Tom Wopat, Julie Halston, and More to Perform at Primary Stages Gala, 11/14

Primary Stages (Casey Childs, Founder & Executive Producer; Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director; Elliot Fox, Managing Director) have announced program details for their annual Gala on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 6:30PM at The Edison Ballroom (240 W. 47th Street). The event, which will honor Tony Award winner Tyne Daly (Master Class, Rabbit Hole, Gypsy), and producers and Primary Stages Board members Jamie deRoy and Ted Snowdon, will feature performances by Tony Award nominee Tom Wopat (Sondheim on Sondheim, A Catered Affair), actor/director/producer Tamara Tunie ("Law & Order: SVU," "As The World Turns"), Lewis Cleale (The Book of Mormon, Spamalot, Call Me Madam), and Garrett Sorenson (Master Class). Speakers will include Julie Halston (Anything Goes, Olive and the Bitter Herbs), Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter Michael Cristofer (The Shadow Box, The Witches of Eastwick), and Executive Director of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA) Tom Viola. The Gala Chairs are Barry Feirstein and Tom Kirdahy.

For more information or to purchase, call Primary Stages Development Associate Joe Sonenshein at 212-840-9705 or visit primarystages.org/gala. Premier Sponsor Tables are $25,000; Platinum Tables are $15,000; Gold Tables are $10,000; Silver Tables are $7,500; Bronze Tickets are $1,000; and Individual tickets are $500.

Primary Stages created the Commitment to New Plays Award to spotlight individuals who have made it a major focus of their careers to champion new plays and new playwrights. Since its inception, Primary Stages has honored such luminaries of the American theater as Terrence McNally, Stephen Sondheim, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Harvey Fierstein, and A.R. Gurney, among others.

Tyne Daly, the renowned stage, screen and television actress, most recently starred in Master Class on Broadway and on the West End. She has won six Emmy Awards, as well as a Tony Award for her brilliant performance in Gypsy.

Jamie deRoy is beloved as a singer/comedienne, talk-show host and producer of over 25 Broadway and Off-Broadway plays and musicals.

Ted Snowdon, a longtime advocate for the arts and for the LGBT community, has produced numerous plays and musicals for non-profit and commercial theater on Broadway and Off-Broadway.

Primary Stages is an Off-Broadway theater company dedicated to inspiring, supporting, and sharing the art of playwriting. We operate on the strongly held belief that the future of American theater relies on nurturing playwrights and giving them the artistic support needed to create new work. Since our founding in 1984, we have produced more than 100 new plays, including Kate Fodor's Rx; Charles Busch's Olive and the Bitter Herbs; A.R. Gurney's Black Tie; Horton Foote's Harrison, TX and Dividing the Estate (two Tony Award® nominations); Brooke Berman's Hunting and Gathering; Terrence McNally's Dedication or The Stuff of Dreams (starring Nathan Lane and Marian Seldes) and The Stendhal Syndrome (featuring Isabella Rossellini and Richard Thomas); Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter's In the Continuum (which went on to tour the U.S., Africa and Scotland); David Ives' All in the Timing; and Conor McPherson's St. Nicholas (which marked the playwright's U.S. debut). Primary Stages was honored with the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work, which encompasses much more than the plays we produce for the stage. Primary Stages supports playwrights and develops new works through commissions, workshops, readings, and our education and training programs: The Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, the Marvin and Anne Einhorn School of Performing Arts, and the Fordham University/Primary Stages MFA in Playwriting. Through these programs, Primary Stages advocates for our artists, helping them make important-and often transformative-connections within the theater community.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.