Here's a chance to pitch your work to a roomful of serious producers ...
TRU Writer-Producer Speed Date
(The Art of the Pitch)
No, it's not really a "date." It's a quick way to meet over a dozen producers -
from beginner to Broadway level - and practice your pitching skills.

Sunday October 16th, 5:30pm and 6:30pm
Deadline to apply Saturday October 8th
The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, 3rd floor

Scheduled producers include:

 Thank you for providing such an incredible opportunity!  I will admit I was completely terrified, but this was exactly what I needed.  In the process of preparing the pitch and materials I learned a lot about how to distill my play down to its essence.  Your guidance and comments were very helpful, as was the practice coaching before.  I learned a lot about how I can make my pitch better, and what questions I need to be better prepared to answer.  And the best part is, several producers expressed interest in my work!  I am so glad I was able to participate! ~Natalie Wilson, Sept '10

"Speaking as an out-of-town playwright I have to tell you that TRU’s writer/producer speed date program accomplished as much for me in one evening as I accomplish in a year of blind script submissions. The quality of the people participating – playwrights and producers -- was impressive and the program’s format of structured four-minute sessions with each producer was a godsend for me. Frankly, I’m a hopeless klutz at parties and other social situations where meetings with producers might happen casually or spontaneously, so when you created this concept of a concentrated four minutes devoted exclusively to the play and the producer, you liberated me from all those social bonding rituals at which I’m so awful. And I came away with the sense that, however brief it was, my plays finally got the stage I’ve hoped they would receive. I hope that, if you have more writer/producer speed dates, I can participate again." ~Sean O’Leary, Feb '09

"I thought the speed date was one of the best learning experiences I have ever had." ~ Toni Hart, Feb '09

CLICK HERE for more quotes from writers

You meet a producer at a party, and have two minutes to interest them in your work. Do you have the skill to sell yourself?

Here's a chance to practice your pitching with real producers who are open to and looking for new work. Okay, they probably won't option you on the spot, but you'll meet them and have the opportunity to start developing a relationship. And that's what this business is all about. We'll have eleven producers lined up, from both the commercial and not-for-profit worlds, all with an interest in new projects; we also have eleven aspiring producers from our Producer Development program. So you'll be pitching to 18 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 cheese afterwards? Click here to meet the producers.

ABOUT SPEED DATING. How does it work? 11 writers will arrive at 5:30, and we have two coaches coming who will coach the writers on their presentations. Then at 6:30, they go into the Pitch Room to meet the producers - one at each of the stations. We ring a bell, writers have two minutes to pitch. We ring a second bell, producers have two minutes to respond and ask questions, or give feedback. Writers bring a packet with a synopsis, bio, cast breakdown and production requirements to leave with each of the producers. If the project interests the producer, he may request that you send a full script.

Meanwhile, group two is in the Coaching Room getting coached for an hour starting at 6:30. Second group goes into the Pitch Room at 7:30. We estimate that pitches and turnaround should take about 50 minutes total for all eleven. We will have wine and cheese afterwards, so although the pitch sessions will end at around 8:20, we hope writers and producers will stay and chat informally until 9pm or so.

Yikes! Eleven writers pitching to eleven producers at one time? Think of it as the "cocktail party" pitch where you have to hold someone's interest with dozens of conversations going on around you. A little chaotic perhaps, but true to life.

WHAT YOU SHOULD BRING: A one-page (maximum) synopsis, a one-page writer/theater resume or bio, production history (including reviews), set and cast breakdown. You will need 22 sets, one for each of the producers. Make them nice - it's part of that all-important first impression.

ABOUT THE COACHES: we are bringing in two professional coaches to work with each writer on vocal technique, presentation skills and content. Click here to read about Brandt Johnson and Gillien Goll.

NOT EVERYONE WILL BE ACCEPTED. We will judge your application based on the viability of the project, your experience as a writer and the specific interests of the participating producers. If accepted into the program, the cost is $65 for TRU members and $75 for non-members (and yes, you can always join as a member to qualify for the discount).

Click here for the application in Word format.

Email application to TRUnltd@aol.com
Evening limited to 22 writers.

THE PRODUCERS - as of 10/7
	PAUL ADAMS Artistic Director and Founder of Emerging Artists Theatre Company for 18 years. Directing credits for EAT are Real Danger, Layout, My Sister the Cow, Hard Hearted Hannah, and Counter Girls. Playwright credits - Two Minutes, Sleeping Beauty. Acting on and off for the past 15 years at numerous Theatre Row theatres. Serves as Founding board member for the New York Innovative Theatre Awards celebrating Off Off Broadway work and the Steering Committee for the newly founded League of Independent Theatre. He is currently working towards a permanent home for Emerging Artists who received its first Drama Desk nomination and was voted Best Off Off Broadway Theatre Company in NY by Backstage Magazine.
	JORDAN SCOTT GILBERT is an American producer, director, writer, composer, and performer. He is currently co-producing the new rock musicals Shine and American Soldier written by James Rado (co-writer of Hair), which is aimed for a limited run on Broadway in 2012. Jordan served as Assistant to the Lead Producer on the $16 million Broadway musical A Tale of Two Cities. Recent Film/TV credits include: The Burlesque Sisters (TV Pilot) & Peace Aqua with Tony Award nominee Andrea McArdle & winner Jarrod Emick. Producing/Writing credits include: Showbiz Talk with several Academy, Tony, & Grammy award winning artists (TV Pilot), & We Are Lights with Tony & Grammy Award winner Melba Moore & 'Actor's Equity' president Nick Wyman. Acting credits include Spring Awakening (Melchior) & Cameron Mackintosh's SE world premiere, cast album, & 3 NY companies of Les Miserables (Jean Valjean/ Javert/ Marius/Enjolras), Hair (Claude/Berger), Grease (Danny Zuko), Into the Woods (Cinderella's Prince/Wolf), and many other projects including several Broadway workshops, demos, and television commercials. Jordan also heads up Gilbert Productions, where he serves as producer and casting director for films, TV shows, commercials, musicals and various Disney projects. For the last three years, he has been in pre-production for a major motion picture, in which he stars, co-writes, and co-produces. “For a musical, I'm interested in any genre of material as long as it has several memorable melodies and a wonderful story.”
	KENNY HOWARD (Producer/Director) Managing Member of The Broadway Consortium, LLC.  Producing credits, Broadway: Chinglish, Bonnie & Clyde and Funny Girl revival. Cast Album: How To Succeed 2011 Cast Recording. Regional Producer Credits: (Orlando) Lizzie, Another American Asking and Telling, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, R&J, Santaland Diaries, and Carolina Moon. Directing credits, Off-Broadway: The Ladies of Eola Heights, Pieface: The Adventures of Anita Bryant and My Pal Bette; Off-Off: New Rochelle, Psycho Bitch and the Throbbing Blue Wiener (Golden Award Winner), Dragness of God and Blue Lagoon: the Musical. Regional favorites include [title of show] (Orlando Repertory Theatre), When Pigs Fly  (Orlando Shakespeare Theatre), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Florida Premiere) and The Lion Queen (OST).  He is a graduate of UCF, and a member of The SDC foundation.
	MICHAEL JACKOWITZ is the Executive Producer of a number of new musicals, including: the American Premiere of  My Fairytale about Hans Christian Andersen by Stephen Schwartz at PCPA TheaterFest for the 2011 Centennial celebration of Solvang, CA; Seance on a Wet Afternoon, the new opera by Stephen Schwartz, at New York City Opera and  upcoming production at Opera Queensland in Australia in 2014; Daddy Long Legs by John Caird and Paul Gordon, currently on a national rolling world premiere  tour; The Best is Yet to Come:  the music of Cy Coleman devised and directed by David Zippel, Rubicon Theatre Company/59E59 Off-Broadway and Abyssinia: Praise Singer, a musical at Hackney Empire in London as part of the 2012 Olympic Festival. Michael is also a Producer of the 50th Anniversary revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying on Broadway starring Daniel Radcliffe and is currently working with The Menier Chocolate Factory in London on a new production of Pippin, opening in December 2011. Off Broadway: The Food Chain by Nicky Silver, AVOW by Bill C. Davis;  I, Do, I Do at Queens Theater in the Park with Donna McKechnie. Regional: tick, tick …BOOM!, by Jonathan Larson directed by Scott Schwartz, in Los Angeles; My Antonia, an adaptation of the Willa Cather novel at Rubicon Theatre Company and Pacific Resident Theatre Company in Los Angeles (2008 LA Weekly Nominee, Best Production). World Premiere of It’s Only Life (2008 LA Ovation Award: Best Book/Music/Lyrics of an original work), by John Bucchino (A Catered Affair) directed by Daisy Prince (2008 Santa Barbara Independent Award: Best Director), with vocal arrangements by Jason Robert Brown at Rubicon Theatre Company. Michael is  a graduate of the Commercial Theater Institute’s Producing Seminar, class of 1996 and  continues to serve as Rubicon' s Director of New Work.
	TOM POLUM (with partner Jean cheever) is currently producing the Houston production of The Toxic Avenger, with plans for a Broadway opening in the Spring. They produced the off-Broadway New York premiere of The Toxic Avenger, a musical comedy about the first superhero from New Jersey by Joe DiPietro (I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change) and David Bryan (keyboardist and founding member of Bon Jovi) and directed by Tony Award-winner John Rando; they also co-produced Last Call, a musical documentary by Broadway director Christopher Ashley (Xanadu, Rocky Horror Show, All Shook Up) and developing musical comedies Mambo Italiano (based on the Canadian film starring Paul Sorvino) and Zombie Honeymoon; and developing other musicals Heloise and Abelard and The Trials of Phillis Wheatley. Past credits include Broadway’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Tony nomination for Best Musical) and All Shook Up.
	ISOBEL ROBINS entered the theatre as an actress and singer, appearing on Broadway, in night clubs and on television. She has produced on and Off-Broadway, including The Changing Room, which won the New York Drama Critics Award; Mr. Lincoln; Charlie and Algernon (in London starring Michael Crawford, and in New York); as well as It Had To Be You starring Renee Taylor and Joe Bologna. She produced a new musical by Will Holt, Jack, about Jack Kennedy. The workshop was produced at the Norma Terris Theatre at the Goodspeed Opera House in May of '93, had a full production at the University of Oklahoma in April '95, then several weeks in Dublin, Ireland in April and May of '97. She is on the Board Emeritus of TheatreWorks/USA, is president of the Board of New Dramatists, a lifetime member of The League of New York Theaters and Producers, and secretary of Parkinsons Disease Foundation.
	RICHMOND SHEPARD: actor, writer, director, producer, Mime, has been active in Theatre and Film for over 50 years. He performed in over 100 television shows and in many films, and produced over forty plays, directing or starring in many of them. He has directed 30 short films and two features, the last "Gurneyman" co-starring David Arquette. He produces, directs and/or performs at the off-Broadway Richmond Shepard Theatre on 26th & 2nd in NYC-- recently: directed Sartre’s No Exit and Ronald Ribman’s Cold Storage, June ’09 he produced and directed the New York premiere of The Funeral Director’s Wife.
	ETHAN LEIGH SILVERMAN has recently ventured into the theater producing community, after an illustrious event producing career in New York City.  In 2010 he created, produced and trademarked Magic in the Park®, a magical, tribute show to Abraham Hurwitz, the City’s “Official Magician” and father of puppeteer Shari Lewis which showed at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater.  Soon after, he was asked to become one of the Producers of Play Dead, the Drama Desk Award nominated show created by Todd Robbins and Teller, which ran at the Players Theatre. "While partial to musicals, I admire any dramatizations that evoke emotion, have historical reference/character, are humorous, and leave you contemplative.  If it helps, my favorite playwright is Harold Pinter."
	KEN WAISSMAN is a Tony Award-winning theatre producer. Waissman's first Broadway credit was the 1971 Paul Zindel play And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little with Estelle Parsons and Julie Harris. The following year, while he and partner Maxine Fox were in Chicago, they attended Grease, a popular local play about high school life in the 1950s being performed at the Kingston Mines Theater in the Old Town section of the city. The two thought it would work better as a musical and encouraged its writers, Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, to relocate to New York City and embellish it with a score. The result was Grease, which Waissman and Fox mounted off-Broadway before transferring it uptown. It garnered him his first Tony nomination. He was nominated again for Over Here!; the third time proved to be the charm when he won not only a Tony but a Drama Desk Award as well for Torch Song Trilogy. Other credits include Agnes of God, The Octette Bridge Club. Asinamali!, Carrie - The Musical and Street Corner Symphony.
	DAUNA WILLIAMS is a member of the Tony-nominated producing team, R2D2, which was one of the producers of 12 Tony-nominated The Scottsboro Boys.  She's currently developing and/or fundraising for other theatrical and film productions for Broadway, Off-Broadway and cable.   A graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law,  Dauna is a practicing intellectual property/technology attorney.  She once founded Content360, a dot com that created interactive entertainment vehicles.  Dauna has not strayed from this vein, with her current avocation being mashable and other forms of multi-media theatre and related marketing.
Click to return to top of page. THE COACHES (check back)
	BRANDT JOHNSON, a founder of Syntaxis, is responsible for the firm’s presentation skills training practice. Syntaxis teaches employees of organizations in nearly every sector — from financial services and technology to advertising and fashion — to speak and write more powerfully. Brandt brings to his training approach an eclectic background in finance, writing, theater, and athletics. He worked as an investment banker for eight years and has also written speeches and articles for numerous corporate clients. In addition, Brandt is an actor who has performed Off-Broadway and elsewhere. He formerly played professional basketball in Europe and played on tour against the Harlem Globetrotters. Brandt graduated from Williams College with a B.A. in mathematics and has an M.B.A. in finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business.
	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.
MORE QUOTES FROM WRITERS WHO HAVE SPEED DATED WITH US
"The educational value of the Speed Date was truly helpful. I worked with Samantha, who was great. With her help, TRU helped me refine and polish my synopsis along with my pitch." ~ John Doble  "The Speed Date was a terrific experience and once I relaxed into the rhythm and sense of it, I enjoyed myself a lot, which was a surprise. I will recommend this to other of my writing friends - I think they will really benefit from it." ~ Rebecca Ortese "I wanted to say thank you for a terrific experience. I learned a lot and enjoyed meeting the producers. They were lovely, patient, and interested. The best thing for me was I learned what I didn't know. I was able to practice pitching, which was great. So, thank you. I just wrote all the writers in my theatre company and told them they should do it. And the reception was lovely, too." ~Pamela Scott "You did a magnificent job on the speed date. It was an awesome experience and I really appreciate being part of it.." ~ Dorothy Marcic "I just wanted to let you know once again how much I enjoyed the speed date Sunday night. As you promised, I really had my pitch down pat by the end of the evening. I can now pitch to anyone at anytime." ~Kathy Kafer "Thank you so much for the great Speed Date evening. It was a blast and such a great opportunity to meet with the producers. They were incredibly open and gracious and it meant a lot to all of us nervous first-time "daters." The experience of pitching in that format was really helpful in getting across what our story was in a short, concise manner, finding a way to convey it passionately, and making sure our intentions were clear. Thanks, also, to our coach Karen. She was amazing and cut and slashed away at our long, drawn out speeches.... Your efforts on behalf of writers and producers are greatly appreciated." ~Marylee Martin, writer "Thank you so much for this experience. As you well know we writers spend so much in our own little think tanks and the opportunity to meet so many interesting people - not even to mention the chance of having our work read, exposing ourselves to not just one but 22 producers is just invaluable! Everyone was kind, friendly and very positive - what a great energy in that building! On a personal note, I've always been intimidated by the verbal pitch (my brain freezes - now what was my play about?) so last night for me was a personal triumph. In short - what you've done is awesome." ~Michele Aldin-Kushner, Feb '09 "Thank you for making tonight happen and giving me an opportunity to meet so many accomplished producers. A special tip of the hat to Jane whose coaching session was so helpful. I think my pitch was strong - so much stronger than it would have been - and that's the important thing." ~John Doble "Thanks for a fabulous "Speed Dating" event. I think the most helpful part of it was to get my collaborator, Wayne Barker, and I on the same page about exactly how to pitch our show and what to highlight when we talk about it together. Jane, our coach, was amazingly helpful and calming. By the end of the pitching hour, I was exhausted but enthused by the response to our pitch. You organized a great event and both Wayne and I look forward to participating in more TRU events in the future." ~Donna Kaz and Wayne Barker "The producers were all engaging and supportive, and asked very concrete questions about cast and orchestra size, marketing opportunities, who's the audience, what other shows are like our show. As we worked our away around the circle, the pitch got more and more clear and concrete. Great fun - do it if you can!" ~Mark Sutton-Smith "It was quite an amazing experience and quite helpful to the playwright. It is wonderful that there is an organization like TRU seeking to forward the interests of creative artists and the producers who bring their work to the stage." ~Marshall Tarley "Speed Dating was very powerful for me. My learning and the powerful engagement with the producers helped me a great deal. While I would have loved sending the full script off to one of the producers, their excellent questions (each producer different by the way!) were so helpful. And their 'getting it' right away was also encouraging. And when something catches someone, then I will be less an outsider for having met these amazing people. Thank you thank you!" ~Mickey Bolmer

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