HERE Hosts Interstellar Gala, Honoring Anita Contini and CJ Follini, Tonight

HERE's Interstellar Gala, honoring Anita Contini and CJ Follini, takes place tonight, Monday, June 16. Proceeds support HERE, the award-winning producer and presenter of contemporary hybrid work for more than 20 years, renowned for the HERE Artist Residency Program, the Dream Music Puppetry Program, and the PROTOTYPE festival. The evening kicks off with a Cosmic Feast at City Winery (155 Varick Street) featuring VIP Cocktail Reception, Dinner, Performances, Live & Silent Auctions, followed by The Big Bang party at HERE (145 Sixth Avenue), featuring Cocktails, Hors d'Oeuvres, Silent Auction, Performances, Dancing. The event features Emcee/Performer Taylor Mac and performances by Hai-Ting Chinn, Eisa Davis, John Kelly, Laura Peterson Choreography, Basil Twist and others.

Since 1993, the OBIE-winning HERE, Kristin Marting, Artistic Director and Kim Whitener, Producing Director, has been one of New York's premier arts organizations and a leader in the field of producing and presenting new, hybrid performance viewed as a seamless integration of artistic disciplines-theater, dance, music and opera, puppetry, media, visual and installation, spoken word and performance art. Standout productions include Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, Basil Twist's Symphonie Fantastique and Arias with a Twist, Hazelle Goodman's On Edge, Trey Lyford and Geoff Sobelle's all wear bowlers, Young Jean Lee's Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven, Corey Dargel's Removable Parts, Taylor Mac's The Lily's Revenge and Kamala Sankaram's Miranda, among many others.

The HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP) has been HERE's core program since 1998, commissioning, developing and premiering new hybrid performances. Productions developed at HERE challenge boundaries between disciplines -- theater, dance, music, opera, puppetry, media, visual arts, installation, spoken word and more. Through HARP, the Resident Artists are given the unique opportunity to develop their projects for up to three years, culminating in full-scale productions. Each season, HERE premieres several Resident Artist productions as mainstage works. These projects are grown in a diverse artistic community where artists receive career development resources and hands-on training. HARP has been widely recognized as a unique model for artistic development for the field to emulate. In honoring HERE with the 2009 Ross Wetzsteon Award, the OBIE Committee noted, "it's become increasingly hard for artists to find a place to take risks, a safe haven where they can develop daring new work. One theater has regularly bucked the trend, making its mission to ensure that artists have a home for their research and development, and that theatregoers can sample the exciting results."

For more event information, please visit www.here.org.