Clark & Groff Among Talent at Playwrights Horizons Spring Gala 4/27

Acclaimed Off-Broadway theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) will hold its annual Spring Gala Benefit on Monday evening, April 27th at Guastavino's (409 East 59th Street).

Titled "I can see so far...", the evening will feature performances by Tony Award winners Victoria Clark (The Light in the Piazza, at PH in A PRAYER FOR MY Enemy), LaChanze (The Color Purple, at PH in Once on This Island, The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin and the upcoming Inked Baby) and BD Wong (M. Butterfly, "Law & Order: SVU") and Tony Award nominee Jonathan Groff (Spring Awakening, Hair, at PH in A PRAYER FOR MY Enemy). Ms. Clark, LaChanze and Mr. Groff are all artistic alumni of the theater company. Mr. Wong recently starred in the McCarter Theater production of Herringbone, a musical that premiered at Playwrights Horizons in 1982. Additional performers will be announced in the coming weeks.

"I can see so far..." is the final, haunting lyric from the musical Floyd Collins by Adam Guettel and Tina Landau. It also captures the essence of the theater company's institutional mission of discovering, developing and producing the new work of American playwrights and musical theater composers. Ever forward-thinking, Playwrights Horizons produced its first musical In Trousers by then-newcomer William Finn in 1979, beginning a three decade-long love affair with the American musical. Since then, the company's artistic output has been prolific in scope and far-sighted in its ambition. They've worked with hundreds of musical theater artists and developed dozens of unique and ground-breaking new musicals including Grey Gardens, James Joyce's The Dead, Assassins and Sunday in the Park with George. They also established one of the country's first Musical Theater development departments.

Mr. Finn, whose illustrious musical theater career was launched on the stages of Playwrights Horizons, and James Lapine, the celebrated writer, director and long-time Playwrights Horizons collaborator will be Honorary Artistic Co-Chairs of the evening.

Playwrights Horizons' recently-appointed Director of Musical Theater, Kent Nicholson, will direct the entertainment portion of the evening. Mr. Nicholson recently joined the staff of the theater company, following serving as Director of New Works for TheatreWorks in California.

Trustees Lawrence B. Buttenwieser and Rachel Wilder will serve as Gala Benefit Board Co-Chairs. Carole Schwartz, David Skovron andDr. Jeff Rubin will be Gala Benefit Patron Co-Chairs.

Cocktails and a Silent Auction will begin at 6:00 PM, followed by dinner at 7:45 PM and the evening's entertainment. Complete details on the Silent Auction, including preliminary online bidding, will be announced in the coming weeks.

Ticket prices for the Gala Benefit start at $800 and can be reserved by calling Alyssa Biber at 212-564-1235 extension 3146.

For more information visit, www.playwrightshorizons.org.

Playwrights Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, is a writer's theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers and lyricists, and to the production of their new work. In its 38 years, Playwrights Horizons has presented the work of more than 375 writers and has received numerous awards and honors, most recently being honored with a special 2008 Drama Desk Award for "ongoing support to generations of theater artists and undiminished commitment to producing new work." Notable productions include four Pulitzer Prize winners: Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife (2004 Tony Award, Best Play), Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles (1989 Tony Award, Best Play), Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George, as well as Adam Rapp's Kindness, John Dempsey, Michael Friedman and Rinne Groff's Saved, Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone, Doug Wright, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie's Grey Gardens (3 2007 Tony Awards), Bruce Norris's The Pain and the Itch, Lynn Nottage's Fabulation (2005 Obie Award for Playwriting), Craig Lucas's Small Tragedy (2004 Obie Award, Best American Play), Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero, Kirsten Childs's The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey's James Joyce's The Dead, William Finn's March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, Christopher Durang's Betty's Summer Vacation and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, Richard Nelson's Goodnight Children Everywhere and Franny's Way, Jon Robin Baitz's The Substance of Fire, Scott McPherson's Marvin's Room, A.R. Gurney's Later Life, Adam Guettel and Tina Landau's Floyd Collins and Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley's Violet.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

Photo Credit: Genevieve Rafter-Keddy

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