Can the American Theater Afford to Develop New Work? (Can It Afford Not to?) September 19, 2012

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) opens its fall season of monthly networking panels with Can the American Theater Afford to Develop New Work? (Can It Afford Not to?), on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at 7:30pm at The Players Theatre’s Steve & Marie Sgouros Theatre, 3rd floor, 115 MacDougal Street, NYC. Doors open at 7:00pm for networking and refreshments, panel starts promptly at 7:30pm.

Revivals and classics are important to our culture. They give us context and history, but we need new voices in theater to guarantee our future. Given the financial pressures and expense of producing at the commercial level, unbranded works and unknown writers pose a great risk. Is commercial theater an appropriate venue to develop new work? Off-Broadway was once the domain of the new, edgy and experimental, but now even the finances of off-Broadway are prohibitive. The one safe place left for theater artists to stretch their artistic wings may be indie theater, and this panel will examine the reasons to do so, as well as attempt to define the differences between off-Broadway and "indie" theater. We will also look at the distinctions between commercial and non-commercial works, and the importance of both for a healthy culture.

Panelists will include some of the leaders of the “indie” theater movement: Martin Denton, editor of nytheatre.com; Darren Lee Cole, owner of the Soho Playhouse; Heidi Grumelot, artistic director for Horse Trade Theatre; Chris Harcum, managing director and Aimee Todoroff, membership committee chair, League of Independent Theater (LIT); Stephen Speights, founding member of Blue Coyote Theater Group.

Admission is $12 (free for TRU members). Please RSVP by email to [email protected] or by phone at (212) 714-7628 at least a day in advance.

Official Website: http://www.truonline.org