Theater Resources Unlimited Writer-Director Communications Lab 2019 Writer Submission Deadline: 4/3

Theater Resources Unlimited
Writer-Director Communications Lab 2019
Writer Submission Deadline: 4/3

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) presents a Writer-Director Communications Lab on Saturday, April 13, 2019 at Shetler Studios, 244 W. 54 Street PH1, New York, NY 10019. Writers, are you comfortable talking to directors? Do you get defensive? Desperate to have someone like your work? Let’s change that conversation. 

The lab focuses on facilitating early discussions between writers and directors to ensure that collaborations run as smoothly as possible. TRU has created this experimental program to train theater artists in the crucial skills of constructive communication. “It is led by commercial producers,” explains TRU executive director Bob Ost, “since the producer is generally the real-world mediator in writer-director disagreements, and has the best overview of a production.”

Feedback will be given by Broadway producers Jennifer Manocherian(Meteor Shower, Dead Accounts, Nice Work If You Can Get It, The Mountaintop, War Horse, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, August: Osage County) and Ric Wanetik producer (Tony nominated Twilight Los Angeles: 1992, Broadway’s Marlene, Off-Broadway’s Jolson and Company) and senior advisor for America to the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC); with the added expertise of entertainment attorney/mediator Eric Goldman. TRU executive director Bob Ost will co-facilitate the day.

TRU has 10 GREAT directors on board. Now they need 10 GREAT writers. These guys are looking for scripts to fall in love with. Maybe yours? Matches have been made, so start sending your submissions. The directors pick the scripts that intrigue them, so TRU can’t promise you’ll be picked. Still it doesn’t cost anything to submit. Writers can submit to the lab at https://truonline.org/events/communications-lab-19/ before the deadline of midnight on Wednesday, April 3, 2019. Download application and email to TRUStaff1@gmail.com with “Writer Lab Submission” in the subject line. 

For writers and directors selected, there is a $75 fee for TRU members and an $85 fee for non-members. Observers are also welcome to come watch and learn. Please reserve using the bright red reservation box at https://truonline.org/events/communications-lab-19/ or e-mail TRUStaff1@gmail.com.

Confirmed directors include Cate Cammarata, Dennis Corsi (2-time Fresh Fruit Festival winner Best Production for Phillie Trilogy and The Fierce Urgency of Now, Off-Bway Alliance Award for Ragtag Cinderella, Winterfest Best Director for Nell Dash), Miriam Eusebio, Stephen Lloyd Helper (assistant to Jerome Robbins for Fiddler revival, creator of Smokey Joe’s Café), Anthony Inneo, Christopher Michaels (winner Best Director in the Strawberry Theatre Festival, 2016), Katherine Ray, James A. Rocco (former AD of Ordway Theatre), Laurie Rae Waugh. 

HOW IT WORKS: up to ten directors will be teamed up with up to ten writers prior to the Lab itself. Playwrights will email a synopsis, pitch and production history, plus 5-10 sample pages of a script; directors will select a project that interests them from those submitted, request and read the script and prepare for a preliminary director-writer discussion about the play, which will be guided by producers. 

The goals for writers and directors in this Lab include:
* Discovering their personal communication style
* Learning to identify the style of the person they are with, and adjust to it for maximum mutual understanding
* Exploring non-threatening ways of discussing text, communicating and listening
* Identifying their domain of authority, and determining protocols

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, atwenty-six year old 501c3 nonprofit organization created to help producers produce, emerging theatercompanies 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 byprominent 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, soon to be announced. 

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, visitwww.truonline.org or email inquiries to TRUStaff1@gmail.com.