Theater Resources Unlimited Offers Latest Writer-Producer Speed Date

Theater Resources Unlimited presents the Writer-Producer Speed Date, a unique opportunity to pitch a project to a roomful of New York producers and artistic directors on Sunday, October 13, 2019 from 4:30pm to 8:30pm at the newly opened 797 Studios, 797 Eighth Avenue (betw. 48th and 49th), 3rd floor, NYC. Submission deadline: October 4, 2019. Session 1: coaching at 4:30, pitching at 5:30; Session 2: coaching at 5:30, pitching at 6:30. Followed by wine and refreshments and a chance to socialize with fellow writers and the producers. To apply: truonline.org/events/speed-date-10-13-19 and email to TRUStaff1@gmail.com. ($85.00 for non-members, $75 for TRU Members, with additional collaborator at $30.)

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

The Speed Date is the only event I know of that gives writers the chance to meet high level producers one-on-one in a room. To me, that's what makes the Speed-Dates so valuable. And you do it with kindness, which I value in life. ~Vincent Amelio (How Alfo Learned to Love)

11 producers are lined up, from both the commercial and not-for-profit worlds, all with an interest in new projects, as well up to 11 aspiring producers from our Producer Development program. So pitches are received by as many as 22 producers in total! 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. And did we mention the wine and snacks afterwards?

I found it so motivating to have a deadline to create production assets and prepare myself for meeting producers.... My experience was one of the rare occasions where several producers expressed real interest in my work. Later, one attended my reading, and followed up with a coffee meeting to talk financing. We're still in touch. This is never promised, but it does happen for some of us. In my opinion, the price of $85 for all that value is a BARGAIN! ~Ed Zareh (Long Lost John)

If you have a project where you'd like to practice and receive feedback on your pitch; potentially make some connections that would be useful for script development or early production; and meet some other playwrights - this is an ideal opportunity. ~William Roetzheim

PRODUCERS

Margot Astrachan is a Tony Award winning commercial theatrical producer based in New York. Broadway: Tony Award winning A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, The Realistic Joneses, Nice Work If You Can Get It, the revival of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever; Bonnie & Clyde; Busker Alley, Ghost the Musical National Tour, and the only staging of Stephen Sondheim's Evening Primrose. She also recently produced The Sting starring Harry Connick Jr. at The Papermill Playhouse. Upcoming: Diana, A New Musical (La Jolla, February 2019). Margot wrote, produced and performed five one-woman cabaret shows. New York: Danny's Skylight Room, Judy's, The Plaza Hotel, The Oak Room of The Algonquin Hotel, the Triad, The National Arts Club, and Don't Tell Mama's, among others. With dancer/choreographer Carmen de Lavallade, she wrote the book of a new Jazz musical, which has been read at Lincoln Center and at The York Theater.Margot was the American Artistic Director of the Jermyn Street Theatre in London and The Kings Head Theatre in London, and has had over 30 years' experience producing special events for Arts Organizations such as The York Theatre Company, The Theatre Museum, and Brit-Arts of The St. George's Society, which with Jim Dale, featured British and American theatre professionals in readings and panels in New York. She is the Vice Chair of The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), a board member of The Alumni & Friends of The LaGuardia High School for the Arts, The League of Professional Theater Women, and The Theater Board of The Kaufman Cultural Center. She is a graduate of CTI (The Commercial Theatre Institute) and is a member of The Association of Performing Arts Presenters, The National Alliance For Musical Theatre, The Broadway League, The Dramatists Guild, the Advisory Board of TRU, British American Business, Inc. and BAFTA East Coast. She is the past chair and current board member of The American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Her latest project is Radio Galaxy by Michele Aldin Kushner (found in the TRU Voices series) and directed by Mark Waldrop, currently in development.

Robert Driemeyer - Broadway credits include the Tony Award-winning revival of La Cage aux Folles starring Kelsey Grammar and Douglas Hodge, and Elling starring Brendan Fraser and Denis O'Hare. Off Broadway he produced Tennessee Williams' The Two-Character Play starring Amanda Plummer and Brad Dourif, and Party Face starring Hayley Mills and directed by Amanda Bearse. Other Off Broadway credits include Shear Madness and Forbidden Broadway. He produced David Parr's critically acclaimed Slap & Tickle directed by David Drake in Provincetown, MA. He and producing partner Morgan Sills formed Driemeyer-Sills Productions which focuses on new works and classic revivals, and offers producing and executive producing services, dsproducers.com

John Melo - Zephyr Communications, Inc. has over 30 years experience in advertising, strategic marketing, corporate communications, branding, interactive and multimedia in multiple industries. In the Entertainment Industry we cover Film, Theater, TV and Cable. Our Entertainment division has worked in the motion picture industry for over 25 years, engaged by most of the major studios, Twentieth Century Fox, Orion Pictures Corporation, Warner Bros., Universal Studios among others. As well as the independents as: Miramax, New Line Cinema, Cinema Shares International, Magna Distribution, Atlantic Releasing and Jim Henson Productions "The Muppets". We started marketing Broadway theater productions in 1976, our first major involvement on Broadway was the original Dreamgirls. Recently we have expanded into assisting Broadway, Off, and Off Off Broadway productions to get started, thru readings, development, and marketing of their projects. We are also assisting producers on the funding of both theater and film projects.

Oliver Roth is a Producer at OHenry Productions, a New York-based production company which he founded in 2014. His producing and co-producing credits include - Broadway: Burn This (Tony Award® Nomination), Sea Wall/A Life, Derren Brown: Secret, Slave Play, The Inheritance, Escape to Margaritaville; West End: The Inheritance (Olivier Award); Off-Broadway: Little Shop of Horrors, Invisible Thread; National Tour: Escape to Margaritaville, Hundred Days Upcoming: Lempicka, Sam's Room, Drive Change. In addition to his commercial producing projects, Oliver is the Consulting Producer to the Dennis & Victoria Ross Foundation (DVRF), a nonprofit dedicated to developing new work and supporting emerging theater artists. He is also the host and co-producer of "The OHenry Report," BroadwayWorld.com's podcast covering current stories, issues, and trends in the theater industry. Oliver is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University.

Norberto Troncoso is the Co-Founder of Open Hydrant Theater Company, alongside Luis Cardenas, Sarah Rosenberg and Deborah Pautler. With a mission to provide underserved youth with professional opportunities in theater and film, he has produced sold-out youth productions, quarterly short play festivals with adults of the community, as well as various AEA productions for the company that have brought Open Hydrant to the forefront of the theater world, with fiscal sponsorship by The Point Community Development Center and by also partnering with the Theater Development Fund, The Mile Long Opera, 92nd Street Y, HSBC, and many more. A graduate of Pace University and a product of the South Bronx community, he is dedicated to make theater happen in his neighborhood and bring the Bronx to Broadway.

Ken Waissman is one of only two producers in the history of Broadway to have a musical run over 3000 performances and a play run over 1000. (The other producer he shares this distinction with is the legendary David Merrick.) Waissman developed and produced the original Broadway production of Grease as well as two of Broadway's longest running plays, Agnes of God by John Pielmeier and Torch Song Trilogy by Harvey Fierstein.Waissman's first Broadway credit was the 1971 Paul Zindel play And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little with Estelle Parsons and Julie Harris, and his prolific Broadway efforts have resulted in four motion picture features, a PBS TV special, 25 Tony Award® nominations, and 5 Tony Awards® including a Tony Award® as 'Best Play Producer.' His new musical, Josephine, inspired by Josephine Baker, had its World Premiere in April at the Asolo Theatre in Sarasota,Florida. Deborah Cox played the title role and Joey McKneely directed and choreographed.

Sharon Weiss - With Eileen B. Weiss, partner in Tweiss Productions. Associate Producers of Forbidden Broadway: Alive & Kicking, Forbidden Broadway Comes Out Swinging. Producers of Hell's Belles, A Short Wake, Between the Lines, NY revival of Goodtime Charley. In development: How to Marry a Divorced Man; Appendage.

SHELA XOREGOS began life as a dancer and actress, morphing into choreography and directing. She has directed and/or choreographed for festivals, museums, regional theaters as well as for many NYC theaters. She has discovered and premiered short plays by Oscar Wilde, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sarah Bernhardt, others, as well as directing neglected classics and original plays by living authors. Recently, her non-profit Xoregos Performing Company has produced a dozen Harlem Renaissance one-acts (including plays by Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes), Jean Racine's Britannicus, an a capella opera in the round with dance and a fantasy bio of Anna Nicole Smith by Grace Cavalieri. Coming in 2019, the premiere of Six O'Clock Sky, a surreal romp (with songs) by Arnold Schulman, screenwriter.

Claudia Zahn is a director, producer, teacher and development consultant. Claudia returned to NYC last year, after living and working in LA. She was Managing Director and a board member of Malibu Playhouse, where she co-produced most of the mainstage productions in addition to running the daily operations of the theater. Since returning to New York, Claudia has been working with Mango Baroque as producer and director for their concert series in the city, and as a development consultant for Welcome Change Productions and Academy Award®-nominated documentary filmmaker Alice Elliott. In addition to working nationally as a freelance opera director, Claudia taught for ten years as Director of Opera and Music Theatre at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she directed and co-produced both operas and musicals, as well as teaching acting and directing.

FRANK ZUBACK was the Lead Producer for Moolah, a new comedy by Arje Shaw (The Gathering). Currently he is helping develop three new works: Taking Leave, American Soldier and Roof of the World. Frank has also had the great privilege of working on a number of shows and projects with the late director Tom O'Horgan (Jesus Christ Superstar, Hair). In addition, he has worked on over twenty musicals and was involved for thirty years on the Tony Awards. Also involved in the music and entertainment industry, Frank has worked with luminaries as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, conducted the Count Basie Orchestra, and the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and consulted on nine Super Bowl half-time shows. Mr. Zuback founded Frank Zuback Productions, which provides a wide range of services in the music and entertainment industry. Website - http://fzpi.com

COACHES

Cate Cammarata is a producer, director, dramaturg and writer in NYC and is the Associate Artistic Director for Rhymes Over Beats Hip Hop Theater Collective. Cate has produced The Assignment off-Broadway and My Father's Daughter with Ursula Rucker at La Mama for Rhymes Over Beats. Regionally she produced My Life Is a Musical at Bay Street Theater and has directed many readings of new work in NYC. She is the Literary Manager for Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) and is the Director of Creative Development forMusicalWriters.com. Cate holds a BFA in Acting/Directing from Syracuse University and an MFA in Dramaturgy at SUNY Stony Brook, and teaches Theatre Arts at Baruch College. Her latest book, "Contemporary Monologues for a New Theater," was listed as one of the Top Ten Books for theatre lovers by BroadwayDirect in 2018. catecammarata.com, createtheater.com

ALLISON SHEFF is a stage director with a background in performing and marketing. She previously worked in the Marketing Department for the Huntington Theater Company as well as working as a marketing consultant for actors and regional theater companies. She has taught her business and marketing workshop at universities across the country and for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. As a director, Allison has worked in numerous regional theaters and has helped develop productions in New York City. She recently served at the Assistant Director on the revival of Smokey Joe's Café. Allison has also served as an Artistic Liaison on 11 Broadway productions. Allison believes in telling stories with heart, humor and authenticity. She strives to challenge perspectives and affect change while encouraging tolerance and empathy. She has a strong commitment to diversity in casting and telling the stories of the underrepresented.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a twenty-seven 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; 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.

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