Theater Resources Unlimited's new Producers Club presents Theater Party Specials, events created to shed light on the producing aspects of theater while seeing an Off-Broadway show. The Theater Party Specials include 8pm performances and post-show talkbacks with the producers of the Off-Broadway shows White Lies on April 28, 2010 and The 39 Steps, on May 10, 2010. Both shows are at New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street Between 8th and 9th Avenues. Tickets are $59 and are available through check or money order to Theater Resources Unlimited, 309 W. 104th Street #1D, New York, NY 10025 (please specify the show you are ordering), and online at the TRU Store at www.truonline.org/store-new.html (add $1.50 Paypal charge). RSVP to TRUnltd@aol.com by April 21. Payment for White's Lies must be received by April 21, payment for The 39 Steps by April 30.
White Lies features Tony Award winner Betty Buckley's first theater performance in New York City in a decade. The show tells the story of commitment phobia, following divorce lawyer and single-guy Joe White, as he goes through the ups and down of bachelorhood. When his mother expresses her desire for him to start a family, he decides to make one up rather than actually create one. Joe, with an over-zealous confidence, is sure that nothing in his plan of an imaginary family could possibly go wrong. The impressive cast also includes Tuc Watkins, Peter Scolari and Christy Carlson Romano. Directed by Bob Cline. After the show, the producers of White Lies will gather for a TRU talkback. TRU producer and board memory Jeremy Handelman (Groundswell),TRU advisory board member Jana Robbins (Ragtime, I Love You Because...), producer Aaron Grant, and some members of the creative staff of White Lies, discuss their experience producing this Off-Broadway comedy, answering questions about how they got Betty Buckley to leave her home in Texas, and achieved the feat of putting up a new off-Broadway show.
The 39 Steps is a long-running Broadway hit now in its off-Broadway home at New World Stages. The play is a madcap, noir-like, comedic mystery in which four actors play every part in the stage version of Hitchcock's The 39 Steps. The show tells the story of a bored man shaken out of his mundane life by the murder of a beautiful female spy he has taken home for the evening. His relationship to the victim results in a massive manhunt, and he must discover who killed her before it is too late. The cast, playing over 150 characters, features John Behlmann, Cameron Folmar, Jamie Jackson, and Kate MacCluggage. The TRU talkback afterwards includes Harriet Leve ((Stomp, A Little Night Music revival, upcoming La Cage a Folles, Burn the Floor, The Norman Conquests), Jane Dubin (The Norman Conquests, Beebo Brinker Chronicles, Groundswell), Meredith Lucio (Rooms: A Rock Romance), Lary Brandt and others.
TRU was founded in 1992 to promote a spirit of cooperation and support within the general theater community by providing information and a variety of entertainment-related services and resources that strengthen the business capability of producing organizations, individual producers, self-producing artists and other theater professionals. The company holds monthly seminars on a wide range of subjects important to theatrical producers and artistic directors conducted by panels of experts from both the commercial and not-for-profit segments of Broadway, Off-Broadway and the motion picture industry. These educational forums have been a core program of TRU since its inception, and in recent years executive director Ost has partnered with Ms. Eaker to generate topics of interest to both TRU membership and Back Stage readers. "Through TRU, Back Stage is able to reach beyond its actor base to a wider theater community," said Ost, "and we get more visibility through the Back Stage connection."
TRU also publishes a monthly email community newsletter of services, goods and productions. In addition, TRU served as the umbrella organization for a co-production by several of its member companies as a part of the first annual New York Fringe Festival. From that experience, the organization has expanded its production efforts by creating the TRU VOICES Annual New Play Reading Series and the TRU VOICES Annual New Musicals Reading Series in which TRU underwrites developmental readings of new works for theater. In 2001, TRU began giving annual scholarships to The Commercial Theater Institute, to encourage the development of aspiring producers, created a Producer Mentoring Program whose mentors are among the most prominent producers and general managers in New York theater, and presents Producer Boot Camp workshops to help aspirants develop the business skills they need. In March '08, TRU was associate producer of its first Equity showcase, Missivesat 59E59 Theatre, a play that was developed in the 2006 TRU reading series. TRU programs for actors include an Annual Audition Event, Resource Nights and "Speed Dating" as well as free monthly actor events, including workshops.
Programs of Theater Resources Unlimited are supported in part by public funds awarded through the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, as well as generous support from the Friar's National Foundation Association.
For more information about TRU membership, visit www.truonline.org or call 212-714-7628.
