TRU Producer Boot Camp 08

TRU PRODUCER BOOT CAMP:
WEEKEND INTENSIVE FOR NEWBIES
Produced by Theater Resources Unlimited
in association with Small Pond Entertainment

Basic training for producers, geared to those of you producing at the reading and Equity Showcase level, with particular application for those planning to produce in the upcoming summer festivals. Moderated by TRU’s Director of Self-Producing Artists (S.P.A.) Mike Roderick of Small Pond Entertainment, co-produced by Meredith Kaunitz, founder and executive director of HOME for Theater Performers.

Confirmed keynote speakers:
- Jed Bernstein, Broadway producer, and executive director of the Commercial Theater Institute
- Ken Davenport, producer/general manager (Altar Boyz, The Awesome 80's Prom, My First Time), general manager (Gypsy, Thoroughly Modern Millie)
- Jeremy McCarter, chief theater critic for New York Magazine
- Cheryl Wiesenfeld, producer (The Exonerated, Elaine Stritch: At Liberty, In the Continuum, Legally Blonde, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Caroline or Change)

Click here for Curriculum
Click here for Faculty Bios
Click here for Application

Our curriculum and instructors are as follows:

Saturday June 21st

10am - coffee and cake/bagels
10:15 - Keynote speaker Cheryl Wiesenfeld: “Why Do You Want to be a Producer?”
10:30-11:45 - "Which Way to Go: Not-for-Profit or Commercial?" with LisaRoxanne Walters, attorney, law professor and actress
11:45-1pm - "Contracts, Options & Underlying Rights" with Cheryl Davis, attorney and playwright

LUNCH - 1pm to 1:45pm (we will provide)

1:45-2:45 - "Equity Codes & Contracts" with Robert A. Sherrill of Pit Bull Productions, general manager for showcase productions
2:45-3:45 - "Producing Published Works: Licensing Made Painless" with Brad Lohrenz, director of professional licensing for Samuel French, Inc.
3:45-4:45 - "Play Safe: The Essentials of Insurance" with Debra Kozee of C & S Int'l Insurance Brokers Inc
4:45 - keynote speaker Ken Davenport: “Producing in the 21st Century: New Models, New Technology”

5pm-6pm - reception

Sunday June 22nd

10am - coffee and cake/bagels
10:15 - keynote speaker Jeremy McCarter: "If I Were You ..."
10:30-11:15 - "How to Find (and Book) the Right Space" with Stephanie Barton-Farcas, artistic director of Nicu’s Spoon Theater Co.
11:15-12:30 - "Budgets and Box Office" with Emileena Pedigo, managing producer of Where Eagles Dare and the Midtown Int'l Theatre Festival; Patricia Klausner, co-artistic managing director Shotgun Productions
12:30 - 1:15 - "Personnel Best: Putting Your Creative Team Together" with Mike Roderick of Small Pond Entertainment and Nadine Charlsen, professor of technical theater at Kean University

LUNCH - 1:15-1:45 (we will provide)

1:45-2:45 - "How to Run an Effective Audition" with Catherine Lamm, Literary & Casting Director of TRU, and Steve Cirillo, music director
2:45-3:45 - "Finding Your Audience: Marketing & PR Basics" with Erin Cronican of the Actors Enterprise and Katie Rosin of Kampfire Films PR, professor of Arts Marketing at NYU
3:45-4:45 - "War Stories: Learning from Others' Experience" - companies represented: Patricia Klausner of Shotgun Productions, Stephanie Barton-Farcas of Nicu’s Spoon, Mike Roderick of Small Pond Entertainment, Alexis Hadsall of TheatreRats
4:45 - keynote speaker Jed Bernstein, “Producing: What It Takes to Be Great”

5pm-6pm - reception

Cost: $250 ($175 for TRU members)

CLICK HERE for Application
CLICK HERE for Faculty Bios

You may send a check to:
Theater Resources Unlimited, 309 W. 104th Street 1D, NYC NY 10025.

On-line payment (Paypal or credit card) at www.truonline.org/store.html
You may pre-register and hold your spot by emailing trunltd@aol.com

(venue change)
The Players Theatre Mainstage,
115 MacDougal Street (below West 3rd Street)

TRU BOOT CAMP FACULTY
(complete)

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
	JED BERNSTEIN ("Producing: What It Takes to Be Great") Recently launched "Above The Title Entertainment," a new Broadway/Television production company and marketing consultancy that combines skill at marketing and promotion with love for the theatre. His first production, “Don’t Quit Your Night Job,” opened off-Broadway this past Spring. For 11 years he was President of the League of American Theatres and Producers where his many initiatives included Kids’ Night on Broadway; serving as Executive Producer on “Broadway on Broadway” a national television program and “Broadway Under the Stars,” a summer music event that is televised locally every June on WCBS TV. He was instrumental in leading Broadway’s recovery after 9/11 with, among other efforts, the producing and directing of the New York Loves America concert tour. Jed has taught a graduate class in advertising and marketing at New York University, and for the past six years has lectured at Yale University's School of Management and the Yale School of Drama. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, holds an MBA from Yale, and currently has board appointments with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The Actor's Fund.
	KEN DAVENPORT (“Producing in the 21st Century: New Models, New Technology”) Recently hailed as the “P.T. Barnum of Off-Broadway” in the New York Times, featured on a national commercial for the iPhone, and named one of Crain's Forty Under 40 for 2008, Ken is the only independent producer to have three shows running simultaneously Off-Broadway: ALTAR BOYZ, THE AWESOME 80S PROM and MY FIRST TIME. Ken is also a producer of the up coming Broadway production of 13, which will open this fall. Prior to his career as a Producer, Ken was a Company Manager and General Manager for many Broadway productions and National Tours including: Gypsy, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Chicago, Jekyll & Hyde, Cinderella, Ragtime, Showboat, Candide, and many others. In addition to 13, Ken is currently adapting the novel and film Somewhere in Time into a Broadway musical and filming a documentary on one of the top unsigned rock bands in the country, Red Wanting Blue. Ken is a mentor in the TRU Producer Mentorship Program; he also runs a number of theatrical websites including BestOfOffBroadway.com, DidHeLikeIt.com, the new social networking site, BroadwaySpace.com and his blog, TheProducersPerspective.com.
JEREMY MCCARTER ("If I Were You...") is the theater critic of New York Magazine and a contributing editor at The New Republic. He has worked in the theater as an adapter, director, and dramaturg, and is the director of Interstellar Radio Company (www.interstellarradio.net). He has written for publications including The New York Sun, The New York Times Book Review, The Guardian (UK), Politico, and MTV Magazine, and served on last year's Pulitzer Drama Jury. He is currently at work on a play commission from Project Shaw and is editing Bite the Hand That Feeds You: Selected Writings of Henry Fairlie, which will be published by Yale University Press in spring '09. He studied history at Harvard.
	CHERYL WIESENFELD (“Why Do You Want to be a Producer?”) - Broadway: Legally Blonde; Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; Caroline, or Change; ‘night, Mother; Elaine Stritch: At Liberty (Tony). Off-Broadway: In the Continuum; Shockheaded Peter; The Exonerated; Talking Heads; The Waverly Gallery. Ms. Wiesenfeld was the recipient of Theater Resoucres Unlimited's 2007 "Spirit of Theater" Award for her ongoing generosity to young producers in the New York community, as well as her selfless support of the work that TRU does. She is one of the founding Mentors in the TRU Producer Mentorship Program, and to date has mentored six aspirants, including guiding one production to win four Audelco Awards, and helping another production find success in regional theaters.
INSTRUCTORS
	STEPHANIE BARTON-FARCAS (Finding & Booking Space/War Stories) has a doctorate in Business Administration from Somerset University in England and a BFA in Theater from the California Institute of the Arts. Favorite directing experiences include Displaced, SubUrbia (2004 OOBR Winner), Buried Child and Stumps. She is the author of a two book set on grant-writing, “Guidebook to Proposal Writing in CEE and the Former Soviet Union”, used in the Red Cross and Soros Foundations worldwide. She has taught fundraising and development in Eastern Europe and the US, and traveled extensively working with refugees and war-torn communities. Favorite acting roles include Nuclear Family and Talk Show (both Off-Broadway), Jenny Diver in Threepenny Opera, Gwen in Fifth of July, Josie in Steaming and her shows with Nicu’s Spoon, ‘The Swan’ and ‘Skin Tight’. She is a member of AEA, SAFD and SSDC. When she has time to study she studies with Tom Noonan (tomnoonan.com). She is also a wife and the mom of a lovely six year old.
	STEVEN D. CIRILLO (How to Run an Audition) Broadway Vocal Coach/Pianist and Music Director, he received his Bachelor of Music in Performance from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he studied with such international artists as Frank Glazer, Eugene List, Anna Kaskas, Brooks Smith, and Edwin MacArthur. Following post-graduate work at the University of Massachusetts, he was musical director/arranger for over 30 musical productions, and has performed in piano bars and for cabaret acts throughout the East Coast and in Manhattan. In 1991, he was commissioned to write the anthem for the Basketball Hall Of Fame Centennial Gala, which was recorded and broadcast nationally over the Cable Television Network. Currently in demand as a Broadway vocal coach, Mr. Cirillo's clients can be seen on Broadway in Cry-Baby, Curtains, Grease, In The Heights, Jersey Boys, Legally Blonde, Lion King, Little Mermaid, Macbeth, Mary Poppins, Spamalot, South Pacific, Wicked, Xanadu, and Young Frankenstein in additional to many National Tours and regional productions. He has musically directed a number of cabaret shows over the years (including Bob Ost's Who Says Love Is Easy?) , and conducts audition and cabaret workshops. Focusing on the acting of audition material and choice of repertoire, many of his clients make their Broadway debut every year.
	ERIN CRONICAN (Marketing & PR) spent 8 years acting professionally in San Diego's bustling theater scene while also putting her business side to work in corporate sales, advertising and marketing. In 2002 she brought her marketing and theater skills together when she was brought on as Communications & Member Services Director at the non-profit organization, Actors Alliance of San Diego. Here, she spent 3 years co-producing an annual 2-week play festival and 10 staged readings, among other events where she was responsible for completed marketing, OR and outreach. While in San Diego, she also helped start up Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company, an Equity theater where she served as Associate Artistic Director for almost two years. Since moving to New York in 2005 to pursue acting, she has done consulting work for The Producers’ Project, a non-profit youth organization, and Wilderness Films, a production company. In a desire to bring her business and marketing skills back to her true love of acting, in 2007 she founded the one-on-one coaching service called "The Actors' Enterprise" for actors in New York City, focusing on the "business side" of being an actor. She continues to work steadily as an actor in SAG, AFTRA and AEA projects, as well as occasional marketing consulting for theaters and film companies in New York City. Learn more att www.erincronican.com or www.theactorsenterprise.org
	CHERYL L. DAVIS (Contracts, Options, Underlying Rights) is a partner at the firm of Menaker & Herrmann LLC. Her practice concentrates on intellectual property matters, including particularly copyright and trademark cases, and she has represented theater clients in connection with a variety of contract and corporate issues. A published playwright whose work has been frequently performed, Cheryl won the 2005 Kleban Award for her works as a musical theater librettist and her show Barnstormer received one of the 2005 Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Awards. She is a graduate of Princeton (A.B. 1983) and Columbia (M.S.J. 1986 and J.D. 1987) Universities, and an active member of the New York City Bar Association, where she has served on the Committees on Copyright and Literary Property and on Communications and Media Law. For more information, please visit her firm's website at www.mhjur.com
	ALEXIS M. HADSALL ("War Stories") is the President / Artistic & Technical Director of TheatreRats, Inc. Alexis graduated with a double degree (Theatre Directing/Performance & Secondary Education) from Winthrop University in SC and went on to teach both middle and high school. She moved on from there to start her own theatre company in SC called Avant-Garde Productions. They came to NYC and took 9 awards in two years for best acting and directing. At which point Alexis moved to NYC in 2002 and joined TheatreRats in 2003. By 2004 became the Artistic/Technical Director of TheatreRats, Inc. Since then she's gone on to produce for them for 5 years as well as Invisible City Theatre Company for a year. She's a paid director, stage manager, designer, and board op from time to time also. Recently she has directed TheatreRats' "Romeo and Juliet" (At Medicine show in April/May 2008), GP Productions' "Guy Pride" (At The Duplex Wednesday nights in June 2008 - www.theMAN-sical.com), and is currently stage managing a brand new musical called "Victory in C#!" with Lively Arts Productions to be performed at the Regional Playhouse in Sharon, CT in July 2008. Alexis is originally from the small town Bridgeport, MI...but is honored to call NYC "home". See www.theatrerats.com for more info.
	PATRICIA KLAUSNER (Budgets/War Stories) has produced, written and assistant directed theater since 1990. Her theatrical experience includes: General Manager of The Donald Byrd Dance Foundation, Assistant Director of Beyond Measure (Kampo Cultural Center, NYC), The Boys Next Door (Theater 22, NYC) and A Girls' Guide to Chaos (Innerspace Theater, NYC), and conceived The Tides of Intolerance (The Asia Society, NYC). As the Co-Artistic/Managing Director of Shotgun Productions, a theatrical non-profit, she has developed & produced theater, dance and opera. Productions include: Marc Deaton in Vienna (classical concert), The Lost Boy, Tristan und Isolde in Sofia (staged concert), 24-Hour Drama-Thons, Big Kids, The Chaos Theories, Seduction (musical theater dance opera), Undivulged Crimes, Don't Hug Me, Mia Michael's R.A.W. (dance concert), and Joined at the Head. Business experience includes Director of Marketing, PR & Special Events at Steps on Broadway, editor of a weekly financial trade publication, and consulting for various cable television companies and arts businesses. She currently sits on the Board of Directors and is a past Vice President of Cable Audit Associates, Inc. Ms. Klausner has a Ph.D. in sociology and has taught women's studies, race relations, and criminology at the University of Delaware and Montclair State College. She held a seat on the University of Delaware's President's Commission on the Status of Women and was co-Chair of the Delaware Chapter of Sociologists for Women in Society, and was nominated to Who's Who of American Women. She has presented and published academic articles on women's roles in society, and more recently has written plays, screenplays and short stories with similar themes. She is a member of the Dramatist Guild.
DEBRA KOZEE has served as President of C&S International Brokers, Inc. since she formed the New York-based independent insurance brokerage in 1988. As President, Ms. Kozee develops new business, designs special insurance programs and oversees the firm's operation. She is a charter member and former chairperson of the East Coast chapter of the AON Enetrtainment/CNA Advisory Council, and participated in the Independent Feature project's IFP resource program providing pro bono insurance counsel to members. Debra is the only insurance industry professional with membership in both New York Women in Film & Television and the League of professional Theatre Women. She served on the Board of Directors as Treasurer of NYWIFT, and has frequently been an invited guest speaker addressing many organizations over the last several years, inclduing the National Alliance of Musical Theatre Producers, ART/NY, Volunteer Lawyesr for the Arts and the League of American Theaters & Producers. The Alliance of Residence Theatres (ART/NY) presented C&S and Debra Kozee with their Local Hero Award.
	CATHERINE LAMM (How to Run an Audition), literary & casting director of TRU, is a director and private coach who has trained with the Royal National Theatre (Edinburgh), the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation, and the American Film Institute. She was formerly the casting director for the Chelsea and West Side Theaters. Catherine is also a feature writer and reviewer for Stage Press Weekly and British Theatre Guide . A veteran theatre professional, she has worked with The Players' Guide , Samuel French, and Broadway producers Mordeccai & Associates, and is a sometime dramaturg/literary consultant to various NYC-based theatre companies and producing organizations. A former professional actor with Off Broadway and West End roles to her credit, Catherine has been teaching actors about the business of performing since 1986. www.catherinelamm.com
BRAD LOHRENZ (Producing Published Works: Licensing Made Painless) is the Director of Licensing for Samuel French, Inc., the world’s oldest and largest play publishing company. He oversees licensing for all professional and amateur productions of Samuel French’s plays and musicals in North America as well as some international projects. In addition to working with established theater companies, he has been extremely active for the past 13 years at Samuel French in guiding, educating and nurturing new and emerging theatre companies, producers and playwrights. An AEA member and former singer/actor, he also was Company Manager for nine national and international tours and General Manager in several regional theatres. www.samuelfrench.com
	EMILEENA PEDIGO (Box Office) joined the Midtown International Theatre Festival four years ago and has been working alongside John ever since. In addition to the festival, she co-produced The Merry Wives of Windsor and Sweet Love Adieu in rep on Theatre Row with Oberon Theatre Ensemble for their 10th season, and 6 Figure's 14th Season at the West End Theatre. As a Production Stage Manager, she has worked Off-Broadway, opera, a national tour and regionally at length. Select Off-Broadway: Barbara's Blue Kitchen at the Lamb's Theatre; two seasons at Right Down Broadway Productions; Mirror Repertory. Select NYC: GYPSY at PPAS; The New School for Drama's 10 Blocks from the Camino Real; Golden Fleece's annual Commissioned Opera Works. Regional: TheaterWorks Hartford; Bailiwick Rep (Chicago); world premiere of Meet John Doe at Shattered Globe (Chicago); Foothill Music Theatre (CA Bay Area); Teatro Vision (CA Bay Area); and Shakespeare in the Park with Bus Barn Stage Company (CA Bay Area). Emileena received her B.A. in theatre from Purdue University and completed the Foothill Theatre Conservatory in California, both with honors.
	MICHAEL RODERICK (Boot Camp Director/Putting Your Team Together) started Small Pond Entertainment five years ago when he found that it was virtually impossible for an artist to be at their best when they also had to produce. He developed a system for the advancement of a producing organization to be the umbrella for shows that lacked producers. Over the years Small Pond has become a major name in the NYC Theatre Community having presented shows in numerous venues and with hundreds of different artists. As Artistic Director, Michael has produced over 30 shows since his arrival in NY in September 2002. He has also been the organizer of networking events that have included representatives from The New York Musical Theatre Festival, Fractured Atlas, and RWS casting and Associates. He holds a BA in Secondary Ed English and Theatre performance from Rhode Island College and an MA from NYU in Educational Theatre Colleges and Communities. Michael also teaches English at LaSalle Academy where he is the head of the drama program. He has written 15 plays and his play "I'll do it Tomorrow" will be published in the 2004- 2005 Best American Short Plays published by Applause books. www.smallpondentertainment.com
KATIE ROSIN / KAMPFIRE FILMS PR (Marketing/PR) Off-Broadway: Play About the Naked Guy, Claymont & Sisters' Dance, Baruch Performing Arts Center; Mother Load, Sage Theater; Wasps in Bed, Beckett Theater; Anaïs Nin: One Of Her Lives, Beckett Theater; Triple Threat: 2007 Drama Desk Nominee (mis)UNDERSTANDING MAMMY: The Hattie McDaniel Story, Real Danger & Elephant Girls, Theatre 5; The Monument, Clurman Theater; Don Juan in Chicago, Kirk Theater. Rosin was instrumental in the launch of the Broadway musical Brooklyn. Rosin's clients include: Ateh Theater Group, Emerging Artists Theatre, The New York Innovative Theatre Awards, Nicu's Spoon, (re:) Directions Theatre Company, T. Schreiber Studios, Woman Seeking...A Theater Company, as well as, various productions at the Midtown International Theater Festival and the New York Fringe Festival. Rosin worked in the publicity office at Miramax Films. Rosin teaches Marketing the Arts at NYU. For more information visit www.kampfirefilmspr.com.
ROBERT A. SHERRILL (Equity Codes & Contracts) has worked extensively in professional theatre in a variety of roles, productions and venues. Off-Broadway backstage credits include: Evil Dead, the Musical; Burleigh Grime$; and The Wooden Breeks (MCC). Producer and Management credits include Gayfest NYC (2007, 2008), Mud Blossom; Rags World AIDS Day Concert; Things to Chase; Flora, The Red Menace; The Sexless Years (Ars Nova); The Unknown (NYMF 2005); King John; and Twelfth Groovy Night; At Richard Frankel Productions he worked in the General Management office of Hairspray and The Producers and On The Road where he coordinated the National tours of Hairspray, Movin’ Out, Sweeney Todd and Spring Awakening, among others. He is the founder and Producing Director of Pit Bull Theatre Productions, a general management company specializing in Equity Basic Showcase Code productions. Currently as the Company Manager at the White Plains Performing Arts Center, a LORT-D theatre, he oversees budgeting, contracting and adherence to all union (AEA, SSDC, AFM, USA) collectively bargained agreements.
	LISAROXANNE WALTERS, ESQ. (Commercial/Not-for-Profit/Fiscal Sponsorship) enjoys her "day jobs" of corporate attorney, tax preparer, as well as business and law professor. When this seasoned actor is not on stage or a set, she is often starting up and advising small for- and non-profit businesses, drafting contracts, or preparing taxes. Before starting her private practice in 2004, she worked for six years in the corporate departments of leading firms such as Skadden Arps, Phillips Nizer, and others. LisaRoxanne was a legal specialist for non-profits and enjoyed a ten-year appointment to New York City's Neighborhood Advisory Board. This bi-coastal actor is a member of Actors Equity Association and Screen Actors Guild. LisaRoxanne's acting resume, "day job" curriculum vitae, and pix can all be found at www.lisaroxannewalters.com.

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