Theatre Resources Unlimited Holds TRU Bootcamp, 9/26

To overcome the challenges of a struggling economy, theater professionals need to strengthen their skills in order to bring their projects to fruition. To this end, Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) presents a powerful full-day TRU Boot Camp to help theater professionals (and others) shape up their ideas and turn them into reality: PITCHING & PRESENTATION SKILLS, A One-Day Workshop for Producers, Writers and Anyone with an Idea to Sell! taught by a lineup of experts including marketing professional Sharon Albert, Ph.D. and presentation coach Gillien Goll. The workshop takes place on Sunday, September 26, 2010 from 10am-6pm at The Players Theatre, Room 3C, 115 MacDougal Street (below W. 3rd Street), NYC. Workshop fee is $150 ($25 off for members of TRU).  Early bird registrants save $25 and pay $125 if they sign up by 9/17.

In this hands-on, inter-active workshop, coach Goll and marketing pro Albert will share The Secrets of Successful Pitch Presentations, offering invaluable techniques and insights to unlock the power of WHAT you're saying to pitch your project, as well as HOW to say it.  Attendees will also get marketing and branding guidance from TRU's Bob Ost and Gary Hughes (OH! Ost Hughes Marketing Consultants), as well as Ph.d. Albert.  The day will end with a chance to pitch your project to a panel of producers and hear their feedback, including director/producer Stephan Morrow and producer Vasi Laurence (Passing Strange, Housewives of Mannheim). 

"We believe that there is an audience for good theater even in a bad economy, and that the theater community needs to hold on to its passion and vision and push forward with conviction. We've created a series of workshops to develop various skill sets we feel are necessary for both artistic and commercial success. This one was designed to help people find what is true and important about their ideas, and to present them clearly and convincingly," said Bob Ost, executive director of TRU. 

Other upcoming TRU workshops include Practical Playwriting: How to Write for Commercial Production led by Diana Amsterdam of the Drama Centre on Saturday October 16; and a new Director-Writer Communications Lab on Saturday, October 23. In addition, TRU offers a unique Writer-Producer "Speed Date" where writers pitch to eleven or more commercial producers, many with Broadway credits; the next one will be held on Sunday, October 3.  Details about all TRU programs can be found online at www.truonline.org.

SCHEDULE

10am-12:30pm - The Pitch (the WHAT)
- Define the needs of your audience (producers and/or investors)
- Clarifying the who, what, where, when and how of your project
- Verbalizing and presenting the elements succinctly and accurately

1:15-4:15pm - The Presentation (the HOW)
- Addressing the issue of nerves: changing anxiety into charisma, passion, and energy
- Learning specific communication skills so that you understand how to express yourself and achieve your goals
- Inter-acting with your "audience" whether it's one person or many: focus, eye contact, body language
- Being yourself rather than playing the artificial role of the "presenter"
- Projecting your true self while using notes, being interrupted or asked challenging questions; being comfortable in your own skin.
- Enjoying the experience!

4:30-6:00pm - You will pitch to a panel of producers.

Admission is $150 ($25 off for members of TRU).  With early bird registration by 9/17, admission is $125.  Workshop limited to 20 participants.  Pre-registration is available by emailing trunltd@aol.com.  To have us save a spot for you, make your subject header "P&P RSVP."  Go to http://www.truonline.org/BCPitchSept10.htm for links to word document and pdf applications.  Payment by check may be mailed to Theater Resources Unlimited, 309 W. 104th Street 1D, NYC NY 10025 (please include an application).  On-line payment by Paypal or by credit card is available at www.truonline.org/store.html.

SHARON ALBERT, Ph.D., is an award-winning marketing and business development professional who has worked with Fortune 100 companies assisting them in the branding and marketing of global new products and services. She has taught for-profit and not-for-profit organizations the art of strategic development, and how to write and develop business and marketing plans which included traditional and electronic/digital marketing tactics. Sharon has travelled globally and trained sales teams in the development of sales pitches and presentations. Her knowledge and love of theatre spans two decades and she believes that the artistic community can benefit from using targeted business philosophies and tools in order to promote and gain funding for their work.

GILLIEN GOLL has been teaching Public Speaking and Presentation techniques for over ten years. From her background as an actor, writer, director, and acting teacher, she has  derived a method for teaching others to present themselves powerfully and authentically.  Her clients hold a range of professions from soup (Campbell's Soup) to nuts (discretion prevents identifying these!). Clients have appeared on such television programs as Oprah, Court TV, MTV, and The CBS Early Show.  As an acting teacher, she currently teaches both privately and at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA). She has also taught at Fordham University among other institutions. Acting students have appeared on Broadway, tour, film, television, and commercials. She was recently brought up to Halifax, Nova Scotia, by ACTRA (the Canadian film, television, and radio union) to teach acting there.

Vasi Laurence - Producer of: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Film; Performer and Teacher. Tony & Drama Desk award winning, Passing Strange ('08); Executive Producer of a TV film by Pulitzer winning author, Frank McCourt (release 12/11); The Housewives of Mannheim at 59E59, May-June 2010, and Santa Barbara Oct. 2010  (projected for Broadway), by Alan Brody (Rosenthal Award; Eisner Award; Reva Shiner Award at the Bloomington Playwrights Conference) Literary Agent-Consultant; Broadway League Member; NJ Rep Board of Trustees; League of Professional Theatre Women; CTI 14-wk alum; Member of: AEA, SAG, AFTRA.

STEPHAN MORROW is an actor/director and producer who has been laboring in the trenches of non-commercial theater in New York and Los Angeles for over twenty years. A staunch proponent of the Off Off Bway arena, it is in that cauldron of creativity that he finds the work to be most compelling and interesting.  He has worked closely with playwrights Mario Fratti, Leonard Melfi, John Ford Noonan, Arthur Miller and Norman Mailer among others. As the founder of The Great American Play Series, which features powerful performances by seasoned professionals in 'performances on book' of American classics he has directed: The Crucible (set in the White House during President Clinton's impeachment trial), After the Fall (Rebecca De Mornay, Sally Kirkland, Mark Rydell), Incident at Vichy (four presentations with casts that included F. Murray Abraham, Richard Dreyfuss, Fritz Weaver, Austin Pendleton), Camino Real by Tenn. Williams (with Betsy von Furstenberg and set in Afghanistan), A Bright Room Called Day by Tony Kushner (Judith Malina and Angelica Torn).

TRU was founded in 1992 to promote a spirit of cooperation and support within the general theater community by providing information and a variety of entertainment-related services and resources that strengthen the business capability of producing organizations, individual producers, self-Producing Artists and other theater professionals. The company holds monthly seminars on a wide range of subjects important to theatrical producers and artistic directors conducted by panels of experts from both the commercial and not-for-profit segments of Broadway, Off-Broadway and the motion picture industry.   TRU also publishes a monthly email community newsletter of services, goods and productions.  In addition, TRU created the TRU VOICES Annual New Play Reading Series and the TRU VOICES Annual New Musicals Reading Series in which TRU underwrites developmental readings of new works for theater.  In 2001, TRU began giving annual scholarships to The Commercial Theater Institute, to encourage the development of aspiring producers, created a Producer Mentoring Program whose mentors are among the most prominent producers and general managers in New York theater, and presents Producer Boot Camp workshops to help aspirants develop the business skills they need.  In March '08, TRU was associate producer of its first Equity showcase, Missives at 59E59 Theatre, a play that was developed in the 2006 TRU reading series.  TRU programs for actors include an Annual Audition Event, Resource Nights and "Speed Dating" as well as free monthly actor events, including workshops.

Programs of Theater Resources Unlimited are supported in part by public funds awarded through the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, as well as generous support from the Friar's National Foundation Association.

For more information about TRU membership, visit www.truonline.org or call 212-714-7628.