TRU & The Players Theatre Host 'BALANCING THE BOOKINGS' Panel Today

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) presents the February panel, Balancing the Bookings: Producing Off-Broadway, a Theater Owner's Perspective, tonight, February 26, 2015 at 7:30pmat The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, 3rd Floor Loft Theatre, NYC. Doors open at 7pm for networking and refreshments; the presentation starts at 7:30pm.

Panelists will include: Darren Lee Cole, artistic director of the Soho Playhouse; Edmund Gaynes, producer and theater owner (The Theatre at St. Lukes and The Actors Temple), principal Gaynes Theatrical Booking; John Lant, artistic director Write Act Rep, general manager Elektra Theatre and Times Square Arts Center.

Managing and booking product from the theater owner's perspective: how a venue balances its own projects with productions they rent to, what they look for, and what sorts of deals are available. What are some of the successful tactics they use to keep their theaters going? What are the advantages of booking space with different venues? How has off-Broadway changed over the last ten years, and how have theaters adapted to the change? We'll also explore current models of producing off-Broadway, including split week runs, and discuss what a venue expects of you (and what you should reasonably expect of a venue).

Admission is $12 (free for TRU members). Please RSVP at least a day in advance (or much sooner) for reservations: 212/714-7628; or e-mail TRUStaff1@gmail.com. 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 half-minute summary of who you are, and what you need.

Built in 1907 and converted into a theatre in the late 1940's, the Players Theatre, host of the monthly TRU panels, has been a jewel in the midst of beautiful Greenwich Village, serving as a magnet for performing artists and their audiences. The mainstage theatre has been home to such long run productions as An Evening with Quentin Crisp, Psycho Beach Party and Ruthless starring an 8 year old Brittany Spears, Natalie Portman and Legally Blonde the Musical's Laura Bell Bundy. The Steve & Marie Sgouros Theatre, a 60-seat loft space on the 3rd floor offers an intimate home for TRU's panels, as well as a range of new works. For more information, please visit www.theplayerstheatre.com.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is a twenty-two 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 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, a Director-Writer Communications Lab and How to Write a Musical That Works; 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.

Programs of Theater Resources Unlimited are supported in part by public funds awarded through the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA); the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, 9th district Council Member Inez Dickens; and The Montage Foundation.

For more information about TRU membership and programs, visitwww.truonline.orgor call (212) 714-7628.