Theater Resources Unlimited to Host Writer-Producer Speed Date, THE ART OF THE PITCH

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) presents the Writer-Producer Speed Date, The Art of the Pitch, on Sunday, March 20, 2016 at 5:30pm and 6:30pm at NOLA Rehearsal Studio, 250 W. 54th St., 11th fl., NYC. If accepted into the program, the cost is $65 for TRU members and $75 for non-members (and yes, you can always join as a member to qualify for the discount - we'd like that).

To Apply: Visit truonline.org/events/speed-date to download an application. Email completed application to TRUStaff1@gmail.com. Evening limited to 22 writers, deadline to apply is March 11, 2016. We will judge your application based on the viability of the project, your experience as a writer, prior development of the project and the specific interests of the participating producers.

You meet a producer at a party, and have two minutes to interest him in your work. Do you have the skill to sell yourself? Here's a chance to practice your pitching with real producers who are open to and looking for new work. Okay, they probably won't option you on the spot, but you'll meet them and have the opportunity to start developing a relationship. And that's what this business is all about. Relationships.

We'll have eleven producers lined up, from both the commercial and not-for-profit worlds, all with an interest in new projects; we also may have eleven aspiring producers from our Producer Development program. So you'll be pitching to as many as 22 producers in total!]

March producer lineup includes:

- Frank Calo - indie producer and director (The Believer, Here and There, The Cookout);

- Ed Gaynes - producer (Cougar the musical, Zero Hour, Black Angels Over Tuskegee, Fried Chicken and Latkes), theater owner St. Luke's, Actors Temple;

- Jeremy Handelman (producer On the Town, White's Lies, F#@king Up Everything),

- Michael Leland (Indie Director & Producer, upcoming in 2016: For Colored Girls...),

- Will Trice (Producer, All the Way, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Porgy & Bess...),

- Tom Polum (Producer, The Toxic Avenger, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, All Shook Up),

- Ken Waissman (Producer, Grease, Torch Song Trilogy, Agnes of God),

- Cheryl Wiesenfeld (Producer, The Heidi Chronicles, Rocky, Legally Blonde,Tony Awards for: All the Way, Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike, The Gershwin's Porgy & Bess, Elaine Stritch: At Liberty),

- Frank Zuback (Frank Zuback Productions, Moolah)

- Plus 3 more to be announced!

Come with a willingness to learn, because the real value is the chance to practice your pitching. And you'll be getting invaluable coaching from experts, as well, including Gillien Goll and Michael Ian Cedar. And did we mention the wine and cheese afterwards?

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is 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 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 and a Director-Writer Communications Lab; programs for actors include the Annual Combined Audition and quarterly Resource Nights and "Speed Dating" as well as free 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 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.??