TRU / Audience Extras / Back Stage Present Networking Panel 6/23

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) and Back Stage present the industry panel Marketing Your Showcase: Finding Your Audience, Punching Up Sales, Getting Reviewed on Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 7:30pm (doors open at 7pm) at The Players Theatre Mainstage, 115 MacDougal Street (below W. 3rd Street), NYC.

Though The New York International Fringe Festival, the Midtown InterNational Theatre Festival and other festivals offer many advantages to a producer, and have strong marketing initiatives in place for the festival itself, it often surprises a producer to discover how much work they must do to promote their individual show. Is it easier to market a showcase in a festival than to market a showcase you produce on your own? How do you tap into the festival audience for your own show? Do you actually have to build your audience on your own, as you would for an independent showcase? In or out of a festival, what is the timeline for press releases? How do you get reviewed? Panelists will talk about this and more, including case studies of showcases that have been successfully marketed and filled the houses. What were their secrets?

Panelists will include: Sarah Kate O'Haver, marketing consultant, Midtown InterNational Theatre Festival, consultant on Broadway Market Research for ERM; Michael Roderick, Small Pond Enterprises LLC, marketing consultant, The New York International Fringe Festival and festival producer; Katie Rosin, Kampfire Films PR; and Akia Squitieri, Rising Sun Performance Company, production consultant, producer in the Frigid Festival.. The panel will be co-moderated by Sherry Eaker, editor-at-large of Back Stage.

Doors open at 7pm for networking and refreshments, panel starts promptly at 7:30pm. FREE for TRU members; $12 for non-members. Please call at least a day in advance for reservations: 212/714-7628; or e-mail TRUnltd@aol.com.

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. These educational forums have been a core program of TRU since its inception, and in recent years executive director Ost has partnered with Ms. Eaker to generate topics of interest to both TRU membership and Back Stage readers. "Through TRU, Back Stage is able to reach beyond its actor base to a wider theater community," said Ost, "and we get more visibility through the Back Stage connection."

The historic Players Theatre is a landmark theater on Macdougal Street, a space for New York performances and rehearsals and the home to TRU. The building includes, a main stage 184 seat Off Broadway theatre, a 50 seat Off Off Broadway black box theatre, four rehearsal studios
, an office suite for arts organizations and the famous Cafe Wha?, which has been a Greenwich Village mainstay since the 1960's. Built in 1907 and converted into a theatre in the late 1940's, The Players Theatre has been a jewel in the midst of beautiful Greenwich Village, serving as a magnet for performing artists and their audiences. The 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 Britney Spears, Natalie Portman and Legally Blonde the Musical's Laura Bell Bundy.

TRU also publishes a monthly email community newsletter of services, goods and productions. In addition, TRU served as the umbrella organization for a co-production by several of its member companies as a part of the first annual New York Fringe Festival. From that experience, the organization has expanded its production efforts by creating 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.

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