Theater Resources Unlimited to Present TRU Producer Bootcamp: Essentials Of Successful Self-Producing

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) and CreateTheater.com invite you to a S.P.A. Day: a workshop created to help Self Producing Artists relax about producing. Join TRU Producer Bootcamp: Essentials of Successful Self-Producing, led by TRU Executive Director and writer-producer, Bob Ost. Come learn to view your creative work from a business perspective and understand the need to think differently. Make smarter choices, not only now but also for the future of your show. It all seems a little overwhelming at times, but we will break it down into easily digestible bites and help take away some of the stress. When you know what you're doing, it can actually be fun and fulfilling! Cost: $130, $85 for TRU members; sign-up at https://truonline.org/events/self-producing-2023/.

In this groundbreaking workshop we will look at how artists can successfully take on the challenging role of "producer" to generate their own opportunities. The ones who are most successful have to master a range of business skills, don a variety of hats, and learn to be expert jugglers.

The workshop, led by Bob Ost, will also feature guest speakers, including:

• Victoria Cairl, founder and CEO of Table 7 Strategy,
• dramaturg/director/producer Cate Cammarata of CreateTheater.com,
• Broadway and off-Broadway producer and actress Charlotte Cohn (Here Lies Love, Church and State),
• entertainment attorney Eric Goldman,
• CEO/founder of The Show Goes On productions, Emileena Pedigo, s
• elf-producing writers Jonathan Hogue (Stranger Sings!) and Nico Juber (Millennials Are Killing Musicals),
• and production advisor/strategist and producer Blair Russell (Slave Play, off-Broadway's long-running immersive Sweeney Todd), who also leads TRU's producer development program's Foundations of Producing.

Schedule:

11:45am Check-in

12:00-12:30pm Intro and "Why Are You Doing This?" with Bob Ost & Emileena Pedigo

12:30-1:15pm "Legal Pitfalls and Protections" with attorney Eric Goldman

1:15pm Break

1:30-2:30pm "Planning Ahead and Making it Happen" with producer Blair Russell

2:30-3:15pm "A Brief Overview of Marketing" with Victoria Cairl

3:15pm Break

3:30-4:15pm "Raise Money from Anyone, Anywhere for Any Project!" with Charlotte

Cohn

4:15-5:00pm "Finding & Creating Opportunities" with Cate Cammarata

5:00-5:45pm Keynote panel: "Successful Self-Producers Share Their Secrets" with

writers Jonathan Hogue (Stranger Sings!) and Nico Juber (Millennials Are

Killing Musicals)

5:45-6:30pm Q&A/Networking

About the Speakers:

Bob Ost

While still a senior at U. of Pa., his one-act Beast was produced by Bob Moss in the first season of Playwrights Horizons. He went on to write book, music and lyrics for the off-Broadway revue Everybody's Gettin' into the Act at the Actor's Playhouse, and Finale!, Grand Prize winner in the 1990 American Musical Theater Festival Competition (presented at NAMT) and the 1992 New American Musical Writers Competition, and a finalist at the O'Neill Music Conference in 1989. More recently his musical Angel in My Heart won Best Musical in the Fresh Fruit Festival. He won the New Works of Merit Playwriting Competition for his play Breeders, previously a finalist at the O'Neill, as well as a selection of the TRU Voices New Plays Reading Series. The Necessary Disposal was a finalist in the Maxim Mazumdar New Play Competition at the Alleyway Theatre in Buffalo, has been a finalist in three other national competitions, and was part of the Shotgun Productions New Play Reading Series and the Oberon Theatre Reading Series, both in NYC; his one-act A Glass of Water was part of the Lovecreek Festival, HomoGenius Festival, Downtown Urban Arts Festival; other one-acts have been showcased all over New York. He won a 2004 OOBR Award for the review Songs Are Like Friends, and is a 3-time MAC nominee. While he was producing his own musical revues at cabarets around Manhattan he discovered he could combine his artistic talent with the business skills he was picking up in the advertising world. The idea of Theater Resources Unlimited was born, with the help of co-founders (and fellow writers) Gary Hughes and Cheryl Davis in 1992. He has gone on to produce musicals Civil War Voices and Rip in the Midtown International Theater Festival, and the New York premiere of Romance of the Western Chamber, a musical adaptation of a Chinese play.

Victoria Cairl

Victoria Cairl has worked in the industry for over twenty years and brings her knowledge of advertising, marketing, sales, ticketing, and tourism to the table. She has held positions at Serino Coyne, TMG, Disney Theatrical, The Met Museum, Lincoln Center, and Show-Score. She has successfully run Table 7 independently since 2019.

Cat Cammarta

Cat Cammarta is an Off-Broadway producer, director and dramaturg in NYC, dedicated to the development of new plays and musicals. She is the Founder and Executive Producer of CreateTheater's 2022 New Works Fest, the Associate Artistic Director for Rhymes Over Beats Hip Hop Theater Collective and has been the Literary Manager for Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) for ten years. Off-Broadway: The Assignment, My Father's Daughter. Regional: My Life Is a Musical (Bay Street Theater). Cate's company CreateTheater, has been helping writers develop and produce new work since 2016. During the shutdown of 2020-2022 CreateTheater developed and/or produced more than 70 shows with online readings, workshops and dramaturgical guidance. For this work Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) has honored her with the TRU Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2022. Cate holds an MFA in Dramaturgy from SUNY Stony Brook and is an Associate Professor of Theatre Arts at CUNY Baruch College. www.CateCammarata.com www.CreateTheater.com

Charlotte Cohn

Charlotte Cohn was born in Denmark and raised in Israel where she served in the Israeli Army as a commanding officer. She was the lead producer of The NY Times critics' pick Handle with Care and the critically acclaimed Church & State, both written by Jason Odell Williams. Directing highlights include Best Friends at JAZZ at Lincoln Center and Church & State at Berkshire Theatre Group. Acting highlights include La Boheme and Coram Boy on Broadway. Charlotte is on the producing team for the Broadway production of Here Lies Love, has been an Ovation Award Winner and was nominated for the Bay Area Critics' Circle Award for her performance as 'Hallelujah Lil' in Happy End at A.C.T. For more please visit:

www.charlottecohn.com

Eric Goldman

For over 25 years, Eric has provided legal services to Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award winning talent, and to technology and internet entrepreneurs. Recent projects include representing the writers of the Broadway smash hit Come from Away and the producers of the highly successful Off-Broadway musical parody of the television show Friends. Before launching his own firm in 2011, Eric worked for 15 years as a Senior Associate for entertainment attorney Mark Sendroff of Sendroff & Baruch LLP. Eric also served as in-house counsel for St. Martin's Press and Hertz Computer. His first job out of law school was working as an associate for copyright guru Stanley Rothenberg. Eric is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and New York University School of Law.

Emileena Pedigo

Emileena's work focuses on building sustainable careers #AnotherWay, using entrepreneurial strategies that prioritize the artist over their art. Her company, The Show Goes On Productions provides coaching and artist management, as well as produces workshops, showcases, and events. Before that Emileena was managing producer of the Midtown International Theater Festival. She helped expand the annual festival into seven venues, presenting up to 60 shows in one month during her seven-year tenure. Emileena also general-managed for several nonprofits, assisted Stewart F. Lane on four Broadway shows, including the Off-Broadway transfer of The 39 Steps, and worked on various film and music festivals. She toured theaters, music arenas, and schools across the country, working with artists from all artistic disciplines. Emileena has served on the board of Conscious Capitalism NYC, and helped to build Arts programming within the Chelsea Greenwich Village Chelsea Chamber of Commerce. She is a graduate of the Commercial Theatre Institute, SUNY/Kaufmann's Fasttrac program for entrepreneurs, and a Purdue University alum.

Jonathan Hogue

Jonathan is a NYC-based playwright, director, performer, and producer, and has collaborated on a number of festival productions, developmental labs, and industry readings. His musical "Stranger Sings!: The Parody Musical", for which he wrote book and score, played two sold-out concerts at 54 Below in 2019 and is now in development for an off-Broadway run in the 2021-2022 season. He is also producing a virtual production of his play "The Nations", loosely based on his experiences serving as a short-term missionary/aid worker in 12 countries around the world, to air in late March 2021. Other written projects include "The Resurrection of Walt Disney's Frozen Head from its Cryogenic Slumber in the Year 2066", "The Substance of Matter", and "Til Morning". He is also developing the new children's musical "Lykz", as well as a musical audio drama about the life of William Penn alongside Broadway's Christopher Smith. Jonathan is most interested in telling stories that tackle complex contemporary issues, unpack cultural idiosyncrasies (especially with satire), and provoke dialogue among people of all backgrounds. He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.

Nico Juber

Nico is a musical theatre composer, lyricist, bookwriter, playwright, and proud graduate of the TRU PDMP Foundations & Master Classes. She won awards in the 2021 Drama League Light the Lights Songwriting Contest and the 2020 NAMT 15-Minute Musical Challenge. Her original musical comedy, Millennials Are Killing Musicals, has been featured as part of New York Theatre Barn's New Works Series and presented recently in sold-out concerts at Feinstein's/Vitello's (L.A.) and Feinstein's/54 Below (NYC). http://nicojuber.com

Blair Russell

Blair Russell is a Tony-nominated producer, developer, whose experience ranges from fringe festivals to Broadway shows. His most recent theatre projects include the 12-time Tony-nominated Slave Play, Lizard Boy, and the concept recording of the new musical For Tonight. As Co-founder and Director of Operations for Resounding, he produces live immersive entertainment. Blair has been a guest speaker/artist at a number of institutions including the University of Maryland, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts, and the York School in Monterey, CA. He was also a visiting lecturer for the semester-long Atelier program at Princeton University where he collaborated with composer Georgia Stitt on her oratorio The Circling Universe. Blair has appeared as a guest on a number of podcasts (American Theatre Artists Online, A Star Is Bored, Backstage Talk, Broadway ReFocused), webseries (Actors Unscripted, Awkward Conversations, Be Our Guest! - Live and In Color, Dreamland XR, In The (Home) Office - Goodspeed Musicals), and at global conferences (National Alliance for Musical Theater, Global XR Conference, Immerse Global Summit Series).

About Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU)

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a thirty-year-old 501(c)(3) 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, opportunities and productions; presents weekly Community Gatherings; 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 the TRU Voices Play Reading Series, Writer-Producer Speed Date, Practical Playwriting Workshop, How to Write a Musical That Works and a Director-Writer Communications Lab.

Programs of Theater Resources Unlimited are supported in part by the Montage Foundation, The Storyline Project and the Leibowitz Greenway Foundation.

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