Announcing the next TRU monthly panel

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RECENT MEETINGS/EVENTS

Wednesday, July 28th, 7:30 (doors open 7pm)
New Media: Using Video As a Marketing Tool

Generating usable content for new media within Equity's guidelines... using multiple platform formats for maximum efficiency ... internet video usage, video hosting, how and where to post ... Facebook integration with YouTube ... demographic analytics of different posting sites ... and more!

Hillary Cutter, Commercial Producer (Co-Founder/ Co-Producer Van Hill Entertainment, ROOMS A Rock Romance) Owner/Executive Producer of Cutter Productions + Management (Commercials/Promos, Music Videos, TV/Film, & Integrated Web content); Edward Highfield & Evan Frushtick, co-founders of Project Pause video production and multimedia marketing; Jeremy Handelman, commercial producer (White's Lies, F#@king Up Everything), principal of Off The Leash Productions (commercials, trailers, viral videos,  promos,  event videos and actor reels); Philip Katz, producing director Broadway Theatrical (ImaginOcean); Evan Seplow, founder of StageBuddy.com and CEO of The ImageFactory, a film & multimedia production company.

The Players Theatre, 115 Macdougal Street, Mainstage Theatre

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Wednesday, June 23rd, 7:30 (doors open 7pm)
Marketing Your Showcase:
Finding Your Audience, Punching Up Sales, Getting Reviewed
Though the Fringe, Midtown International Theatre Festival and other festivals offer many advantages to a producer, and have strong marketing initiatives in place for the festival itself, it often surprises a producer to discover how much work they must do promote their individual show. Is it easier to market a showcase in a festival than to market a showcase you produce on your own? How do you tap into the festival audience for your own show? Or do you really have to build your audience on your own, as you would for an independent showcase? In or out of a festival, what is the timeline for press releases? How do you get reviewed? Panelists will talk about this and more, including case studies of showcases that have been successfully marketed, and filled the houses. What were their secrets?

Panelists (left to right): TRU's Bob Ost; Emileena Pedigo, producing director Midtown International Theatre Festival; Sarah Kate O'Haver, marketing consultant Midtown International Theatre Festival, consultant on Broadway Market Research for ERM;Paul Siebold, Off Off PR; Akia Squitieri, Rising Sun Performance Company, production consultant, producer in the Frigid Festival; Michael Roderick, Small Pond Enterprises LLC, marketing consultant, Fringe and festival producer. (Photos by Ellis Gaskell.)

The Players Theatre, 115 Macdougal Street, Mainstage Theatre

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Wednesday, May 19th, 7:30 (doors open 7pm)
EQUITY 2.0:
Upgrades to the Basic Codes and Contracts

Wednesday, March 17th, 7:30 (doors open 7pm)
New Trends in Marketing for the Arts,
and Effective Uses of the Internet

The internet has become an essential tool for marketing all businesses these days, but not everyone knows how to use it effectively. We'll talk about the importance of a web presence and what goes into a well-designed website, secrets of successful e-commerce sites, techniques for driving people to your web page, social networking do's and don'ts, and how inter-active marketing has changed the way we all do business. We'll also discuss the relative costs of marketing through the internet, and what else you might need to drive your ticket sales.

Panelists: Jim Glaub, Creative Director of Art Meets Commerce; Zach Overton, VP of Sales for Plum Benefits, former Director of Marketing for Broadway.com; others tba.

The Players Theatre, 115 Macdougal Street, Mainstage Theatre

Wednesday, February 17th Producing Opportunities Beyond New York: Fringe Circuits, Colleges, Arts Centers and More Think outside the New York box, and consider the advantages of being produced and seen around the country, even the world. We will touch on APAP (Association of Performing Arts Presenters), as well as APCA and NACA (the two college circuit conduits) and the Fringe circuit. How do you determine your best markets, approach them and get booked? Who pays well, who barely covers expenses? What are they looking for? How do you budget, and do you adjust the budget to the market? Where do you even start putting together a viable tour that at least pays your expenses, or possibly makes some money? The Players Theatre, 115 Macdougal Street, 3rd floor Loft

Left to right: Ronald Rand, Dorothy Marcic, Nancy Holson, Dorothy Leeds.

Nancy Holson, producer/writer (The News in Revue, Bush Wars, Parenting 101); Dorothy Leeds, writer-perfomer (has booked her one-woman show Good Lessons from Bad Women, around the country); Dorothy Marcic, writer (her musical Respect has played in 17 cities with over 2200 performances); Ronald Rand, writer-performer (currently tours across America and the world in his solo play, Let it Be Art! as Harold Clurman, founder & publisher of “The Soul of the American Actor,” authored "Acting Teachers of America"); Virginia Scott, director-writer (Fringe tours, books shows regionally and in New York City, including The US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, The Theatre at Monmouth in Maine, The Comedy Central Theatre and UCB LA in Los Angeles; and internationally at The Guilded Balloon in Edinburgh, The Centaur Theatre in Montreal, the Grahamstown International Festival in South Africa and festivals throughout Canada).

Wednesday, January 20th at 7pm
Don't Give Up: Adapting Your Fundraising Strategy to the Current Economy

Money is scarcer these days. Government funding to the arts has been drastically cut. Yet again. Where do theater companies turn for support? How do we operate healthily with less money? And why have some companies managed to actually grow during the 2009 recession? We'll talk about methods of cultivating individual donors in hard times, reducing or adapting programming and other necessary strategies to survive.

Jill Garland, director of development Playwrights Horizons, former general manager Naked Angels; Fran Kirmser, fundraising consultant (Lincoln Center Avery Fisher Hall, Musical Theater Works, Pentacle, Sandra Cameron Dance Center and Doug Varone and Dancers), founder of Manhattan Theatre Source, board of directors of Apples & Oranges Productions (Hair, Memphis); David Winitsky, freelance development consultant (Institute of Music for Children, Green Recoverings, Playwrights Theatre).

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

Saturday, January 9th at 11am - 1pm (doors open at 10:45)
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival Roadshow!
A special panel we are co-presenting in association with Edinburgh Fringe and Paul Lucas Productions

The roadshow is a chance to meet Fringe Society staff and participants to find out more about performing at the largest arts festival in the world. There will be information about how the festival works, tips on making the most of your experience and an opportunity to ask your questions. Panel to include: Kath Mainland, Chief Executive, Edinburgh Festival Fringe; Christabel Anderson, Edinburgh Festival Fringe; Laura Mackenzie Stuart, Universal Arts (Edinburgh); Paul Lucas, Paul Lucas Productions; and Desiree Burch, Performer. To reserve, email participants@edfringe.com

NOTE: this is a special TRU co-production panel, and not at our usual venue. Remember to go to The Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow Street.

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.