Theater Resources Unlimited presents 2019 Weekend Intensive for Showcase Producing

Theater Resources Unlimited
presents
2019 Weekend Intensive for Showcase Producing
July 20-21, 2019
Clinton Cameo Studios
 
Early Bird Discount through 7/1 – save $50 to $60!

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) presents the 2019 Weekend Intensive for Showcase Producing on Saturday and Sunday, July 20 and 21, 2019 from 10am to 6pm at Clinton Cameo Studios, 307 W. 43rd Street, Studio B (take elevator down to B level). Please reserve using the bright red reservation box at https://truonline.org/events/2019-weekend-intensive/ or e-mail TRUStaff1@gmail.com with questions.
 
If you’re planning to produce or self-produce, do it right, do it smart, do it cost-effectively. Learn the ins and outs from experts with this once-a-year weekend workshop that offers basic and not-so-basic training for producers, geared to those producing at the in-the-trenches reading and Equity Showcase level. And with particular application for those planning to produce in the upcoming festivals. We call it a “Boot Camp” but we will help you transform what can be an uphill battle into a smooth-running operation!
 
You will meet a phenomenal lineup of experts including Broadway producers Cheryl Wiesenfeld (4-time Tony winner for Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike, Porgy & Bess, All the Way, Elaine Stritch: At Liberty); general manager Evan Bernardin of Evan Bernardin Productions; plus entertainment attorneys Lee A.G. Feldshon and Eric Goldman, Carnegie Hall production manager John Lant, marketing and public relations expert Joe Trentacosta, financial consultant Bailie Slevin and casting director Jamibeth Margolis. Other speakers tba. The intensive will cover everything from Legal Requirements to Production Timeline and Budgeting to Raising Money and Marketing. Every aspect of showcase producing is broken down into easy-to-understand step-by-step modules, including a discussion of the differences between producing in a festival and producing on your own. Which is the best route for your project? Which will make you the most profit?
 
Limited to 40 participants. Cost: $280 for non-member ($210 until July 1st) $225 for TRU members ($175 until July 1st) Membership/Workshop Package: $300 ($250 until July 1st) Second attendee: $100.
FESTIVAL SPECIAL: registrants accepted into FringeNYC, NY Theaterfest, Dream Up, Broadway Bound, NYMF or other festivals take $20 off (email TRUStaff1@gmail.com for code)
 
Find applications by going to https://truonline.org/events/2019-weekend-intensive/
The information we ask for is useful in customizing the material presented to your needs. Use the online link or download application, then pay through the bright red registration block on this page or by mailing a check to the address on the application.
 
 
SCHEDULE (subject to change):
 
Saturday July 20
 
9:30-10am – coffee and cake/bagels
 
10:00 – keynote speaker: tba
 
10:15-10:45 – “Clarifying Your Goals: Why Are You Producing This?”. Should your show be commercial or not-for-profit? In a festival or produced independently? How much should you be spending? How big a theater do you need? So much depends on what you hope to achieve. 
 
10:45-11:30pm -“What You Need to Know Before Asking for Money” with attorney Lee Feldshon. Investments, donations and gifts – do you know the difference? We’ll look at commercial, not-for-profit and fiscal sponsorship models, and what you need to know about each when asking for money for your production.
 
11:30-11:45 – BREAK
 
11:45-12:30 – “Legal Schmegal: Contracts, Options, Underlying Rights and More” with attorney Eric Goldman. Additional legalities to consider: Do you have the right to produce this show? How do you go about getting the option? How do you do this without encumbering your property unnecessarily? Do you need to set up a legal entity to produce a showcase?
 
12:30-1:00 – “Producing Published Works: Licensing Made Painless” – So you think that play you read or saw a while ago would make a great showcase for your actor friends. You still need permission to produce it, even in a low-profile showcase in a borough. Learn the right way to go about seeking those rights, and what the costs may be.
 
1:00-2:00 – LUNCH
 
2:00-2:30 – “Watching Your Figures: Putting Together a Smart Budget” with Evan Bernardin. An overview of basic line items in a showcase budget, and a realistic look at what things actually cost.
 
2:30-3:15 – “Union Codes & Contracts: Equity, SDC, DG, 802” with Evan Bernardin. The gospel according to Actors Equity, and how it sets the rules for readings, showcases and beyond. Plus realistic expectations when dealing with the directors’ union, the Dramatists Guild and the musicians’ union. 
 
3:15-3:30 – BREAK
 
3:30-4:15 – “Box Office and Ticketing Options” This is a business. You need to be careful about money and accurately track your sales. There’s no mystery to it: there are tried-and-true systems for handling this. And though you are ultimately responsible for your performance tallies, different ticketing options can be helpful in different ways. Which ticketing service will best serve your show?
 
4:15-5:00 – “Producing Smart: Fringes and Festivals, or On Your Own?” moderated by Bob Ost. There are advantages to producing in the Fringe or a festival, but there are also trade-offs. We’ll discuss what you need to consider before deciding the best (and potentially most profitable) path for your production.
 
5:00 – Keynote speaker: tba
 
5:30pm-6:00pm – networking reception
 
Sunday, July 21
 
9:30-10am – coffee and cake/bagels
 
10:00-10:45 – “Putting Together Your Production Team” with John Lant, technical director of Carnegie Hall, artistic director Write Act Rep. Things to consider when hiring your design team, and what your designers need from you. 
 
10:45-11:30 – “How to Find (and Book) the Right Space” with John Lant. Black box or proscenium? Wing space, fly space, lighting and tech requirements, location and more. 
 
11:30-11:45 – BREAK
 
11:45 -12:30 -“Creative Fundraising (Please Don’t Put It on Your Credit Card!)” with financial advisor and producer Bailie Slevin. Crowdsourcing, different kinds of fundraisers and how to just get over it and ask for the money you need. We’ll include belief systems and how they affect us, and understanding how money works.
 
12:30-1:15 – “Project Management: Setting Timelines, Managing Teams, Defining Outcomes” with Bailie Slevin. It pays to get the order right. How far in advance do you book a space? Hire your creative staff? Start the marketing? Raise the money?
 
1:15-2:15 – lunch
 
2:15-2:45 – “How to Run an Efficient Audition, and When, Why and How to Use a Casting Director” with Jamibeth Margolis.
 
2:45-3:30 – “Finding Your Audience: An Overview of Marketing” with Joe Trentacosta. Defining the basics: marketing, advertising, PR. And how does social media fit into all this? What are your most important expenses on a limited budget? How do you identify and reach your audience? Should a showcase producer ever do his own marketing?
 
3:30-4:15 – “The Essentials of Successful PR”with Joe Trentacosta. What goes into an effective press release? When should releases be sent out? How do you stand out from the crowd?
 
4:15-4:30 – BREAK
 
4:30-5:15 – “Next Steps: What Happens After That Showcase (and How to Prepare)?” moderated by 4-time Tony Award winner producer Cheryl Wiesenfeld . The best way for your show to have a future is to plan ahead the moment you decide to produce that first showcase, festival presentation or reading. A panel of producers will talk about the steps they took to grow their brand.
 
5:15 – Keynote speaker: Cheryl Wiesenfeld
 
5:30-6:00pm – networking reception
 
 
 
About the Panelists:
 
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

 Lee A. G. Feldshon:
Lee A. G. Feldshon has over 23 years of experience in entertainment and corporate law. He recently formed Feldshon Law PLLC to launch his private practice, after having partnered with David Schwartz in Feldshon & Schwartz, LLP for the last 10 years. He represents producers, co-producers, composers, bookwriters, lyricists, directors, and other creatives in the live theatrical industry. He has represented the New York Musical Theatre Festival since its 2004 founding. He was production counsel for the Broadway revival of Pump Boys & Dinettes and represented stars (including a Tony-award winning actor) in connection with the Tony-award winning Broadway musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. He did legal work for Desperate Measures (2018 Drama Desk Award for original music and lyrics), Who’s Your Baghdaddy,Money Talks, Bloody, Bloody, Jessica Fletcher, Liberty, Emojiland, Rooms, and other Off Broadway shows. He represents co-producers on the Broadway productions of Moulin Rouge, King Kong, and Chasing Rainbows. He negotiates screenplay option/purchase agreements and financing documents for film producers, and has worked as film production counsel for Good Girls Gone, Fly Away (SXSW Official Selection), and the documentary Darkon: An American Fantasy (2006 SXSW Audience Award). While Director of Legal Affairs and Business Development of the Radio City Entertainment division of Madison Square Garden, L.P., he worked on The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, A Christmas Carol, and Rockettes performances. As a Levine Plotkin & Menin associate, he worked on Rent (Broadway, touring), The Wild Party (Broadway), De La Guarda (Off Broadway), and other shows. He started his career as a corporate associate at White & Case. He received a B.A. from Columbia College in 1991 (magna cum laude, Rhodes Scholar State Finalist) and a J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1994 (Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar). Bar Admissions: New York.
Eric Goldman:
Eric Goldman has more than 20 years of experience as an entertainment attorney. While Eric specializes in theater law matters, including project financing, Eric also practices in the film, television, music, music publishing and new media fields. As an artist’s representative, Eric has worked on behalf of numerous award winners, including Tony-award winners Howell Binkley, Jason Robert Brown, Jerry Mitchell, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman and Academy Award winner Howard Shore. Eric also works as a producer’s representative, including serving as production counsel to the Tony Award winning producers of Def Poetry Jam and several Tony Award winning producers. In addition to Broadway, Off-Broadway and Independent projects, Eric has worked for producers and artists in connection with productions seen around the world, including London, Sydney, Tokyo and China. Eric also regularly counsels not-for-profit theaters such as Northlight Theatre in Chicago and Blank Theatre in Los Angeles. In other media, Eric has represented American Idol vocal coach Debra Byrd in the negotiation of merchandising and master class seminar agreements, and has negotiated web site development, maintenance and rights acquisition agreements for Broadwayworld.com, the LEGO Bionicle’s website and for Dick Morris’ VOTE.COM web site
 
John Lant:
John Lant (Producer/Artistic Director) is a 35-year veteran in the entertainment industry and has been involved in over 600 television, film, music tours, and theatrical productions. An award-winning producer, director, writer, lighting/set designer, he has mounted productions at Cal Arts, Ricardo Montalban, Powerhouse, Glendale Center, Hollywood Playhouse, Long Beach Playhouse, the Jewel Box Theatres and Write Act Repertory garnering DramaLogue, Diamond, ADA, NAACP Awards, LA Weekly and Backstage Picks of the Week, Garland and Valley Theatre (LA) nominations. As an Executive Producer of New Frequency – Theatre of the Mind, he produced 150 all-new original Radio Dramas for XM Radio’s Sonic Theatre – Ranked as the #1 Radio show. With Jonathan Sanger at Chanticleer Films, he worked on two shorts that won an Emmy and an Oscar, also mentored under Howard Storm and directed Children’s TV Pilots Symphology, Carrot Talk, and Anonymous Confessions. Recently as Producing Artistic Director of Write Act Repertory/Director of Development for Twisted Media NYC his Off-Broadway production of FABULOUS! The Queen of Musicals! Other Off-Broadway Lead Producing credits; 2by Tennessee Williams (AEA), Pillars of NY; Off-Broadway productions currently running: Lili Marlene, Frankenstein, It Came from Beyond, Wicked Frozen, and in pre-Production Pearl-The Musical (with creative team members of Dreamgirls! Original Broadway Cast); Los Angeles productions currently running: – Finest Hour (Winston Churchill project), Wicked Wicked Mae West West, and Prez – The Lester Young Story. 
 
Jamibeth Margolis:
Jamibeth Margolis is now in her 20th year as a professional casting director in New York. She was with Johnson-Liff Casting, Cameron Mackintosh, and Margolis-Seay Casting and is now out on her own as a freelance casting director. Previous credits include the Broadway and National Touring Companies of such mega hits as Les Miserables, The Phantom Of The Opera, Miss Saigon, Cats, and Jane Eyre as well as two dozen other shows on Broadway. She also currently casts for Off Broadway, National Touring Companies and shows for prominent regional theaters and all of the major theater festivals in NYC. Her casting office is dedicated to the development of new plays and musicals. Additional casting credits include multiple television pilots and on camera industrials for major US companies. Currently Casting: Pete (Her) Pan (Cleveland Musical Theatre), Fiddler On The Roof In Yiddish (Stage 42 Off Broadway), National Yiddish Theatre, Sistas: The Musical (Off Broadway), This One’s For The Girls (Off Broadway), Rebel Rebel: The Many Lives Of David Bowie (Tour) and more. Jamibeth is also an accomplished stage director. Theatrical directing credits include Family Dinner at the Beckett Theatre on Theatre Row and Do I Hear a Waltz? and Jekyll and Hyde at the Arvada Center Theater in Denver. Jamibeth served as assistant director to Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks on the Broadway revival of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial and also on Jules Feiffer’s A Bad Friend at Lincoln Center Theatre. She has also helmed developmental productions and readings of the following new works: Naked In Encino, Owl Creek, Far From the Madding Crowd, Plane Crazy, Great Googley Moo, 1812, and Warsaw. She teaches musical theater, acting, and audition technique in studios all around NYC. She serves on the BFA Acting Faculty at Pace University and BFA Musical Theatre Faculty at Rider University. Member: Actors’ Equity Association, the Casting Society of America, and the Stage Directors And Choreographers Society and ATPAM.. She served as a Tony Awards Voter for three Broadway seasons. Member: Lincoln Center Directors Lab. She holds a degree from Ithaca College in Drama/Directing.
 
 
Bailie Slevin:
Bailie Slevin is the founder of Entertaining Finance, a financial consulting and consulting firm geared specifically towards freelancers, specifically those in arts and entertainment. With 13 years of experience as a financial adviser and a hefty resume in theater, she is redefining planning for artists and entrepreneurs. She’s worked with Certified Financial Services and Forest Hills Financial Group in finance and teaches Financial Literacy and Well-being workshops and speaks throughout the region on the specifics of Financial Management for Artists. As a stage manager, general manager, and producer on Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway, Tony Awards, Drama Desk, OBIE Awards, and IT Awards pepper Bailie’s resume. Some of her favorite projects include The Norman Conquests, Altar Boyz, Naked Boys Singing!, Pursuit of Persephone, A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant, and Popesical in Concert at Joe’s Pub. She currently serves as a board member for The PATH Fund and “Rockers on Broadway, a non-profit Arts organization committed to bringing arts education to all. Visit www.EntertainingFinance.com to learn more.
 
Cheryl Wiesenfeld:
Following a career in publishing, Cheryl began her theatre producing career in 1998. Broadway: The Heidi Chronicles, All The Way, Rocky, Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, A Steady Rain, Legally Blonde, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, ‘night Mother, Caroline or Change, Elaine Stritch At Liberty, and Hedda Gabler. Off Broadway: 10th Anniversary Exonerated, Play Dead, In The Continuum, Shockheaded Peter, Talking Heads, The Exonerated, The Waverly Gallery. Film: Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me. Current: Ain’t Too Proud- The Temptations musical. upcoming:The Harder They Come. Cheryl has produced shows that have spawned national and international tours and sit down productions, regional productions, and London engagements which have grossed hundreds of millions of dollars. Cheryl has won numerous awards for her productions including the Drama League, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, New York Drama Critics Awards and 4 Tony Awards. She has been honored by Theater Resources Unlimited with “The Spirit of Theater” award in 2007, and The Houses on The Moon Amplify 2015 Award for her support in championing the unheard voice. Her board commitments: Theater Resource Unlimited where she co-founded the TRU mentorship program. The program to date has mentored over 200 commercial producers and self producing artists. Cheryl is on the board of Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, Connecticut, and is on the Honorary Council of Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven Connecticut. Cheryl continues her mentoring work and speaks at universities, on panels and for different organizations. This Fall she will be curating a theatre program with the title – Theatre that changes OUR World- at The Quick Center at Fairfield University.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a twenty-six year old 501c3 nonprofit organization created to help producers produce, emerging theater companies to emerge healthily and all theater professionals to understand and navigate the business of the arts. Membership includes self-producing artists as well as career producers and theater companies.
 
TRU publishes an email community newsletter of services, goods and productions; presents the TRU VOICES Annual New Play Reading Series and Annual New Musicals Reading Series, two new works series in which TRU underwrites developmental readings to nurture new shows as well as new producers for theater; offers a Producer Development & Mentorship Program taught by prominent producers and general managers in New York theater, and also presents Producer Boot Camp workshops to help aspirants develop business skills. TRU serves writers through a Writer-Producer Speed Date, a Practical Playwriting Workshop, How to Write a Musical That Works and a Director-Writer Communications Lab; programs for actors include the Annual Combined Audition.
 
Programs of Theater Resources Unlimited are supported in part by public funds awarded through the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, as well as the Montage Foundation and the Leibowitz Greenway Foundation. 
 
For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit www.truonline.org.