Announcing the next TRU monthly panel

RECENT MEETINGS/EVENTS

Tuesday December 13th, 7:30pm (networking at 7pm)
Producing BIG Results on a small Budget

Panel: John Lant, producing artistic director of Write Act Repertory and Hollywood Civic Light Opera in Los Angeles and Write Act Eastside in New York; Michael Roderick, producer and general manager Small Pond Entertainment; Robert Sherrill general manager Pit Bull Productions.

Many worthy projects don't have big bucks behind them, but deserve to be seen and find an appreciative audience. Sure, turning the dream into reality may involve a few compromises along the way; but you may be able to achieve more than you expect if you first start with good planning, a team of people with the experience to make the magic happen, and a knowledge of affordable resources and shrewd negotiating.

The Players Theatre, 115 Macdougal Street, 3rd floor

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Tuesday November 29th, 7:30pm (networking at 7pm)
Developing New Musicals In and Out of New York

Panel (above left, left to right): Brett Bernardini, artistic director of Spirit of Broadway in Norwich CT; Tom Morrissey, director, former co-artistic director ReVision Theatre in Asbury Park, NJ, previously artistic director with Texas Star Theatre in Dallas/Ft. Worth area, and founding artistic director of The Genesius Theatre Guild, NYC; John Lant, producing artistic director of Write Act Repertory and Hollywood Civic Light Opera in Los Angeles; Jim Morgan, producing artistic director York Theatre; Richard Rose, artistic director of the Barter Theatre in Abingdon VA. Photos by Elena Kondracki. Can regional theaters attract an audience for original musicals, or must they depend on the tried and true revivals? Are there musicals that play better in the regional theaters than in New York? Conversely, are there New York hits that miss in other cities? What are the most important thing an artistic director must consider when choosing a new work for his audience, and what can writers and commercial producers do to make it easier for regional theaters to sell these works? Is there a financial life for new works outside of New York? Or is the Broadway imprimatur needed to generate ongoing interest around the country? The Players Theatre, 115 Macdougal Street, 3rd floor

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Thursday evening November 10th, 7pm
Finding the Ability in Disability: Performance and Panel
Panel will include disabled artists, academia personnel and other activists discussing barriers for disabled artists and how to overcome them, increase visibility, etc. Richard III features all disabled actors, except for Richard which in turn becomes his disability. This will highlight disabled actors in traditionally non disabled roles. Hosted by Nicholas Linnehan, Executive Director Identity Theater Company with panelists Debra Otté, professor at Montclair University; Ike Schambelan, artistic director Theatre Breaking Through Barriers; June Rachelson Ospa, Director of Youth Programming at AMAS.

Joria Stages, 260  W 36th St 3rd floor. It is handicap accessible.

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Tuesday October 25th, 7:30pm (networking at 7pm)
I'll Never Do THAT Again:
Successful Producers Confess Their Early Mistakes

With Dan Markley, producer (Stomp, Vagina Monologues, Shockheaded Peter, Damn Yankees revival, White Christmas, High Fidelity); Jeffrey Richards, producer and press representative (Chinglish, Bonnie & Clyde, Porgy & Bess revival, Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson, Hair revival, Speed-the-Plow revival, Talk Radio, Radio Golf, Enchanted April).

The Players Theatre, 115 Macdougal Street, 3rd floor

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Wednesday September 21st, 7:30pm Asking for Money: What the Arts Need to Learn About Fundraising. With Ben Cameron, arts program director for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, former executive director of Theatre Communications Group (TCG); Laura Fredricks, International Philanthropic Advisor, and Best-Selling Author of "The ASK"; Bruce Payne, executive director of the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation.

Do social service organizations and educational institutions know things we in the arts don't know about raising money? From the funders' point of view, do the asks look noticeably different, and are there smart practices outside the arts that we in theater might benefit from adopting? This panel of experts will look at these differences as well as the most effective ways of asking for money in general, including techniques that have proven successful for others over the years, both in grant writing and donor cultivation. Insights will also be offered into the mission and thinking of the foundations who are represented, and what "asks" have stood out for them over the years. The Roy Arias Payan Theatre, 300 W. 43rd Street, 5th floor

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Wednesday July 27th, 7:30pm
It Takes an e-Village: Crowdsourcing and How to Make It Work for You.

With Jessica Ammirati, independent theater producer and crowdfunding vet who has done successful theater projects on both Kickstarter and RocketHub; Brian Meece, CEO and co-founder of Rockethub.com; Anthony Francavilla, producer (When Last We Flew, The Living Newspaper, And She Said He Said I Said Yes, The Fartiste); Juliana Steele, the Program Specialist for Fiscal Sponsorship at Fractured Atlas.

In June we looked at social media as a broad resource for marketing. In July we will focus on raising money through crowdsourcing, shorthand for the trend of leveraging the mass collaboration enabled by current internet technologies to achieve business goals. New websites like Rockethub, Kickstarter and Indiegogo have allowed for actual fundraising through the internet. The practice has engendered great controversy, yet there is enormous potential when choosing the right project and approach. Find out how it works, and meet some people who have used it successfully.

The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, 3rd floor Loft

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Wednesday June 29th, 7:30pm Strategic Social Media and New Media Marketing: Keeping Ahead in the Age of Technology The employment rate for Internet Technology professionals has never before been so high- and with good reason. Today's world is literally accessible at the tweet of a button and more and more companies are using social networks, blogging communities, video hosting, and engaging online media to growth their business by collecting an infinite amount of statistical information with metric results. It's no different in theatre and it's here to stay. So how do you jump in and use it effectively? The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, 3rd floor Loft

Panel at left, led by moderator (far left) Meredith Lucio: Kathryn Jones, New Media Producer, former Vice President of For Your Imagination; Angie Gannon, Social Media Manager at Situation Interactive; Ruben Brache, Producer (Little Women, Shout!) and Director of Social Media at studentrush.org; Shoshana Greenberg, Marketing Assistant at Primary Stages and formerly Roundabout Theatre Company.

 

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Wednesday May 25th, 7:30pm (networking at 7pm)
Catch Me If You Can Get the Rights:
Adapting Films into Musicals

With Margo Lion (Catch Me If You Can, Hairspray, The Wedding Singer, Come Fly Away, Caroline or Change) and Hal Luftig (Catch Me If You Can, Legally Blonde, Movin' Out, Come Fly Away, Thoroughly Modern Millie). Co-moderated by Van Dean (Catch Me If You Can, Rooms: A Rock Romance, Saint Heaven) and Bob Ost.

Identifying a movie property with musical potential, how many hoops do you have to jump through to get the rights, what what makes it sing, and how do you put together the right creative team to translate it into something stageworthy? When is a familiar movie a marketable brand, and when is it just a good story with a proven stucture? How open (or resistant) are movie fans to tampering with their beloved classics? Does a stage version of a film attract a wider audience?

Doors open at 7:00pm 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 (or much sooner) for reservations: 212/714-7628; or e-mail TRUnltd@aol.com

The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, 3rd floor Loft

 

Wednesday April 27th, 7:30pm (networking at 7pm) The Not-for-Profit Survival Kit: Cultivating Donors, Non-Traditional Funding, Diversified Revenue Streams Panelists (at right) left to right: Jonathan K. Waller, Director of External Affairs at Vineyard Theatre;Tania Camargo, Executive Director, Soho Rep; Shira Beckerman, Managing Director, Pearl Theatre Company; Adam Turner, Manager of Individual Giving at Playwrights Horizons;

Though we're finally starting to face the future with cautious optimism, it is clear that government and private funding are scarce right now; and ticket sales are unpredictable and undependable. We will look at keeping your not-for-profit healthy and thriving in hard times, through income other than ticket sales: the importance now more than ever of cultivating individual donors … corporate sponsorship, or ways of involving neighborhood businesses … whether Kickstarter and crowdraising is a viable alternative right now, or whether other creative fundraising events are more useful …  and ways of generating income through alternative programming, where possible. The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, 3rd floor Loft

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Wednesday March 30th, 7:30pm (networking at 7pm)
What Are We Going to Do About Off-Broadway?

With Ken Davenport, producer (off-Broadway: Miss Abigail's Guide to Dating, Mating and Marriage, Altar Boyz, My First Time; Broadway: 13, Oleanna revival, Blithe Spirit revival); Alan Schuster, producer (off-Broadway: Play Dead; Broadway: On the Waterfront, Damn Yankees revival, Play On!); Cheryl Wiesenfeld, producer (off-Broadway: Play Dead, The Exonerated, In the Continuum, The Waverly Gallery; Broadway: Legally Blonde, A Steady Rain, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Caroline or Change). Off-Broadway used to be a developmental playground for new works, an affordable environment for risk taking and experimentation. Now the high costs of producing and marketing commercial off-Broadway shows have made it virtually impossible to break even or turn a profit, with some notable exceptions. Is it now best-suited for not-for-profit productions? We will look at what shows work off-Broadway, some new commercial models for producing that might make off-Broadway feasible, and how we can re-purpose off-Broadway and perhaps brand it for greater success than is currently the norm.

Cheryl Wiesenfeld and Ken Davenport

The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, 3rd floor Loft

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Wednesday February 16th, 7:30pm (networking at 7pm)
Fifth Wheel or Engine? The Role of a Producer in Early Development of New Work.

With Beth Blickers, literary agent Abrams Artists Agency; Peter Flynn, artistic director Hangar Theater in Ithaca NY; Jayson Raitt, producer (Murder for Two, A Killer Musical; Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory; Vanities, A New Musical; Make Me a Song: The Music of William Finn Off-Broadway & London; Being Alive, an all-Black Sondheim musical; NAMT Festival of New Musicals; and Pasadena Playhouse); Greg Schaffert, producer (All Shook Up; Burn the Floor; Bat Boy the Musical off-Broadway and London; How to Save the World and Find True Love…; Brian Dykstra’s Cornered & Alone and Forsaking All Others; William Donnelly’s Magnetic North in NYC and Painted Alice in Washington DC).

We will look at the logical time in the development process for a producer to attach himself to a work, how an agent functions in getting early productions, whether a writer benefits more from having an agent or producer involved early on (or both), how agent and producer can work together for the success of a property, what a producer's role is before an option, how a producer can be compensated for his work, standard deals that an agent negotiates on behalf of writers. We will focus on opportunities outside of New York, and how to access them, and address the challenge of regional theaters that only want to do world premieres, and where that leaves a promising new work after that single premiere.

The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, 3rd floor Loft

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Thursday January 27th, 7:30pm (networking at 7pm)
New Models for Success: The Commercial / Not-for-Profit Partnership

With Doug Aibel, artistic director of the Vineyard Theatre (Avenue Q, [title of show], The Scottsboro Boys); Robyn Goodman, producer (off-Broadway: Bat Boy the Musical, Jonathan Larson’s tick, tick…BOOM!, Our Lady of 121st Street, Red Light Winter; Broadway: A Class Act, Metamorphoses, In the Heights, Avenue Q, Steel Magnolias, Barefoot in the Park); RK Greene, producer (Room Service, Love Child); Kevin Kennedy, managing director The Peccadillo Theater Co. (Room Service, Another Part of the Forest, Talk of the Town); Randall Wreghitt, producer (Aesop and Company, Lieutenant of Inishmore, Grey Gardens, Little Women).

Where do new shows come from? More often than not, they are nurtured and developed in not-for-profit theaters, both regionally and here in New York. How does a commercial producer participate in the process? How does a not-for-profit with a promising show find a commercial partner? What are the different permutations of the "enhancement deal," a once questioned model that has evolved into prominence over the last ten years or more? How do developmental productions effect the commercial budget of a show? How hard is it to leverage a successful non-for-profit run into a Broadway or off-Broadway move? What are the hurdles, pitfalls and challenges? At what point should a commercial producer start thinking about a transfer?

Doors open at 7:00pm 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 (or much sooner) for reservations: 212/714-7628; or e-mail TRUnltd@aol.com

The Roy Arias Studios, 300 W. 43rd Street, OB Theatre, 5th floor

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Thursday, January 20th, 7:30 (networking at 7pm)
Funding Panel: The Current Struggle

Co-hosted with Pele Bauch of The Field. Panelists: Kevin Bitterman, Associate Director of International Programs for Theater Communications Group;Zach Hollwedel, Member Services Associate for ART/New York (The Nancy Quinn Fund Grant, The Fund for Small Theaters and the Edith Lutyens & Norman Bel Geddes Design Enhancement Fund); Stacy Cooper McMath, Associate Arts Program Specialist, Department of Cultural Affairs; Morgan von Prelle Pecelli, Development Director, Performance Space 122; W. Kerry Huang, Executive Director, Mud/Bone Collective.

This panel of funders and fundraisers explores the granting process, how applicants and granting organizations work together, and the future of arts funding within the larger economic climate. We will also discuss the guidelines for opportunities offered by panel organizations and best practices for making a targeted ask.

The Roy Arias Studios, 300 W. 43rd Street, Payan Theatre, 5th floor

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Thursday, December 17th at 7pm Cooking from Scratch: How a Producer Puts Together the Ingredients of a New Musical Where do new musicals come from? Sometimes the ideas spring from the mind of a producer, not a writer. The art of creative producing is back and thriving. Meet some producers who come up with concepts, get the rights, hire a writing team and put all the pieces together to cook up a brand new musical. How involved do they get in the creative process? And how tricky is it to let go and let the writers do their job? How do they guide the process without being intrusive? The Players Theatre, 115 Macdougal Street, 3rd floor Loft Theatre

Above, left to right: Tom Polum, producer (The Toxic Avenger); Randy Adams, Junkyard Dog Productions (Vanities, Memphis); Ken Waissman, producer (original Broadway productions of Grease, Over Here!, Agnes of God, Torch Song Trilogy and the upcoming musical, Josephine); TRU's Bob Ost. Photos by Ellis Gaskell.