Julianna Margulies Honored at 3rd Steppenwolf Salutes WOMEN IN THE ARTS

Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award winner Julianna Margulies will be the guest of honor at the third annual Steppenwolf Salutes WOMEN IN THE ARTS fundraising luncheon on Monday, March 12, 2012 at Noon at The Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph St. Ms. Margulies, who currently stars in the hit CBS drama The Good Wife, will be interviewed about her stage, television and film career by Steppenwolf Artistic Director Martha Lavey in a format similar to Inside The Actors Studio. Previous honorees at Steppenwolf Salutes WOMEN IN THE ARTS include ensemble members Joan Allen and Martha Plimpton.

The 2012 luncheon will bring together 250 leaders from Chicago’s business and civic communities to honor Ms. Margulies for her impact on the arts and to raise funds that provide training and mentorship for the next generation of arts managers and producers. Proceeds from Steppenwolf Salutes WOMEN IN THE ARTS will benefit Steppenwolf’s Professional Leadership Program, a nationally-recognized training program for young professionals seeking hands-on experience in theater administration, production and technology. The program includes apprenticeships, internships and a multicultural fellowship.

Table sponsorships for WOMEN IN THE ARTS are currently available. Individual tickets, starting at $200, will go on sale Monday, January 2, 2012. To purchase tickets or learn about sponsorship opportunities, contact Steppenwolf’s Special Events Department at (312) 654-5632, specialevents@steppenwolf.org or online at www.steppenwolf.org/luncheon.

Steppenwolf Salutes WOMEN IN THE ARTS 2012 co-chairs are: Carole L. Brown, Elizabeth Connelly, Nene Foxhall, Janet Melk and Donna La Pietra.

BMO Harris Bank is a lead co-sponsor of Steppenwolf Salutes WOMEN IN THE ARTS.

About Julianna Margulies:

On television, Julianna Margulies is currently in production on the third season of the hit CBS drama The Good Wife, a role for which she recently won an Emmy®, as well as a Golden Globe and two Screen Actors Guild Awards®. Margulies portrays a wife and mother who must assume full responsibility for her family and re-enter the workforce as a trial lawyer after her politician husband gets caught in a very public sex scandal. The Good Wife co-stars Christine Baranski, Josh Charles, Alan Cummings and Chris Noth.

On the big screen, Margulies was last seen in City Island, co-starring Andy Garcia, Alan Arkin and Emily Mortimer. The comedy follows a family who experiences the unraveling of their shared web of lies. The film won the Audience Award at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival.

Margulies’ other television credits include several episodes of HBO’s The Sopranos, TNT’s The Grid, a mini-series with Dylan McDermott, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination, as well as TNT's original mini-series The Mists of Avalon opposite Anjelica Huston and Joan Allen. She also starred as one of the original members of the groundbreaking show ER for which she received both an Emmy® Award and two SAG Award as nurse Carol Hathaway.

Margulies' feature film credits include the dark comedy The Darwin Awards directed by Finn Taylor opposite Winona Ryder and Joe Fiennes, David R. Ellis' Snakes on a Plane opposite Samuel L. Jackson, Jay Alaimo's Slingshot opposite David Arquette and Balthazar Getty, StEve Beck's Ghost Ship opposite Gabriel Byrne and Bruce Beresford's Evelyn opposite Pierce Brosnan. Other film credits include What's Cooking, an ensemble drama directed by Gurinder Chadha, Richard Linklater's The Newton Boys, Boaz Yakin's A Price Above Rubies, Jack Green's Traveller, Bruce Beresford's Paradise Road and George Hickenlooper's film The Man From Elysian Fields, opposite Andy Garcia and Mick Jagger.

On stage, Margulies made her Broadway debut in 2006 starring in Festen opposite Michael Hayden, Larry Bryggman, Ali MacGraw and Jeremy Sisto. Margulies completed a successful run in Jon Robin Baitz's Ten Unknowns at Lincoln Center opposite Donald Sutherland for which she won the Lucille Lortel Award. Other theater credits include The Vagina Monologues both Off Broadway and in the Los Angeles premiere, Fefu and Her Friends for the Yale Repertory Theatre, The Substance of Fire at the Asolo Theatre, Living Expenses, Dan Drift and Book of Names at the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York and Intrigue with Faye at the NY Stage and Film Festival. She also appeared on stage in The Lover, In the Boom Boom Room and Balm and Gilead.

Margulies was born in New York, where she currently resides.

About Steppenwolf Theatre Company:

Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago, IL (Martha Lavey, Artistic Director; David Hawkanson, Executive Director) is where great acting meets big ideas. Our passion is to tell stories about how we live now. Our mission is to engage audiences in an exchange of ideas that makes us think harder, laugh longer, feel more. The company was formed in 1976 by a collective of actors and is dedicated to an ethic of mutual respect and the development of artists through ongoing group work. Steppenwolf has grown into an internationally renowned ensemble of 43 artists who represent a remarkable generation of actors, directors and playwrights. For additional information, visit www.steppenwolf.org, www.facebook.com/SteppenwolfTheatre and www.twitter.com/SteppenwolfThtr.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos