Theater Resources Unlimited / Back Stage Industry Panel

Producing on the Edge: The Commercial Value of Controversy

Tuesday, April 15 at 7:30 pm

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) and Back Stage will host the networking panel, Producing on the Edge: The Commercial Value of Controversy, on Wednesday, April 15 at 7:30pm at The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street (below W. 3^rd Street), NYC.

Panelists include David Mogentale, artistic director of 29th Street Repertory, “Where brutal theater lives” (Killer Joe, The Conversation); producer Janet Pailet (Masked, Great American Trailer Park Musical); general manager Seth Goldstein of The Splinter Group (Masked, Christine Jorgensen Revealed); producer Jonathan Pollard (Dai (enough), Imagina, The Thing About Men, All Shook Up); and Alfred Preisser, artistic director Classic Theater of Harlem. The panel will address:

* politically timely and / or racially sensitive plays;

* guidelines for producers for are making choices that may not be considered so safe;

* when and if these risks can pay off;

* how to market these event plays; and

* the fine line between relevance and exploitation.

The panel will be co-moderated by Sherry Eaker, editor-at-large of Back Stage. Doors open at 7:00pm for networking and refreshments, panel starts promptly at 7:30pm. Admission is FREE for members of TRU; $10 for non-members. To reserve a space at the panel or to become a member of TRU, please call 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 theatre community by providing information and a variety of entertainment-related services and resources that strengthen the capacity 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 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,” says Ost, “and we get more visibility through the Back Stage connection.”

TRU also publishes a bi-monthly newsletter and a weekly email newsletter update. 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, and most recently created a Producer Mentoring Program whose mentors are among the most prominent producers and general managers in New York theater. This coming March, TRU will associate producer its first Equity showcase, Missives at 59E59 Theatre, a play that was developed in the 2006 TRU reading series.

Programs of Theater Resources Unlimited are supported in part by public funds awarded through the New York State Council on the Arts 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