NOLA Rehearsal Studio
244 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 - we already have our full lineup of producers, so check them out below, and apply early!

Submission deadline Wednesday 6/14. We will let you know if you are accepted by Sunday 6/18. 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: 

• Margot Astrachan - producer (A Gentleman's Guide..., Ghost the musical, Around the World in 80 Days, Nice Work If You Can Get It, On a Clear Day...);
• Evan Bernardin - producer/general manager (Nancy & Tonya: The Rock Opera (NYMF), What Do Critics Know? (NYMF), We Are The Tigers and The Dodgers);
• Doug Denoff  - producer (Broadway: 39 Steps, Nice Work if You Can Get It, Fiddler on the Roof revival, Off-Broadway: Clever Little Lies);
• Ed Gaynes - producer (Cougar the musical, Zero Hour, Black Angels Over Tuskegee, Fried Chicken and Latkes), theater owner St. Luke's, manager Actors Temple; 

• Jim Kierstead - producer (Indecent, Natasha Pierre..., Sunset Boulevard, Kinky Boots, Waitress, Yank!);
• John Lant - indie/off-Bway producer (Fabulous), artistic director Write Act Repertory;
• David Vernon Lustig/No Filter Productions (Cedar Street, American Pastime);
• Veronique Ory - artistic director of Athena Theatre Company;
• Daryl Sledge/Mother's Boy Productions - film and off-Broadway producer (Fried Chicken and Latkes; upcoming: Pound for Pound; plus films in development);
• Ken Waissman - producer (original Grease, Torch Song Trilogy, Agnes of God, current Josephine the musical);
• Dauna Williams - producer (Broadway: Scottsboro Boys);
• Frank Zuback - commercial producer (Taking Leave, American Soldier, Roof of the World)

Coaches:

• Gillien Goll
• Bailie Slevin

Trailing Producers:

• Sharon Barnett
• Mark Brystowski, indie film and theater producer (Bamboo In Bushwick, The Nose, Bachelorette)
• Ali Kennedy Scott*, indie producer
• Jessica McCoy*, indie producer
• Allen MacLeod, associate producer (Borrowed Cash and Burn All Night at TBD Theatricals, Roughly Speaking at The Platform Group)
• Gary Plotkin
• Dan Radford, associate producer with Davelle LLC (Indecent, Eclipsed, It Shoulda Been You)
• Monika Robbins*, Finance Associate, Davenport Theatrical Enterprises; worked on Come From Away, Waitress, Finding Neverland, Midnight at the Never Get

* member of TRU's Producer Development & Mentorship Program (PDMP)

• 

  MARGOT ASTRACHAN

  is a Tony Award winning commercial theatrical producer based in New York. Broadway: Diana, A New Musical, The Prom, Tony Award winning A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, The Realistic Joneses, Nice Work If You Can Get It, the revival of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever; Bonnie & Clyde; Busker Alley, Ghost the Musical National Tour, and the only staging of Stephen Sondheim’s Evening Primrose. She also produced The Sting starring Harry Connick Jr. at The Papermill Playhouse. Margot wrote, produced and performed five one-woman cabaret shows.  New York: Danny’s Skylight Room, Judy’s, The Plaza Hotel, The Oak Room of The Algonquin Hotel, the Triad, The National Arts Club, and Don’t Tell Mama’s, among others. With dancer/choreographer Carmen de Lavallade, she wrote the book of a new Jazz musical, which has been read at Lincoln Center and at The York Theater. Margot was the American Artistic Director of the Jermyn Street Theatre in London and The Kings Head Theatre in London, and has had over 30 years’ experience producing special events for Arts Organizations such as The York Theatre Company, The Theatre Museum, and Brit-Arts of The St. George’s Society, which with Jim Dale, featured British and American theatre professionals in readings and panels in New York. She was the Vice Chair of The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), and is a board member of The Alumni & Friends of The LaGuardia High School for the Arts, Chair of the Theater Advisory Committee of the Library For the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, a Board Member of The Transport Group and Co-Chair of the Rachel Crothers Award of the League of Professional Theatre Women. She is a graduate of CTI (The Commercial Theatre Institute) and is a member of The Association of Performing Arts Presenters, The National Alliance For Musical Theatre, The Broadway League, The Dramatists Guild, the Advisory Board of TRU, British American Business, Inc. and BAFTA East Coast. She is the past chair of The American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Her latest project is Radio Galaxy by Michele Aldin Kushner (found in the TRU Voices series) and directed by Mark Waldrop, currently in development. She is a graduate of CTI (The Commercial Theatre Institute) and is a member of The Association of Performing Arts Presenters, The National Alliance For Musical Theatre, The Broadway League, The Dramatists Guild, the Advisory Board of TRU, British American Business, Inc. and BAFTA East Coast. She is the past chair and current board member of Theater Resources Unlimited and The American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. 
• 

  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 
• 

  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.
• 

  ED GAYNES

  As a theatre producer, Mr. Gaynes’ Off-Broadway productions include the long-running hit Black Angels Over Tuskegee (10 years), as well as Zero Hour (Drama Desk Award), The Devil’s Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith (Drama Desk and Lortel nominations), Danny and Sylvia: The Danny Kaye Musical, The Rise of Dorothy Hale, The Big Voice: God or Merman?, Cougar The Musical, Picon Pie, Emily Mann’s Annulla, A Brush With Georgia O’Keeffe, Trolls, Panache, Chaim’s Love Song, Matty: An Evening with Christy Mathewson, Einstein: A Stage Portrait and Bein’ With Behan, which was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award. He also produced over 50 productios in Los Angeles, including the West Coast premieres of Marry Me a Little and Starting Here, Starting Now and was nominated for four Ovation Awards, Los Angeles’ highest theatre honors, for his productions of The Taffetas and Songs the Girls Sang. Mr. Gaynes also produced the National Tour of Gilligan’s Island: The Musical, which played coast to coast. He currently operates an Off-Broadway theatre in New York City: Actors Temple Theatre, and for fifteen years operated St. Luke’s Theatre, all through it’s glory years. He also operates the Whitmore-Lindley Theatre Center and the BrickHouse Theatre in Los Angeles. He has appeared as an actor in 13 Broadway and Off-Broadway shows including Greenwillow with Anthony Perkins, The Body Beautiful with Jack Warden, Promenade with Madeline Kahn, Edward Albee’s Bartleby and Best Foot Forward, in which he co-starred with Christopher Walken and Liza Minnelli and sang “Buckle Down, Winsocki” on the original cast album. TV credits range from Mary Martin’s Peter Pan to “Cheers”, “Kojak”, a recurring role on “The Patty Duke Show”, “N.Y.P.D.”, “The Sid Caesar Hour”, “Playhouse 90”, “The Ed Sullivan Show”, among many others, as well as a two-year run as Paul Stewart on “As the World Turns”. He was recently presented with the “Legend of Off-Broadway” honor by the Off-Broadway Alliance at Sardi’s in New York City.
• 

  JIM KIERSTEAD

  is a Grammy-nominated, Emmy, Olivier, and six-time Tony Award-winning producer of the Broadway, touring, Toronto, and London productions of Kinky Boots, Pippin, Hadestown, The Inheritance, The Lehman Trilogy and Company.  In addition, he has been a co-producer of 25 Broadway productions including Ain’t Too Proud, The Minutes, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Waitress, The Visit, You Can’t Take It With You, Indecent, The Great Comet (all Tony nominated), Mrs. Doubtfire, Be More Chill, Pretty Woman, Side Show, It Shoulda Been You, M. Butterfly, Rocky, among others.  Off-Broadway projects include Unexpected Joy, Yank! (Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Nominees), Bright Colors and Bold Patterns, and Thrill Me - The Leopold & Loeb Story (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Nominees).  He has produced London productions including Waitress, Dreamgirls, Pretty Woman, Be More Chill, Unexpected Joy, Yank!, Thrill Me, Night of the Living Dead and Aspects of Love.  Film/TV projects include the Emmy winning TV series The Bay, we well as Indoor Boys, Emmy-nominated After Forever and Wakefield starring Bryan Cranston and Jennifer Garner. Along with his Broadway Factor partners, Jim produced the hit immersive show Amparo in downtown Miami for Bacardi.  Jim is on the Board of Directors of The York Theatre Company, The Abingdon Theatre Company and is the founder of the digital theatre content creation company Broadway Virtual. 
• 

  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.
• 

  VERONIQUE ORY

  Co-founder of Athena Theatre, a nonprofit theatre organization, founded in July 2003. It is through Athena Theatre that Veronique is able to produce amazing thought provoking work that she is truly proud of. Veronique has gained several awards such as being named Top Ten Best Actress in Los Angeles by NoHo LA, reviewplays.com, Entertainment Today and Metro LA. Eight years and thirteen plays later, she was hired to produce an Off-Broadway production of Stitching which originally performed at the Lillian Theatre in Hollywood. This experience propelled her to move to NYC in May 2009. She is currently bi-coastal as Actor and Artistic Director.
• 

  DARYL SLEDGE

  is a theater producer as well as a film and television professional. He was the producer of the Off-Broadway solo project Fried Chicken and Latkes written by and starring Rain Pryor at the Actors Temple Theatre. His main objective is producing commercially whether it be Broadway, Off Broadway, Regionally/Touring and the West End. Daryl is lead producer for the play Pound for Pound by Steven Alexander, which he found through TRU's Speed Date, and is in negotiations to present a professional staged reading of the work. He produced the documentary, That Daughter's Crazy featuring Rain Pryor (winner of Saatchi and Saatchi Achievement in Film Award), and the HBO Best Short Film, 2nd LiFE by Jake Alexander, which is now in the first round for being nominated for Best Live-Action Short Film for the Academy Awards. He is developing a feature length screenplay/film based on the murder of Emmett Till and producing two smaller independent films: Satellite Flight and The Dark. He has been a member of Theater Resources Unlimited and has and is taking courses and attending seminars at CTI. He would love to see more people of color and women get involved with these two great organizations.
• 

  DAVID VERNON LUSTIG

  is a New York City-based theatrical producer and investor. His first theatrical venture, in 2002 in a co-production with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was presenting the world premiere stage reading of The Song that Killed the  Snake, about how the Spanish Civil War, alcohol, infidelity and insanity fueled the creative brilliance of famed Mexican composer Silvestri Revueltas. In 2014, David was associate producer of a four week industry workshop of The Countess of Storyville, a new musical that was subsequently optioned for development. David has optioned two plays now in development: Based on artists whose studios were near Ground Zero, Cedar Street  follows the extraordinary journey of a 9/11 survivor and the two men in her life in a world gone mad. And American Pastime, in which legendary pitcher Leroy “Satchel” Paige confronts two other legends of the game – Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Lands and owner Bill Veeck – to get at the surprising truth of why he didn’t break baseball’s color barrier years before Jackie Robinson.
• 

  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.
• 

  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.
• 

  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
• SHARON BARNETT (Trailing)

  has self produced five readings of her musical "Sammy's Bowery Follies " and co-produced with her musical "Socks" with the York theatre. SHARON was the producer of the tristate Broadway interview TV show "Personality Profiles" for multiple years.  
• MARK BRYSTOWSKI (Trailing)

  is an emerging producer of theater and film. Theater: Bamboo In Bushwick (Working Theater), The Nose (Master Theater), Bachelorette (sold out run at Soho Rep.), Between Men (MITF Nom. Outstanding Production), Broken City: Wall Street (PopUp Theatrics). Film: Interiors (Dir. Reed Van Dyk), Zenith (Dir. Ellie Foumbi, premiering at Lincoln Center). Directing: Private Lives (Cap21). Production Management highlights: God of Vengeance (La MaMa - NYT Critic’s Pick), Death of a Salesman (Drama Desk Nom.). He has collaborated with Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, LAByrinth Theater Company, The New Group, Sinking Ship Productions, Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, Nomad Theatrical Co. and many others. Mark has worked on productions for VH1, Collegehumor, UCB, Brooklyn Sound, and We The Internet. He is always excited by the opportunity to meet new artists and expand his producer's toolkit. 
• 

  ALLEN MacLEOD (Trailing)

  is a NYC-based director and producer. Directing and assisting credits include Out of Touch (Secret Theatre); Fireside Chat (Manhattan Rep.); Frozen: A Musical Spectacular (Disney Cruise Lines); and Presto Change-o, A Little More Alive, Real Hard Math, and Man of La Mancha (Barrington Stage). Producing credits include Borrowed Cash and Burn All Night (TBD Theatricals) and Roughly Speaking (The Platform Group).
• 

  JESSICA MCCOY (Trailing)

  currently works at NY Writers Coalition as their Director of Development & Communications, after several years of working as an Associate Director for capital and endowment campaigns, feasibility studies and development assessments at CCS Fundraising and as an independent fundraising/non-profit management consultant. Prior to working as a consultant, she worked with United for Peace and Justice and other grassroots arts/community organizing non-profits in development and program management.  She studied at NYU in arts administration and fundraising, and her undergraduate work at the University of Iowa, where she studied vocal music, language arts education and literacy. When she is not immersed in fundraising, she enjoys writing plays, doing improv, and producing, designing and seeing live theater and music. She is a current member of the TRU PDMP program and is in the process of developing a writing group for playwrights and a new works reading series.
• 

  DANIEL RADFORD (Trailing)

  originally hails from Idaho, and landed in NYC by way of Tokyo, Japan. Along with the title of Uncle to 12, he is also a certified personal trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Daniel has a BA in Business Communication from Arizona State University, after beginning college at Brigham Young University. A slight detour between colleges lead to 4 years in various locations working for the Walt Disney Company: Disneyland CA, DisneyWorld FL, Disney Cruise Line, and Tokyo Disney Resort working as both actor, stunt performer, and trainer for shows such as: Hunt for Jack Sparrow, and Turtle Talk With Crush. Following his involvement with Disney, Daniel was introduced to Broadway as Office Manager and Tour Manager for a Broadway Merchandising/Co-Production entity, managing the accounts of: Kinky Boots, After Midnight, The Color Purple, On the Town, Pippin, as well as touring with Pippin The First National. Currently Daniel is Associate and managing member at Davelle LLC, which is owned and operated by Executive Producer Jacki Barlia Florin (Scottsboro Boys, Eclipsed, Love Letters, Bullets Over Broadway etc.). Davelle LLC most recently is Co-Producing Indecent in association with Four Star Productions, which is currently open on Broadway at the Cort Theater. 
• 

  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