Saturday October 14, 12pm to 6:30 pm EDT
Our annual workshop reformatted and rethought for virtual presentation.
We are in conversation now about making this a live event with a zoom component 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: $130, $85 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: 

• dramaturg/director/producer Cate Cammarata of CreateTheater.com;
• Broadway and off-Broadway producer and actress Charlotte Cohn (Here Lies Love, Church and State);
• entertainment attorney Eric Goldman;
• production advisor/strategist and producer Blair Russell 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;
• Emileena Pedigo, CEO/Founder of The Show Goes On, building supportive environments to develop, incubate, showcase and launch creative expression using #AnotherWay;
• Self-producing writers Jonathan Hogue (Stranger Sings!) and Nico Juber (Millennials Are Killing Musicals).

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.

15-minute break

1:30-2:30 “Planning Ahead and Making it Happen” with producer 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.

3:30-4:15 “Raise Money from Anyone, Anywhere for Any Project!” with Charlotte Cohn

• Where/how to find the money
• Where/how to pitch
• How to close
• Q&A

4:15-5:00 “Finding & Creating Opportunities” with Cate Cammarata

• The impact the pandemic has had on the development process, and how to add "virtual" to your plan.
• The development options: table read, staged reading, showcase, festivals, cabaret, virtual and more.
• Getting your plays out there in the world: licensing, and getting the most out of it.
• Fringes and festivals. 

5:00-5:45 Keynote panel: "Successful Self-Producers Share Their Secrets" with writers Jonathan Hogue (Stranger Sings!) and Nico Juber (Millennials Are Killing Musicals)

• 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.)

5:45-6:30 Q&A/networking

• 

  CATE CAMMARATA (TRU literary manager)

  is an Off-Broadway producer, director  and dramaturg in NYC, dedicated to the development of new plays and musicals. She is the Founder and Executive Producer of CreateTheater's 2022 New Works Fest, the Associate Artistic Director for Rhymes Over Beats Hip Hop Theater Collective and has been the Literary Manager for Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) for ten years. Off-Broadway: The Assignment, My Father's Daughter. Regional: My Life Is a Musical (Bay Street Theater). Cate's company CreateTheater, has been helping writers develop and produce new work since 2016. 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 an MFA in Dramaturgy from SUNY Stony Brook and is an Associate Professor of Theatre Arts at CUNY Baruch College.  www.CateCammarata.com  www.CreateTheater.com
• 

  CHARLOTTE COHN

  was born in Denmark and raised in Israel where she served in the Israeli Army as a commanding officer. She was the lead producer of The NY Times critics’ pick Handle With Care and the critically acclaimed Church & State, both written by Jason Odell Williams. Directing highlights include Best Friends at JAZZ at Lincoln Center and Church & State at Berkshire Theatre Group. Acting highlights include La Boheme and Coram Boy on Broadway. Charlotte is pn the producing team for the Broadway production of Here Lies Love, has been an Ovation Award Winner and was nominated for the Bay Area Critics’ Circle Award for her performance as ‘Hallelujah Lil’ in Happy End at A.C.T. For more please visit:  www.charlottecohn.com
• 

  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.
• 

  MONICA HAMMOND

  is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Big Leap Brands LLC, working with clients to understand their business as well as we know our own, because small opportunities can be found in the most granular aspects of any business that will make a huge impact, including opportunities for clients in their marketing, systems and processes, expenses, and more. As a marketing professional, Monica has worked on numerous Broadway shows, including the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of Once On This Island, Deaf West’s Spring Awakening, It’s Only A Play, Gettin’ The Band Back Together, as well as the National Tour of A Night With Janis Joplin. Off Broadway: That Bachelorette Show, The Awesome 80s Prom, Daddy Long Legs, A Better Place. She is also the Founder and Chief Coloring Officer of Curious Custom Coloring Books, and Founder of Broadway Murder Mysteries.
• 

  NICO JUBER

  is a musical theatre composer, lyricist, bookwriter, playwright, and proud graduate of the TRU PDMP Foundations & Master Classes. She won awards in the 2021 Drama League Light the Lights Songwriting Contest and the 2020 NAMT 15-Minute Musical Challenge. Her original musical comedy, Millennials Are Killing Musicals, has been featured as part of New York Theatre Barn's New Works Series and presented recently in sold-out concerts at Feinstein's/Vitello's (L.A.) and Feinstein's/54 Below (NYC). http://nicojuber.com
• 

  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 2014 Fresh Fruit Festival. He won the 2011 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 2010 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 Tony-nominated producer, developer, whose experience ranges from fringe festivals to Broadway shows. His most recent theatre projects include the 12-time Tony-nominated Slave Play, Lizard Boy, and the concept recording of the new musical For Tonight. As Co-founder and Director of Operations for Resounding, he produces live immersive entertainment. Blair has been a guest speaker/artist at a number of institutions including the University of Maryland, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts, and the York School in Monterey, CA. He was also a visiting lecturer for the semester-long Atelier program at Princeton University where he collaborated with composer Georgia Stitt on her oratorio The Circling Universe. Blair has appeared as a guest on a number of podcasts (American Theatre Artists Online, A Star Is Bored, Backstage Talk, Broadway ReFocused), webseries (Actors Unscripted, Awkward Conversations, Be Our Guest! - Live and In Color, Dreamland XR, In The (Home) Office - Goodspeed Musicals), and at global conferences (National Alliance for Musical Theater, Global XR Conference, Immerse Global Summit Series)