Theater Resources Unlimited virtual workshop Practical Playwriting: How to Write for Commercial Production

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) presents a virtual workshop, Practical Playwriting: How to Write for Commercial Production, on Sunday, August 30, 2020 from 1:00pm – 4:30pm EDT via Zoom, open to playwrights everywhere. Reserve a spot on the event page at  ruonline.org/events/practical-playwriting-2020v/ and fill out the registration form at docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScu6k_sW2h7dsNqfZMdwqEYVWXyR5OCyRpxtKCkjPsYomdbtQ/viewform. A Zoom link will be provided upon registration.

A message from Bob Ost, executive director of TRU:
“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all TRU live events are being rescheduled while we wait for the all clear. To help bridge the gap of social distancing, this workshop will be held virtually via Zoom. Stay positive, test negative, be safe!”

What often holds playwrights back is that they rarely consider the person who will buy and produce their product: the producer.  With all the work, hope and sweat they invest in considering character, theme and plot, playwrights rarely take into account producibility.

This one-day intensive will be taught by TRU Literary Manager Cate Cammarata and commercial producer Patrick Blake (The 39 Steps, My Life Is a Musical, Bedlam Theater’s Hamlet/St. Joan, The Exonerated, In the Continuum, Play Dead) founding artistic director of Rhymes Over Beats.
* WHAT IS PRODUCIBILITY? – The fact that producers always ask this question, and playwrights hardly ever do, causes a serious disconnect between the commercial producer and most playwrights.
* WRITING TO A MARKET – We will ask each playwright questions he or she has probably never considered before: What is your market? Who is going to buy tickets? Who is this play written for?
* HOW TO SPEAK “PRODUCER” – Understanding the producer’s point of view, and learning to look at your work from a more objective perspective may increase your chances of getting produced.
Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a twenty-seven-year-old 501(c)(3) 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; 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. During COVID, TRU offers a refuge for isolated artists and producers, and shares current information about the business, by hosting weekly TRU Community Gatherings on Zoom. TRU serves writers through the TRU Voices Play Reading Series, 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 an Annual Combined Audition.
 
Programs of Theater Resources Unlimited are supported in part by the Montage Foundation and the Leibowitz Greenway Foundation.
 
For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit www.truonline.org.