Theater Resources Unlimited: Writer-Director Communications Lab

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Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) announces Writer-Director Communications Lab on Saturday, August 11, 2018 from 10am-6pm at Studios 353, 353 W. 48th Street, Studio B (basement).

Registration is $75 for TRU members ($85 for non-members), $30 for an additional collaborator (writer), and registration for TRU Member observers is $30 ($40 for non-members). Writers must be accepted before purchasing a spot.

This is an amazing opportunity for directors and writers to meet, and hone their ability to talk productively with each other! We are honored that feedback will be given by commercial producers Ken Waissman (original Grease, Agnes of God, Torch Song Trilogy, Josephine) and Ric Wanetik, senior advisor for America to the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), Tony nominated producer for Anna Deveare Smith’s Twilight Los Angeles: 1992, Broadway’s Marlene, Off-Broadway’s Jolson and Company. TRU executive director Bob Ost will facilitate the day.

Writers may download the submission form at

Director-Writer Communications Lab

deadline for writer submissions is Wednesday, August 1. Email to [email protected] with “Writer Lab Submission” in your subject line.

Directors may send an email to [email protected] to inquire about availability, and include your resume.

Right now the slots are filled, but it is always possible that someone might dropout.

One of the most important – and most sensitive – relationships in theater is that between playwright and director. In some ways, the entire success of a show can hinge on the shared understanding, trust and mutual respect between these two artists. The director and the writer need to see the show with the same eyes, otherwise their collaboration won’t work. This is important to establish in the initial meetings.

TRU has created a new, experimental program that will train theater artists in the crucial skills of communication. It is led by producers, since the producer is generally the real-world mediator in writer-director disagreements, and has the better overview of a production.

In this Lab we will team up to ten directors with up to ten writers prior to the Lab itself. OBSERVERS ARE ALSO WELCOME TO COME WATCH AND LEARN, LIMITED SPACE AVAILABLE.

Playwrights will email us 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. We will watch and guide that discussion in the Lab. You will:

* Discover your personal communication style

* Learn to identify the style of the person you are with, and adjust to it for maximum mutual understanding

* Explore non-threatening ways of discussing text, communicating and listening

* Identify your domain of authority, and determine protocols

Confirmed directors: Justin Baldridge, Elizabeth Bove, Andi Lee Carter, Miriam Eusebio, Neal Kowalsky, Noel MacDuffie, Katherine Ray, Kevin Ray, Jonathan Warman.

Bios and more info is available at

Director-Writer Communications Lab

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a twenty-five 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.

For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit www.truonline.org or call 212 714-7628.

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