La MaMa's Gala Honors Michael Feingold, Patsy Tarr Tonight

Since its founding in 1961, La MaMa Experimental Arts Club has been a hub for risk-taking theater artists from around the globe. La MaMa will celebrate their 2013 season of performances with a gala honoring two pillars of arts journalism: former Village Voice critic Michael Feingold, and publisher Patsy Tarr of 2wice. Throughout their long careers, these two individuals have carved out a voice for the arts, championing countless artists working across platforms.

The event is set for tonight, November 21, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. Cocktails, followed by seated dinner and performances at 7:30 p.m. at the La MaMa Annex (66 E 4th Street). Tickets, starting at $250, can be purchased online at lamama.org/diygala

The evening will be hosted by comedians Mike Albo and Marga Gomez, with special guests: Andre DeShields, John Kelly, Chuck Mee, Estelle Parsons, Stephen Petronio, Larry Pine and Twyla Tharp.

Gala Committee: Heather Campbell, Donald Capoccia, Frank Carucci, Timothy Fulham & Lise Olney, Matthew Hall, Morgan Jenness, Sarah and Seth Lederman, Warren Leight & Karen Hauser, Jennifer Ortega, James Reynolds, Marc Shaiman, Sonya Soutus, Peter Swords, Scott Wittman.

Artist Committee: Mark Bennett, Jamie Bishton, Jonah Bokaer, Linda Chapman, André DeShields, Chris Durang, Holley Farmer, Molissa Fenley, Richard Foreman, Stephanie French, Tom Gold, David Gordon, Lance Gries, Martine van Hamel, Buck Henry, Philip Himberg, Nikolaj Hübbe, David Henry Hwang, John Jesurun, John Kelly, Robert La Fosse, Neil LaBute, Ralph Lemon, Matthew Maguire, Paul McCann, Donald Marguiles, Paul McCann, Maureen McGovern, Kevin McKenzie, Chuck Mee, Mark Morris, Estelle Parsons, Stephen Petronio, Larry Pine, Tamar Rogoff, David Schweizer, Valda Setterfield, Twyla Tharp, Martine van Hamel, Wendy Whelan, Joel Zwick.

2wice Arts Foundation: Abbot Miller, Ben Nicholas

About the Honorees:

Michael Feingold served as a staff writer for The Village Voice from February 1971 until he was laid off in May 2013, contributing to articles on theater, music, film, books, art, and politics. A graduate of Columbia University and the Yale School of Drama, Feingold served as the chief theater critic for the Voice for the past several decades, in which capacity he received the coveted George Jean Nathan Award and was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism. During his long tenure at the paper, he served simultaneously for briefer periods as Literary Manager of the Yale Repertory Theater, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, and the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA.

A playwright, lyricist, and director as well as a dramaturg, he has translated or adapted numerous plays for these and other theaters, most notably all the major music-theater collaborations of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. This spring, his frequently performed adaptation of Brecht and Weill's Happy End will be heard in Red Bull Theater's Revelation Readings series, and his new translation of Ionesco's The Killer, directed by Darko Tresnjak and starring Michael Shannon, will be presented by Theater for a New Audience as the final production of the company's first season in its new, Frank Gehry-designed Brooklyn home. Mr. Feingold is currently not at work on his autobiography, tentatively titled A Hundred Years of Lassitude.

Patsy Tarr is a philanthropist and publisher who runs the 2wice Arts Foundation, dedicated to the support of dance. Her dance career began and ended in 1965 at the Gateway Playhouse in Belport, Long Island, with a short-lived role as a chorus girl in such classics as The King and I and 110 in the Shade. Her experience propelled her to take many dance classes, at schools including Nikolais/Louis Dance Lab, the Martha Graham Center, and Ballet Arts in Carnegie Hall. After cutting her teeth producing journals and annual reports for the Wall Street firm Donaldson, Lufkin, Jenrette, Tarr took her experience in publication design and production and applied it to her first love of dance.

From 1989 to 1996, Tarr led Dance Ink, a quarterly magazine designed to celebrate dance artists and bring them greater visibility through great photography. In 1997, she began publishing 2wice, a semi-annual visual and performing arts publication that focused on specific themes and artists and dances created for the magazine. Since 2010, she has been developing a series of interactive 2wice apps, designed to create a new, digital stage for dance. Additionally, Tarr has served on boards of organizations including Dance Theater Workshop, Nikolais/Louis Foundation, Trisha Brown Dance Company, David Gordon Pickup Company, Cunningham Dance Foundation, Film Society of Lincoln Center, Central Park Conservancy, Chez Bushwick.

About the Hosts:

Mike Albo is a writer, comedian, actor, author and also kind of a dancer. He has performed across the US, Canada and Europe as a solo performer as well as with Gomez (Mike and Marga Make Queer Comedy), as a part of the comedy trio, Unitard, and with the comedy collective, Show Show. He is the author of the novels Hornito and The Underminer: The Best Friend Who Casually Destroys Your Life (co-written with Virginia Heffernan), as well as the novella, The Junket. Now The Junket has been transformed into his fifth full-length solo show, which is premiering this November at Dixon Place, directed by the masterful David Schweizer.

Marga Gomez, comedian and solo artist, is the recipient of the 2003 GLAAD Award for Off-Off Broadway Theater for her solo comedy Marga Gomez's Intimate Details at La Mama Etc (which was directed by David Schweizer). Gomez is the writer/performer of 10 solo shows which have been presented nationally and internationally. Gomez also works as a stand-up comic with appearances on HBO, LOGO, Comedy Central and PBS.

About La MaMa:

La MaMa is a remarkable arts institution with a worldwide reputation for producing daring work in theater, dance, performance art, and music. Founded in 1961 by theater pioneer Ellen Stewart, La MaMa has produced and presented more than 3,300 theatrical productions to date and is a vital part of the fabric of cultural life in New York City and around the world.

La MaMa provides a supportive home for artists and takes risks on unknown work. Artists such as Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Philip Glass, Robert Wilson, Harvey Fierstein, Blue Man Group, David and Amy Sedaris and other luminaries began their careers at La MaMa. International Artists introduced to America by La MaMa include Tadeusz Kantor, Andrei Serban, Kazuo Ohno and, more recently, the acclaimed Belarus Free Theatre. La MaMa has been honored with more than 30 OBIE Awards, dozens of Drama Desk and Bessie Awards, and, in 2006, Ellen Stewart was recognized with a special TONY Award for Excellence in the Theater.