NOLA Rehearsal Studio
250 W. 54th St., 11th fl.

You meet a producer at a party, and have two minutes to interest him in your work. Do you have the skill to sell yourself?

Click here for application. Please fill out and email to TRUStaff1@gmail.com. And do not purchase a spot through our ticketing app above left unless you have actually been accepted into the event. You must be accepted first.

Here's a chance to practice your pitching with real producers who are open to and looking for new work. Okay, they probably won't option you on the spot, but you'll meet them and have the opportunity to start developing a relationship. And that's what this business is all about. Relationships.

We'll have eleven producers lined up, from both the commercial and not-for-profit worlds, all with an interest in new projects; we also may have eleven aspiring producers from our Producer Development program. So you'll be pitching to as many as 22 producers in total!

Come with a willingness to learn, because the real value is the chance to practice your pitching. And you'll be getting invaluable coaching from experts, as well. And did we mention the wine and snacks afterwards?

Confirmed Producers include: 

• Evan Bernardin, producer/general manager
• Patrick Blake, producer (Bedlam Theater’s Hamlet/St. Joan, The Exonerated, In the Continuum, Play Dead), founding artistic director Rhymes Over Beats;
• Luis Reyes Cardenas, co-artistic director & co-founder, Open Hydrant Theater Company;
• Doug Denoff, producer (Broadway: 39 Steps, Nice Work if You Can Get It, Fiddler on the Roof revival, Off-Broadway: Clever Little Lies);
• John Lant, indie producer, artistic director, Write Act Repertory; 
• Michael Leland, indie producer/director;
• John Melo, theater and film producer (On the Town)
• Dauna Williams, producer (Broadway: Scottsboro Boys);
• Frank Zuback, commercial producer, Moolah;

Trailing Producers include:

• Adam Boncz*
• Toni Hart
• Dan Irwin
• Rich Orloff*
• Ali Kennedy Scott*
• Elyse Scholk*
• Marcos Sola*
• Christopher Stratis

Coaches:

• Gillien Goll
• Joanne Zippel

* member of TRU's Producer Mentorship & Development Program

• 

  EVAN BERNARDIN

  Evan Bernardin Productions is a general management and production company specializing in consulting and management for theatrical productions. They have supported the development of projects headed for the Broadway and Off-Broadway markets. National Tours: Million Dollar Quartet, Charlie Brown Christmas Live. Select Off Broadway: Afterglow, Must, Diaspora, Counting Sheep. EBP has worked with the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS (BCEFA), Fringe (NY & LA), The Workshop Theatre Company, and The Make A Wish Foundation; collaborative projects include performances at Lincoln Center, The United Nations, Cornell University, Georgetown's Gaston Hall, The Culture Project, The Ohio Theatre, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. www.evanbernardinproductions.com 
• 

  PATRICK BLAKE

  is a writer/producer based in New York and San Francisco, and Founding Artistic Director of Rhymes Over Beats, a hip hop theater company. In New York theater, he is a producer of the off-Broadway revival of The 39 Steps, the off-Broadway transfer of Bedlam Theater Company's dual productions of Hamlet and Saint Joan, and is currently producing My Life Is a Musical (from the TRU Voices series) which had a debut production at Bay Street Theatre. He was one of the producers of Play Dead! at The Players Theatre, he has produced In the Continuum at Perry Street Theatre, Noah's Archive, Joe Fearless, The Exonerated (Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Court TV's Scales of Justice Award) and The Soap Myth at Southstreet Seaport. He also produced Dirty Works at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He was Executive Producer for the short film, The Igloo, and the feature film Mr. Smith Gets a Hustler. Patrick is a proud board member of TRU.
• 

  LUIS REYES CARDENAS

  is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Open Hydrant Theater Company, the first ensemble professional theater company in the South Bronx. Film: Shakespeare High Executive Produced by Kevin Spacey and From Bronx to Yale Executive Produced by The Guardian. Actor: Fools in Love at MET, BAM, Lincoln Center Boro-Linc and Open Hydrant, Balm in Gilead with Barefoot Theatre Company and Durang, Durang at Open Hydrant. Playwright: Play The Papers For Lupe, Visa Decline, Place of Assembly and Last Exit In New York. He is currently a member of the New Play Development at Laguardia Performing Arts Center and a member of The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Company's Playwright Unit. He is the Director of Individual Events at The Stanford National Forensic Institute at Stanford University. 
• 

  DOUG DENOFF

  is a three-time Tony nominated Broadway producer (39 Steps, Nice Work If You Can Get It, and the current revival of Fiddler on the Roof). He has won the Drama Desk Award as a producer and television's Emmy Award, and, in 2012 received his first Grammy nomination for the Original Cast Album of Nice Work If You Can Get It, which launched his record label Shout! Broadway.  Through his company Sutton Square Entertainment, his passion is to develop and produce original new musicals and plays that can be successful on Broadway, and in regional theaters and touring companies for decades; shows that can become new classics in the world of theater. Denoff is currently represented on Broadway as a co-producer of the hit Tony-nominated Best Revival of Fiddler On The Roof at the Broadway Theatre and also co-produced David Mamet’s China Doll starring Al Pacino. Off-Broadway credits: Clever Little Lies, by two-time Tony winner Joe DiPietro, Handle With Care at the Westside Theatre, Witnessed by the World at 59e59 and the revival of 39 Steps. Denoff is lead producer of the new musical Peggy Sue Got Married, with original score by Jersey Boys composer Bob Gaudio. Shout! Broadway also produced the 2012 Broadway Cast Album of Annie along with 12-time Grammy-winning Album Producer Thomas Z. Shepard, and released the Cast Recording of Scandalous and several notable solo albums.
• 

  JOHN LANT

  (Creative Producer / Artistic Director / Consultant) 40-year veteran in the entertainment in over 700 television, film, theatre/music tours, and live theater. Pre-Covid: Production Manager at Carnegie Hall since 2006-2020 season for over 2,000 events. Award-winning producer, director, writer, lighting/set designer at Interlochen, Cal Arts, Ricardo Montalban, Powerhouse, Glendale Center, Hollywood Playhouse, Long Beach Playhouse, the Jewel Box Theatre Center and Write Act Repertory garnering DramaLogue, Diamond, ADA, NAACP Awards, LA Weekly and Backstage Pick of the Week, Garland and Valley Theatre (LA) nods. Executive Producer New Frequency - Theatre of the Mind 150 original Radio Dramas for SIRIUS/XM Radio's Sonic Theatre - Ranked #1 Radio show. Mentored with Jonathan Sanger & Chanticleer Films for two shorts that won an Emmy and an Oscar, Howard Storm CBS Radford and TRU PDMP Master fellow under Jane Dubin and Jennifer Issacson.  Directed TV / Pilots Symphology, Carrot Talk, BET JAZZ Master Awards (1&2), Toronto Independent Shorts Awards, Funiki-Jam Season 2, and Anonymous Confessions. 14 Off-Broadway Lead Producing (union and non-union) credits include FABULOUS! 2By Tennessee Williams, Lili Marlene, Frankenstein, It Came from Beyond, Wicked Frozen, Teen Party Massacre, SWING!, Wicked City Blues, Great Cat Massacre, GEEKS! (St. Luke's & Actors Temple). Recent Pre-COVID LA productions: Finest Hour (Winston Churchill), Wicked Wicked Mae West, The Lester Young Story, and Frank and Eva. TV/Film Credits include King of New York, The Freshman, Army of Darkness, Renegade, Power Rangers, and HBO Max's The Flight Attendant (CCO Supervisor). Tours include Phantom of the Opera, Singin' in the Rain, Gypsy, and Evita. Current Off-Broadway pre-production Pearl Bailey Musical (with Tony winning team members of Dreamgirls! and Hamilton). Development Director/Consultant - Twisted Media NYC, Nathan Murphy Prod, Gatehouse Entertainment, Tin Mirror Prod and Trinity Theatrics for new network and streaming content. COVID Compliance Officer for Film/TV/Theatre.
• 

  MICHAEL LELAND

  is a two time NY Times critically Acclaimed Director, two time Village Voice critics choice. Currently reviving Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf. Michael's work has garnered critical acclaim from everyone from The New York Times and Village Voice to Stage Magazine and the Philadelphia Inquirer. In April 1998, Lincoln Center Theatre named Mr. LeLand to the Directors Lab. He was also one of only twelve directors selected by the Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab to be showcased at Here Center for Contemporary Arts in the American Living Room Series. Mr. LeLand had the honor of directing Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award Winner, and Academy Award nominee Jason Miller in his one man play Barrymore’s Ghost. As an actor he has recently created and originated the role of Mark Taylor in The New York Times critically acclaimed Philadelphia Fringe production of Pig Iron Theatre's 99 Breakups. Other favorite roles include critically acclaimed turns as Hoke in Driving Miss Daisy and Jim in Big River. He originated several roles in Theatre Double productions including Harold Prine Artaud in ...And the Sky Can Still Fall on our Heads, Mr. Jack in J. Rufus Caleb's Ballad of Mistauh Jack and Malcolm Magic in Magic Bookshop series. He filmed a lead role in the web based mini Musical Pay to Play. This fall he will be recording his first cd, live The Sacred and The Secular.
• 

  DAUNA WILLIAMS

  is a member of the Tony-nominated producing team, R2D2, which was one of the producers of 12 Tony-nominated The Scottsboro Boys.  She's currently developing and/or fundraising for other theatrical and film productions for Broadway, Off-Broadway and cable. A graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law, Dauna is a practicing intellectual property/technology attorney. She once founded Content360, a dot com that created interactive entertainment vehicles. Dauna has not strayed from this vein, with her current avocation being mashable and other forms of multi-media theatre and related marketing. where she is currently a board member. Dauna speaks frequently on the topics of intellectual property, technology and outsourcing. Ms. Williams received her undergraduate degree from Brown University and juris doctorate from Harvard Law School.
• 

  KEN WAISSMAN

  is one of only two producers in the history of Broadway to have a musical run over 3000 performances and a play run over 1000. (The other producer he shares this distinction with is the legendary David Merrick.) Waissman developed and produced the original Broadway production of Grease as well as two of Broadway’s longest running plays, Agnes of God by John Pielmeier and Torch Song Trilogy by Harvey Fierstein.Waissman's first Broadway credit was the 1971 Paul Zindel play And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little with Estelle Parsons and Julie Harris, and his prolific Broadway efforts have resulted in four motion picture features, a PBS TV special, 25 Tony Award® nominations, and 5 Tony Awards® including a Tony Award® as ‘Best Play Producer.’ His new musical, Josephine, inspired by Josephine Baker, had its World Premiere in April at the Asolo Theatre in Sarasota, Florida. Deborah Cox played the title role and Joey McKneely directed and choreographed.
• 

  FRANK ZUBACK

  was the Lead Producer for Moolah, a new comedy by Arje Shaw (The Gathering). Currently he is helping develop three new works: Taking Leave, American Soldier and Roof of the World. Frank has also had the great privilege of working on a number of shows and projects with the late director Tom O’Horgan (Jesus Christ Superstar, Hair). In addition, he has worked on over twenty musicals and was involved for thirty years on the Tony Awards. Also involved in the music and entertainment industry, Frank has worked with luminaries as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, conducted the Count Basie Orchestra, and the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and consulted on nine Super Bowl half-time shows. Mr. Zuback founded Frank Zuback Productions, which provides a wide range of services in the music and entertainment industry. Website - http://fzpi.com
• 

  ADAM BONCZ

  is a producer, performer and artistic director of SceneHouse Productions. He got his certificate in Arts Management at the State University of New York. With SceneHouse Productions he produced the world premiere of Fatelessness based on the novel of Nobel Prize winner Imre Kertész. The show was nominated for an New York Innovative Theater Award.  He was also the executive producer of O.Rex, an immersive theater production by Gia Forakis & Company. As an arts manager he has collaborated with the Times Square International Theater Festival, the interdisciplinary opera Women:The War Within at the Baryshnikov Arts Center and the Dries Van Noten Retrospective at the Museum of Les Arts Decoratifs in Paris. He also served as a casting associate in David Michalek's critically acclaimed project Figure Studies commissioned by Edinburgh Fringe Festival. 
• 

  TONI HART

  is a New York-based writer/producer. She is the President of The Fortune Theater Company, a New York 501(c)(3) organization that produced a series of anti-drug plays in the New York City school system. She will be producing a country music comedy called Hellcats of the Wheel in Nashville this winter. It is a family show about the whiskey-runners who started the sport of stock car racing. Toni is also a storyteller and this fall she will be performing The Weatherman Monologue, an inquiry into the reasons some of her best friends in college formed the group called the Weathermen and blew themselves up in a townhouse in Greenwich Village.
• 

  DAN IRWIN

  is the founder of H Danforth & Co. Over the last four years Dan has worked with almost every major Off-Broadway theatre as well as on Broadway and at Radio City. Recent credits include Why You Beasting?, The Joint, Ruthless!, Fuerza Bruta, and more. Current projects include The Nose and a soon to be announced Broadway musical planned for the 17-18 season.
• 

  RICH ORLOFF1

  is the "relatively artistic director" of the Foolish Theatre Company, an Off-Off Broadway company which has produced six of his comedies, including Funny As a Crutch (NY Times Critic's Pick) and Romantic Fools (published by Playscripts, resulting in over 90 productions around the world).  Earlier this year his Off-Off Broadway production of his documentary-style play Chatting with the Tea Party received raves by the Huffington Post and other critics; it will be presented later this year by Ashland Contemporary Theatre in Oregon and Everyman Rep in Maine.  He's written about 18 full-length comedies (mostly comedies, mostly award-winning) and over 80 short plays, which have received over 1300 productions around the world - and a staged reading in Antarctica.  www.richorloff.com  
• 

  ALI KENNEDY SCOTT (Trailing)

  is an actor, writer & theatre producer. She produced & performed 10 seasons (across 3 continents) of her multi-award winning solo show The Day the Sky Turned Black, called 'Enthralling’ by The New York Times. Other producing credits include: Stage Fright (Australia), Chekhov Vaudevillettes (The Wild Project & The Brick) & Parramatta Now (Australia); as Associate Producer Mermen (TRU reading series). As an actor, favorite roles have include: Blanche in the sold out season of the Avenue Q styled Thank you for being a Friend; Gertrude Stein in A Serious Banquet; and an Olympic Swimmer in the site specific Pool Play.  Ali is a board member of Anne Bogart’s SITI Company, a member of TRU's Producer Development & Mentorship Program, as well as a graduate of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School & SITI’s conservatory program. In addition, Ali has also worked as a management consultant providing strategic advice to many fortune 500 businesses and holds first class honors in Economics from Sydney University. Future projects as an actor include Calderon's TWO DREAMS with Magis Theatre Company at La Mama in February 2017, and her next solo show examining women in leadership. www.alikennedyscott.com