Saturday December 7, 12pm to 6:30 pm EDT
Our annual workshop reformatted and rethought for virtual presentation.
Polaris North Studio, 245 W. 29th Street, NYC
Simul-streamed on zoom for attendees and presenters outside of NYC.

"Gee, I'm just an artist" no longer cuts it when you make the move from page to paying audience – you are now the CEO of your brand!  In this groundbreaking workshop we will look at how artists can successfully take on the challenging role of "producer" to generate their own opportunities. The ones who are most successful have to master a range of business skills, don a variety of hats, and learn to be expert jugglers.

Come learn to view your creative work from a business perspective and understand the need to think differently. Make smarter choices, not only now but also for the future of your show. It all seems a little overwhelming at times, but we will break it down into easily digestible bites. When you know what you're doing, it can actually be fun and fulfilling! Cost: $135, $95 for TRU members (see red registration box on this page). 

"I just want to thank you for the amazing workshop you put on yesterday. It was the best six hours I have ever spent on Zoom …  I was so riveted by all the speakers that I didn’t collapse until after it was all over.... I have been taking other workshops as well, but these particular speakers presented super useful information in a very relatable form – not too didactic or formal, but also without a lot of filler. Just straight-up, useful information." ~Daphne White (in CA)

"I can't thank you enough for the opportunity today. It was just so informative and inspiring!" ~Angela Polite

Led by TRU executive director and writer-producer Bob Ost. Guest speakers will include: 

• Victoria Cairl, marketing expert  founder and CEO of Table 7 Strategy;
• Eric Goldman, entertainment attorney;
• Emileena Pedigo, CEO/Founder of The Show Goes On, building supportive environments to develop, incubate, showcase and launch creative expression using #AnotherWay;
• Blair Russell, production advisor/strategist and producer, founder of Show Shepherd, a strategic theatrical development company, and producer (Slave Play, off-Broadway's long-running immersive Sweeney Todd) and the leader of TRU's producer development program's Foundations of Producing. www.blairrussell.net
• Cynthia Shaw, actor/singer/pianist/writer/producer (solo show Velvet Determination);
• Bailie Slevin, financial advisor and recovering stage manager, 
• Adina Taubman, actor/writer (A Line in the Sand), artistic director of her own theater company, Chrysalis.

Our curriculum (subject to change):

11:45 check-in

12:00-12:30 Intro and “Why Are You Doing This?” with Bob Ost & Emileena Pedigo

• If you don’t know where you’re going, you can’t know how to get there.
• How your goals affect your choices.
• Understanding your property and identifying your audience.
• Wearing many hats, but one at a time.

12:30-1:15 "Legal Pitfalls and Protections" with attorney Eric Goldman

• Agreements: collaborator, options, contracts, and more.
• What you need to know when you ask for money. And what your responsibilities are.
• Underlying rights, intellectual property protections, licenses.

1:15-2:15 “Let's Talk about Money. (Please Don't Put It on Your Credit Card!)” with Bailie Slevin

• Understanding how money works
• What you believe is what you get
• Where/how to find the money
• Where/how to pitch
• How to close

3:30-4:15 “Planning Ahead and Making it Happen” with Blair Russell

• Having a vision of what this play could be and how far it can go. 
• Thinking and planning beyond your current production.
• Finding your team. It’s never a one-man show (even if it sometimes feels like it).
• Developing leadership and management skills.
• How much do things really cost? How much should you pay people?  How to have those conversations and more.

4:15-5:00 "Self-Producing in the 21st Century: Using Technology to Work Globally" with Blair Russell

• Making markets: New York is not the only place to produce theater, get your show produced in the UK, Germany, Mexico, and around the world. 
• Software and hardware tools all self-producers need.
• AI as a tool for production, not a replacement for art.  
• Virtual development and production
• Best practices for social media

5:00-5:15 Break

5:15-6:00 Keynote panel: "Successful Self-Producers Share Their Secrets" - with Cynthia Shaw, Adina Taubman and others tba

• How to capitalize on this production in order to plant the seeds for the next step.
• Long-term strategies and sources of support.
• How to get help when you think you can't afford it.
• Persistence, persistence, persistence. (And how to best focus your energy while you persist.)

6:00-6:30 Q&A/networking

• 

  VICTORIA CAIRL

  has worked in the industry for over twenty years and brings her knowledge of advertising, marketing, sales, ticketing, and tourism to the table. She has held positions at Serino Coyne, TMG, Disney Theatrical, The Met Museum, Lincoln Center,  and Show-Score. She has successfully run Table 7 independently since 2019.
• 

  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.
• 

  BOB OST

  While still a senior at U. of Pa., his one-act Beast was produced by Bob Moss in the first season of Playwrights Horizons. He went on to write book, music and lyrics for the off-Broadway revue Everybody’s Gettin’ into the Act at the Actor’s Playhouse, and Finale!, Grand Prize winner in the 1990 American Musical Theater Festival Competition (presented at NAMT) and the 1992 New American Musical Writers Competition, and a finalist at the O’Neill Music Conference in 1989. More recently his musical Angel in My Heart won Best Musical in the Fresh Fruit Festival. He won the New Works of Merit Playwriting Competition for his play Breeders, previously a finalist at the O'Neill, as well as a selection of the TRU Voices New Plays Reading Series. The Necessary Disposal was a finalist in the Maxim Mazumdar New Play Competition at the Alleyway Theatre in Buffalo, has been a finalist in three other national competitions, and was part of the Shotgun Productions New Play Reading Series and the Oberon Theatre Reading Series, both in NYC; his one-act A Glass of Water was part of the Lovecreek Festival, HomoGenius Festival, Downtown Urban Arts Festival; other one-acts have been showcased all over New York. He won a 2004 OOBR Award for the review "Songs Are Like Friends", and is a 3-time MAC nominee. While he was producing his own musical revues at cabarets around Manhattan he discovered he could combine his artistic talent with the business skills he was picking up in the advertising world. The idea of Theater Resources Unlimited was born, with the help of co-founders (and  fellow writers) Gary Hughes and Cheryl Davis in 1992. He has gone on to produce musicals Civil War Voices and Rip in the Midtown International Theater Festival, and the classic Chinese musical, Romance of the Western Chamber.
• 

  EMILEENA PEDIGO

  Emileena's work focuses on building sustainable careers #AnotherWay, using entrepreneurial strategies that prioritize the artist over their art.  Her company, The Show Goes On Productions provides coaching and artist management, as well as produces workshops, showcases, and events.  Before that Emileena was managing producer of the Midtown International Theater Festival.  She helped expand the annual festival into seven venues, presenting up to 60 shows in one month during her seven-year tenure.  Emileena also general-managed for several nonprofits, assisted Stewart F. Lane on four Broadway shows, including the Off-Broadway transfer of The 39 Steps, and worked on various film and music festivals.  She toured theaters, music arenas, and schools across the country, working with artists from all artistic disciplines.  Emileena has served on the board of Conscious Capitalism NYC, and helped to build Arts programming within the Chelsea Greenwich Village Chelsea Chamber of Commerce.  She is a graduate of the Commercial Theatre Institute, SUNY/Kaufmann's Fasttrac program for entrepreneurs, and a Purdue University alum. 
• 

  BLAIR RUSSELL

  is a producer who specializes in developing new works for the theatre. Recent projects include the off-Broadway play Still with Melissa Gilbert which he found at a TRU Speed Date, new musical Lizard Boy which has been performed in 4 countries including Off-Broadway, For Tonight, which premiered in concert on the West End at the Adelphi Theatre, DIVA: Live From Hell! (Edinburgh, Off West End), and Pop Off, Michelangelo! (Edinburgh, Off West End). He was a producer on Slave Play which held the record for most Tony-nominated play in history, is developing the new musical Salem which has over 50k followers on social media, and executive produced the first two concept albums in the EPIC series which have over 150 million streams globally. Other projects as co-producer / investor include The Wiz (National Tour/Broadway 2024), Sweeney Todd (Immersive Off-Broadway 2017), and Gypsy with Imelda Staunton (West End 2014). Blair is Co-Chair of the Board of The New Harmony Project and a member of the Board of Trustees of Goodspeed Musicals and SPACE. He is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University with a BFA in Technical Theatre/Stage Management.

   
• 

  CYNTHIA STEPHENS

  Dr. Stephens has always been a theater-lover and after a career in the clinical field of Speech Pathology, she founded Sacred Ground Productions as a necessary response to stereotypical narratives about Black people for the sake of theatrical entertainment. Cynthia has written two musicals, including Nineteen Secrets (not your grandmother’s Harriet Tubman), The Princess and the Golden Yam (a classic Black fairy tale), and one straight play, Painted Red (about the life of Henrietta Lacks). She has also authored four children’s books, On Days Like These, 133 Daunting Days, Before Day Clean, and The Princess and the Golden Yam. Dr. Stephens has also edited one adult book titled The Chains That Join (a collection of personal stories, poems, and tributes from people of the African diaspora). In 2021, Cynthia Stephens produced and narrated her first hour-long documentary film about COVID and the Black community. Dr. Stephens believes that people should author their own stories, tell their own truths, and shine their own lights. After all, “Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.” (African Proverb).