It Takes a Village – Come Meet Ours. An Introduction to TRU.
Tuesday, September 19th season opener
The Playroom Theater, 151 W. 46th Street, 8th floor
Come to our free-for-everyone seasonal kickoff and networking meet-and-greet. And meet the program directors and illustrious board members of Theater Resources Unlimited that make it possible to bring you the range of programming we offer for producers and artists. Our confirmed lineup includes TRU Board member and former program director Michael Alden, producer (Come from Away, Disgraced, Not That Jewish, Becoming Dr. Ruth, Grey Gardens); director of writer programs Diana Amsterdam (Practical Playwriting); TRU board member Patrick Blake, producer (The 39 Steps revival, Bedlam Theater's Hamlet/St. Joan, Play Dead, The Exonerated, In the Continuum), founding artistic director Rhymes Over Beats, faculty for Practical Playwriting and TRU Voices selection committee; TRU literary manager Cate Cammarata (TRU Voices and How to Write a Musical That Works); R. Erin Craig who has joined us this year as one of the program directors for our Producer Development & Mentorship Program; TRU Vice-President and co-founder Cheryl Davis, award-winning playwright, attorney; attorney Eric Goldman, Esq. who runs our Investor Lab and our Mediation Workshop (and offers free mediation services and counsel to TRU members); producer Tom Polum (The Toxic Avenger, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, All Shook Up), TRU Board member who helps run TRU Voices and How to Write a Musical That Works; Joanne Zippel (offers a free career consultation to TRU members).
Learn about our programs, including our Producer Development & Mentorship Program, the TRU Voices Reading Series, Mediation workshop and other Producer Boot Camps, Speed Dates and Actor Workshops, Writer-Producer Speed Date, Director-Writer Communications Lab, our new How to Write a Musical That Works workshop and more. And let us know what we don't offer that you wish we did.
Doors open at 7:00pm for networking and refreshments, roundtable introductions of everyone in the room will start at 7:30pm - come prepared with your best one-minute summary of who you are, and what you need. Free for TRU members;
usually $12.50 for non-members, but free for everyone for this season opener. Please use the bright red reservation box on this page, or call at least a day in advance (or much sooner) for reservations: 212/714-7628; or e-mail
TRUStaff1@gmail.com
Panelists
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DIANA AMSTERDAM
has had plays produced in New York, London, Berlin, Montreal, Los Angeles and many American cities and been reviewed by the New York Times and Washington Post. Full-lengths and one-acts are published by Samuel French, Broadway Play Publishing, Playscripts Inc. and Smith and Kraus. Her new play, The Dodgers, is slated to open at the Hudson Theater in LA on January 21, 2016, produced by AKA Studio Productions and directed by Dave Solomon. She is currently writing a commission for Mildred’s Umbrella Theater Company in Houston, TX.
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CATE CAMMARATA
is an Off-Broadway producer, director and dramaturg in NYC specializing in the development of new plays and musicals, and has been the Literary Manager for Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) for ten years. She is the Founder and Executive Producer of CreateTheater's New Works Festival and Artistic Director of The Experts Theater Company. Her company CreateTheater.com has developed and produced dozens of new plays and musicals since its founding in 2016. Off-Broadway: The Assignment, My Father's Daughter. Regional: My Life Is a Musical (Bay Street Theater), Bran Castle (Porchlight Theater). In development: Atlantis (book by Ken Cerniglia & Scott Morris, music & lyrics by Matthew Robinson), The Falling Season, a new hip hop musical by international hip hop legend Masta Ace,. During the shutdown of 2020-2022 CreateTheater developed and/or produced more than 70 shows with online readings, workshops and dramaturgical guidance. For this work Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) has honored her with the TRU Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2022. Cate holds a BFA in Acting/Directing from Syracuse University and an MFA in Dramaturgy at SUNY Stony Brook, and is Associate Professor of Theatre Arts at CUNY Baruch College. Her book, "Contemporary Monologues for a New Theater," published by Applause Books, was listed as one of the Top Ten Books for theater lovers by BroadwayDirect in 2018. www.CateCammarata.com www.CreateTheater.com
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R. ERIN CRAIG/La Vie Productions LLC
has been nurturing and developing new theatrical, film and musical artists and projects through their work as a General Manager, Production Manager, Educator, Consultant, Executive Producer and Producer. Current projects include: Austen's Pride, Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting, Beatsville, Academy, Village of Vale, Into The Wild, Right Before I Go. Past projects include: The Exonerated (OB) , In The Heights (OB, Bdwy), High Fidelity (pre-Bdwy, Broadway), Irena's Vow (Broadway), Easter Mysteries (live film), Himself and Nora (OB) , Liberty: A Monumental Musical (development, OB), Stalking the Bogeyman (OB), Velocity of Autumn (Broadway), How We Got Away With It (film); and with Houses On The Moon Theatre Company, The Assignment, DeNovo, The Santa Closet and gUN COUNTRY. Member: The Broadway League, The Off-Broadway League, EdTA, Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU); and a proud board member of Houses On The Moon Theater Company. Erin is the new Producing Director for ACT of Connecticut (actofct.org). LaVieProductions.com
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ERIC GOLDMAN
For over 25 years, Eric has provided legal services to Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award winning talent, and to technology and internet entrepreneurs. Recent projects include representing the writers of the Broadway smash hit Come from Away and the producers of the highly successful Off-Broadway musical parody of the television show Friends. Before launching his own firm in 2011, Eric worked for 15 years as a Senior Associate for entertainment attorney Mark Sendroff of Sendroff & Baruch LLP. Eric also served as in-house counsel for St. Martin’s Press and Hertz Computer. His first job out of law school was working as an associate for copyright guru Stanley Rothenberg. Eric is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and New York University School of Law.
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JOANNE ZIPPEL
is a collaborator and communicator who has an extensive network of relationships in both the creative and corporate worlds. She has over 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, working in theatre and live event production, promotion, sponsorship, B2B and B2C sales and marketing, creative development, literary management and creative coaching in the entertainment business. Joanne ‘s creative coaching business evolved out of her work as a manager of playwrights and screenwriters – guiding their careers and helping them to pursue their passions in what is well known as an often difficult, changeable and sometimes arbitrary business. Through her company Zip Creative, she works with clients helping them to open themselves up to their creative capacity, build a solid foundation from which to make authentic work and life decisions and take practical action on them. For more information go to www.zipcreative.net. Joanne graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and did graduate work at NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She is a graduate of the Hoffman Institute.
