. More recently, Echoes of Octavia and Hummingbirds from 2015 were optioned by our series producers.The Assignment from 2017 moved off-Broadway and just completed a run at Luna Stage in New Jersey. And this past year Radio Galaxy was optioned for development by one of our talkback panelists."

Other musicals that got a leg up in the TRU Voices Series include My Life is a Musical (2013) which is in development for commercial production and had a successful run at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor; Hell Hole Honeys (2006) was picked up by the Alleyway Theatre in Buffalo; and Saint Heaven (2005) played at The Stamford Center for the Performing Arts and the Village Theatre in Issaquah. Plays that have gone on to further productions also include The Forgetting Curve (2013) at the Bridge Repertory Theatre of Boston, Film Chinois (2008), published by Samuel French and presented by Pan Asian Repertory and Pied a Terre (2005), also published by Samuel French and produced on off-Broadway's Theatre Row.

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.