(NEW YORK, NY) - Artistic Director Kent Gash and Managing Director Erik Schroeder of The Acting Company have announced a celebration of the company’s half century of impact across America with a 50th Anniversary Gala to take place on Monday, June 13, 2022 at Capitale (130 Bowery). The evening will include a special 50th anniversary performance with notable alumni including Duane Boutté, Jimonn Cole, Keith David, Stephen DeRosa, Harriet Harris, Ezra Knight, JD Mollison, Mary Lou Rosato, Roslyn Ruff, Derek Smith, Henry Stram with an introduction by Jack O’Brien and direction by former Artistic Director Ian Belknap.
The Acting Company will honor Peter Darrow with the Joan M. Warburg Civic Engagement Award, bestowed on individuals who have demonstrated admirable dedication to philanthropic and civic causes in the arts and other areas.
Darrow is a Senior Counsel at the international law firm Cleary Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton. He is a 1964 graduate, magna cum laude, of Harvard College and a 1967 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School where he was a member of The Law Review. Over the last 30 years, he has served in several not-for-profit leadership positions in the fields of public media, education, and the performing arts. His prior board service includes terms chairing the boards of New York Public Radio, Public Radio International, and the visiting committee of The University of Chicago’s School of Social Work, as well as serving as Board President of the Saint Ann’s School. Mr. Darrow is currently Chair of the Board of Trustees of The CUNY Graduate Center Foundation, Vice Chair of the Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center, and a Trustee of BRIC Community Media in Brooklyn.
Previous Warburg Award recipients include Harry Belafonte, Tom Viola, Abigail Disney, Gerald Schoenfeld, Phyllis Newman, Barbara Fleischman, the Honorable Thomas Kean, Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel and Ambassador Carl Spielvogel, among others.
Event co-chairs include Claudia Held, Timothy K. Saunders Jr., and Tejal P. Wadhwani. Alumni co-chairs include Harriet Harris, Ezra Knight, and Angela Pierce. The gala committee includes Sarah Brown, J. Barclay Collins II, Kevin Conroy, Nanci Czaja, Peter Darrow, Jodi Della Femina, John N. Gilbert, Carson Quarngesser Gleberman, Douglas Gray, Harriet Harris, Jessie Kelly, Ezra Knight, Dakin Matthews, Richard J. Reilly Jr., Louis Rodriguez, Beth Rosenthal, Jean-Luc Sinniger, Alice Stock, Lori-Ann Wynter, Earl D. Weiner and Betsy Eyring Young.
The evening will begin at 6:00pm with cocktail hour and silent auction followed by award ceremony, live auction, dinner and live music ending with a 50th anniversary performance. For information about sponsorship, table and ticket packages, please contact Erik Schroeder at 212-258-3111 or [email protected] or visit www.theactingcompany.org/gala.
Under the new leadership of Artistic Director Kent Gash and Managing Director Erik Schroeder, The Acting Company brings professional productions and education programs, in-school residencies, and teacher training workshops to thousands of audience members and students in underserved communities and schools each year. Founded by John Houseman and Margot Harley, the company seeks to develop emerging actors and build enthusiastic, knowledgeable audiences for the theater in towns across the United States. The Acting Company launched the careers of nearly 500 actors, including Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, Mary Lou Rosato, Keith David, Rainn Wilson, Lorraine Toussaint, Frances Conroy, Harriet Harris, Lisa Banes, Jeffrey Wright, Hamish Linklater, Jesse L. Martin, Roslyn Ruff, Jimonn Cole and Kelley Curran.
Among many accolades, The Acting Company received the 2003 Tony Award for Excellence in the Theater, and recently won the 2019 Audelco Award for Best Play for its production of Nambi E. Kelley’s Native Son directed by Seret Scott.
Since 1972, The Acting Company has performed for over 4 million people in 48 States, 10 foreign countries, on and Off-Broadway, and at leading resident theaters including The Guthrie and The Kennedy Center. New works commissioned by the company include plays by William Finn, Marcus Gardley, Rebecca Gilman, John Guare, Beth Henley, Tony Kushner, Lynn Nottage, Meg Miroshnik, Ntozake Shange, Maria Irene Fornés, Spalding Gray, Marsha Norman, Charles Smith, Samm-Art Williams, and Wendy Wasserstein.
Over 5,000 students in New York City and across the country benefit from The Acting Compnay’s in-school residencies and educator workshops every year. Annually over 30,000 audience members see an Acting Company production across the country who otherwise lack access to professional classical theatre. The Acting Company's 2022-23 touring and New York season will perform in 21 states beginning with a world premiere adaptation of Alexandré Dumas' The Three Musketeers by Kirsten Childs under the direction of Gash. The troupe will also perform William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet in repertory, directed by Leah C. Gardiner.
PHOTO: The Acting Company's production of As You Like It featuring Jasmine Bracey, Megan Bartle, Michael McDonald, Elizabeth Stahlmann, Joe Midytt, Kelsey Landon. Photo by Heidi Bohnenkamp
