Theater Resources Unlimited Announces Casts For The 2023 TRU Voices New Plays Virtual Reading Series

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) partners with Cate Cammarata of CreateTheater to present the 2023 TRU Voices New Plays Reading Series, with the generous support of RK Greene and The StoryLine Project on Sundays, February 12 & 19, 2023 at 3pm. The series executive producers are TRU executive director Bob Ost; TRU literary manager and founder of CreateTheater, Cate Cammarata; and technical producer Iben Cenholt. Each play will be followed by TRU's renowned "Dollars and Sense" talkback focusing on the future development of the play read, and featuring professional producers, artistic directors and general managers. Tickets are now on sale at https://www.onthestage.tickets/theater-resources-unlimited

"In addition to developing new works, our goal is to offer opportunities to members of the TRU Community. We always ask that the writers and producers being considered for TRU Voices attend our annual Audition Event and consider using talent from our pool. This year has been particularly successful," proclaims executive director Bob Ost. "We are all about community and I could not be more pleased that both plays have been cast with so many actors found through TRU."

Sunday, February 12, 2023 at 3pm ET

Max Needle presents The Queen of Sad Mischance by John Minigan

directed by Sharifa Williams

Queen of Sad Mischance welcomes Ciara Chanel, Carrie Gibson and Zack Watson to the cast of this thought-provoking and culturally complex new play. All three actors were discovered by the creative team at last year's annual TRU Audition Event, and Ciara Chanel was seen off-Broadway last year in Sometime Child by Richard Bruce, a show that was fiscally sponsored by TRU. Stage directions will be read by director/teacher/dialect coach/actor Page Clements, and the tech team includes technologist Jesica Garrou and tech editor Henry Garrou, graphic (both of whom have worked with TRU in last year's series as well as our annual gala); plus designer Irvin Stafford and composer Colin Minigan.

Kym, a biracial college senior, thinks she's lucked into the perfect resume-builder for a career in academia: helping renowned white feminist scholar Beverly Norden finish her ground-breaking book on Shakespeare's Queen Margaret before Alzheimer's makes the task impossible. The passing months make clear that Beverly's failing memory is not the greatest obstacle to their work, forcing Kym to reassess her connection with Beverly, Beverly's son, and academia itself. Can Kym follow echoes of the Margaret story in her own path forward?

Sunday, February 19, 2023 at 3pm ET

Megan Schadler presents Lost Sock Laundry by Ivan Faute,

directed by Christina Rose Ashby

The cast of this cross-cultural view of the contemporary American melting pot will include Musa Gurnis, Alexa Ramos and Haneen Arafat Murphy, who were also found through the TRU Audition; plus Patrick O'Dea who appeared in the 2022 TRUSpeak gala, and Aline Salloum and Matt McGlade. Haneen Arafat Murphy returns to the TRU Voices Series having starred in 2021 in Tiny Empty Nest by David Beardsley. Stage directions will be read by Anna Frankl-Duval, and the tech team will include production assistant Brett Bullard with videography by Verte Creative.

The lost sock laundry is not some undisciplined hangout with no order or expectations. There are rules about how you use the Maytag, how long you can use the dryer before you get looks, and who gets to save a machine for a friend. IRENE, a second-generation Greek-American, and MICAELA, a first-generation Mexican-American, often meet to trade stories, gossip, commiserate about their children, and sometimes wash laundry. When a new immigrant DINA from Lebanon starts frequenting the space, the two women slowly, and somewhat warily, befriend her. As their personal lives become entwined, they must all confront their understanding of identity, culture, and especially nationality.

TRU's renowned "Dollars and Sense" industry talkback will follow each reading featuring lineups of commercial producers, general managers and not-for profit artistic directors. Since the series was created to not only develop new plays but also new producers for theater, as well as foster the relationship between writers and producers with the hope that our readings will launch future steps of development, the talkbacks will focus on the development of the work read.

QUEEN OF SAD MISCHANCE BIOS

Ciara Chanel (Kym) Ciara is a BFA Actress & Trained Dancer/Choreographer. Making her first and second Off-Off-Broadway debut in the city, She was nominated best actress at the New York Play Festival and received a special mention in a Broadway World review for the world premiere of "Sometime" Child by Dick Bruce. Ciara recently starred as One, a character she helped develop, in the Chautauqua Theatre Conservatory's New Play Production of "Black Like Me" by Monty Cole. Now, you can find her as a Touring Artist for "Nettie, Nana, and Friends" educating children about mental health and bullying, As an ensemble member for the New Jersey Play Lab & Face2Face Films, and teaching Dance & Acting Classes in her hometown. She is elated to have worked with such wonderful individuals and holds the play near and dear to her heart. Thank you, John Minigan for your trust and support.

Page Clements (stage directions) Page is a director/teacher/dialect coach/actor based in NYC. She has appeared in over 60 plays and films and directed many one person productions over the years. Currently an instructor of voice, dialects, and Shakespeare at the famed T Schreiber Studio in New York, Page received the Favorite Vocal Coach and Dialect Coach from Backstage Magazine. Her many credits include productions with The Roundabout Theatre Co., The Metropolitan Playhouse, The Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, The New York Shakespeare Exchange, The Hudson Warehouse, The Electric Theatre Company, and The T Schreiber Theatre. She is also a founding member of Highwire, Inc., and a member of Actors Equity Association. Page was the dialect coach and an actor in the film, Art Thief, due out later this year. www.pageclements.com

Carrie Gibson (Beverly) Carrie's credits include Bones, Scream Queens, Superstore, All Rise, Hollywood, This is Us, Grey's Anatomy, Lucifer, ACS: Impeachment, FBI: Most Wanted, a recurring role on the Netflix comedy The Politician and the must see movie, King Richard. She has been in a number of independent films on both coasts and just recently shot a recurring role on Barry. Carrie has founded two touring theater companies and spent much of her adult life touring character driven original work on social issues to schools, and communities throughout the U.S. including performances at NASA, the FBI and the PentagonShe is delighted to be on the zoom stage working on such a well-crafted play with a great cast and director.

John Minigan (playwright) is a recent Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellow in Dramatic Writing and New Repertory Theatre Playwriting Fellow. Queen of Sad Mischance won the 2022 Judith Royer Award from The Kennedy Center and The Association for Theatre in Higher Education and the 2022 Wigglesworth Award from Florida's Lab Theater. Noir Hamlet was an EDGE Media Best of Boston Theater 2018 selection, Boston Globe Critics' Pick, and a 2019 Elliot Norton Outstanding New Script nominee. He has developed new work with Urban Stages, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Portland Stage Company, Greater Boston Stage Company, Utah Shakespearean Festival, and the Great Plains Theatre Conference, and his work is included in the Best American Short Plays, Best Ten-Minute Short Plays, and New England New Plays anthologies. John is on the faculty of Emerson College and serves as Dramatists Guild Ambassador for the Boston area. Please visit johnminigan.com.

Max Needle (producer) is a commercial theater producer based in NYC. Max started his producing career in June 2022 with a sold-out, Off-Broadway presentation of a new play about donor conception entitled Little Egg, Big World at Theatre Row through the Broadway Bound Theatre Festival. Aside from Queen of Sad Mischance, Max is also producing a new play about how algorithms can predict human happiness entitled Disruption, which will run Off-West End in London for five weeks beginning in July of 2023, and he is developing a new comedic play entitled You're Not My Type about the anxieties and realities around dating in the modern world for a New York audience. An avid supporter of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and multiple non-profit theatre organizations, Max hopes to develop and support works of theatre that advance our social and cultural awareness while leveraging the emotional capabilities of the performing arts. maxneedleproductions.com

Zack Watson (Roy) Zack is a professional actor, writer, producer, editor, and creative living in New York City. Zack has acted in series on Netflix, Amazon, FX, and creates his own films and comedy sketches under his production company; Jimmy Wat Productions. His work has been featured for National Lampoons, 'Battle of The Sketches' Film Festival, Chicago Sketch Comedy Fest, Upright Citizen's Brigade, The People's Improv Theater, and was dubbed "a star to be" by 25 year Broadway critic, Peter Filichia in 'This Week On Broadway' review.

Sharifa Williams (director) is a film and theater director whose credits include Every Creeping Thing by David Beardsley for the TRUSpeak Hear Our Voices Virtual Gala; Breakz by Cris Eli Blak for the Hamilton Arts Festival; Magpie by Phyllis Heltay (T. Schreiber Studio/Robert Moss Theater); and the sci-fi romantic comedy play Interventions by Greg Lam (The Navigators Lift-Off Festival). She wrote and produced the post-apocalyptic play Night of the Neutron Dance (New York Theater Festival) and the drama The View from the Q (winner: Audience Award, Short Play Festival). She was honored to complete a directing observership with the great Terry Schreiber. She has a BFA in Film and Television from NYU, Tisch School of the Arts.

LOST SOCK LAUNDRY BIOS

Christina Rose Ashby (director) is an Alaskan theater artist living in Brooklyn. Christina specializes in new work creation and the reimagining of classics. Select past credits include Lack of Milk and Suspicion Obsession Paranoia Marriage by Faute; Living With an Angel, a semi-autobiographical clown fantasia by Catherine Restivo-Romito; Life is a Dream: a New Vintage by Calderon and adapted by Annie R. Such. Christina recently directed the charming children's musical Petunia's Playhouse Live: Petunia's Big Day by Laura Kay Clark with music and lyrics by BIlly Reece. Christina is the founding artistic director of Permafrost Theatre Collective (PTC.) Through PTC, Christina conceived and directed Are You Alice: A New Wonderland Tale, a classic reimagining that had several short runs in New York City and made its international debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August of 2019. Her current devised adaptation, Poe's Children, is a meditation on grief and generational trauma told through selected poetry of Edgar Allen Poe. Christina is also a teaching artist and has taught in Alaska, New York, and West Virginia. MFA in directing from The Actors Studio Drama School. Instagram @christinaroseashby Twitter @tvschristina christinaroseashby.com

Ivan Faute (playwright) production credits include The Dog Show at The Players Theatre (NY), the OffCom and OffFest recommended one-woman show On Arriving (Searchout) across London, the City Lit Art of Adaptation Festival winner "Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher," The Darling Children (New York International Fringe), and the movement piece Life, Death, & Everything In-Between (Capital Fringe). LOST SOCK LAUNDRY was awarded the OnStage! Award and translated into Italian by Pietro Bontempo. ELEPHANT: A COMEDY was named a finalist in the Award of Excellence in Playwriting by the Association for Theater in Higher Education. His prose appears in over three dozen journals and was named a finalist for the Calvino Prize. ivanfaute.org

Anne Frankl-Duval (Stage Directions) is a London-born, Brooklyn-based actor and voiceover artist. She trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts New York. Some of her voiceover work includes voicing national and international commercials for Palo Alto Networks, 23andMe, Slack and Abbott Medical. Her off-mic work spans both film and theater. Some of her work includes: the fierce leader of a resistance group in The Resistance, a baffled British Embassy employee in American Deportation, and writing, producing, and starring in If Only, which screened at festivals worldwide, picking up several award nominations, including one for Anna for Best Acting at the Festival of Cinema NYC.

Musa Gurnis (Irene) Training: PhD Columbia; RADA. Web series: BEDLAM. New York theater: L'Amour á Passy (B&R Productions); Except Mr. Dickinson (15th Street Meeting House); Romeo and Juliet (Rogue Theater); Idols (Bonpoint Productions). Regional: Theory (Mosaic, DC); Les Deux Noirs (Mosaic, DC); Hamlet (Organic Theater, Baltimore); The Changeling and The Duchess of Malfi (Brave Spirits, DC). Film: Children of God (release 2023).

Matt McGlade (George/Aram/Eric) Concentrating on theater and film, Matt 'UgLy' Mc Glade edifies himself by leading and performing live music as often as possible. Movement and sculpture are among other disciplines UgLy engages in regularly. If you would like to follow along with his career you can visit www.mattmcglade.nyc. Why wait. While you're at it, follow @ghostlykind on Twitter or Instagram to see updated content and upcoming projects.

Haneen Arafat Murphy (Dina) has spent most of her career behind a microphone as a radio host and voice actor for over 30 years. Favorite theatrical roles include Twelfth Night (Chester Theatre Group) and The Last, Best Small Town (T. Schreiber Theater). She is thrilled to be joining TRU's Voices New New Plays Virtual Reading Series for a second consecutive year. Next up, she'll be in the cast of American Fast for Constellation Stage in Bloomington, Indiana.

Patrick O'Dea (Kelvin) is extremely grateful to work with these incredibly talented individuals. Before being a part of Lost Sock Laundry he performed in the show Beans & Rice for the New York Theater Festival, a short film She's Blown Away for Theater Resources Unlimited and worked on an episode of Evil Lives Here: Shadow of Death. Patrick is represented by Take 3 Talent Agency and TANDM Talent Management.

Alexa Ramos (Micaela) Alex is an actress, singer, and dancer born and raised in the South Bronx. She most recently performed at Open Hydrant Theater Company's short play festival as Janet in Put Asunder. You can catch her as Yaz in Water by The Spoonful this March at The Heights Players! Thank you Megan, Ivan, and Christina for this opportunity! And special shoutout to Lourdes Ramos <3 Instagram: @LexRamSeda

Aline Salloum (Sana) is an NYC-based actress and writer who has performed in a range of countries, including Lebanon, Switzerland, and the United States. She is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts NY and was a member of the 2018/2019 Academy Company. Her NYC credits include The Meltdown, which she co-created and performed at Rattlestick Theater's Global Forms Festival, Only Remains Remain by Freya Powell performed at MoMA PS1, The Misanthrope with Molière in the Park, and Gratitude by Oren Sadie at Urban Stages.

Megan Schadler (producer) is a New York-based producer & writer originally from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Megan began working as a freelance & independent Producer in NYC. Megan joined Yonder Window Theatre Company in 2018 as the Assistant to the Artistic Director and departed in 2022 as the Artistic Line Producer. Megan is also a playwriting member of Yonder Window's New Works Collective. Megan is the co-founder of Stagepunch.com, a subscription-based website dedicated to helping teens get into drama school. As an independent producer, Megan's work has focused on creating safe and exciting spaces for artists to thrive, centering on new work and emerging playwrights. In September 2020, Megan produced The Birth Control Series, a collection of scripts reflecting the writers' unique experiences with contraception. The series was created, filmed, and live-streamed remotely by artists in France, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Megan is also the Co-Creator and Producer of A Night of Play, a monthly play-reading party supporting a diverse community of theatre artists (Brooklyn, 2018-2019), and a new reading series called Connect the Dots (2022). In 2021, Megan completed the CGO Institute Diploma for Creative Producing course (UK). She co-founded The Fifth Producer, a collaborative and support network for Early Career Producers that advocates for better inclusion, diversity, and sustainability in the theatre industry. Instagram: @MeganSchadler meganschadler.com

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