Shaina Taub Honored with The Ziegfeld Club's 2017 Emerging Composer Grant

The Ziegfeld Club, Inc., one of New York City's first performing arts charities to benefit women, has announced that Lucile Lortel Award-Nominee Shaina Taub (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812) has been named the recipient of the third annual Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award (BBZA).

Created to honor a female composer of musical theatre, the BBZA is a prestigious $10,000 cash grant. In addition, the recipient receives one year of artistic and professional mentorship from a prominent composer and a producer of musical theatre.

A talented performer and composer who's musical adaptations of Twelfth Night and As You Like It were commissioned and produced by The Public Theater as part of their Public Works initiative, Shaina Taub is quickly becoming the woman to watch. In addition to being a talented musical theater composer, Mr. Taub is an accomplished performer, receiving a 2013 Lucile Lortel Award-Nomination for her portrayal of Princess Mary in the hit Off-Broadway run of Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. She is currently writing a new musical about Alice Paul and the American women's suffrage movement.

Past recipients of the Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award are composer/lyricists Masi Asare (2015) and Anna Jacobs (2016).

The 2017 recipient of the Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award was selected by panels that included Jen Bender, Eric Cornell, Mindi Dickstein, Michael John LaChiusa, John Margulis, Polly Pen, Andy Sandberg, Shea Sullivan, Rachel Sussman, Nadav Wiesel, and John Zindarsic. In addition to naming Ms. Taub recipient of the BBZA, the panel would like to extend Honorable Mention to Britt Bonney and Zoe Sarnak.

A reception will be held on Monday, November 6, 2017 at 5:00 pm to honor Ms. Taub as the 2017 Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award recipient, and Laura Borgwardt the 2017 recipient of The Liz Swados Inspiration Grant, a $5,000 cash grant for a distinguished female music educator in NYC given by The Ziegfeld Club and underwritten for four years by Academy Award-nominee actor Diane Lane.

Held at the New Amsterdam Theater (214 West 42nd Street), home the legendary Ziegfeld Follies from 1913-1927. The ceremony will feature a special musical presentation by Shaina Taub, with Tony Award-nominee Leigh Silverman (Violet) serving as this year's Distinguished Speaker. In addition, the ceremony will offer a special display of original Ziegfeld Follies memorabilia as well as showgirls in original costumes from the Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic.

For more information about The Ziegfeld Club, Inc, the Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award and the Liz Swados Inspiration Grant, visit www.TheZiegfeldClubInc.com.

ABOUT THE RECIPIENTS:

Shaina Taub (Recipient of 2017 Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award) is a Vermont-raised, New York-based songwriter and performer. Winner of a Jonathan Larson Grant and a previous Ars Nova Composer-in-Residence, she made her Lincoln Center solo concert debut in their 2015 American Songbook series and is currently an artist-in-residence at Joe's Pub. Her musical adaptations of Twelfth Night and As You Like It were commissioned and produced by The Public Theater at the Delacorte in Central Park as part of their Public Works initiative. She starred in both productions, as Fest and Jaques, respectively. She wrote songs for and co-starred in Bill Irwin and David Shiner's Old Hats, directed by Tina Landau at the Signature Theatre and A.CT.. She earned a Lucille Lortel Award nomination as Princess Mary in the off-Broadway run of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 and appeared in the original cast of Hadestown at New York Theatre Workshop. Her songs have been performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center by Audra McDonald and Sutton Foster, and she wrote the theme song for Julie Andrews' Netflix series Julie's Greenroom, performed on the show by Sara Bareilles. She has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Yaddo Colony, and The Sundance Institute. She is currently writing a new musical about Alice Paul and the American women's suffrage movement. Her albums are available at www.shainataub.com.

Laura Borgwardt (Recipient of 2017 Liz Swados Inspiration Grant) is a Brooklyn-based actor and teaching artist. She received her BFA in Acting from Syracuse University, and has studied at Shakespeare's Globe in London, The School at Steppenwolf in Chicago, and with Scott Freeman and Reed Birney in New York City.

She teaches theater and musical theater residencies through ArtsConnection, working primarily with their STAARS Program at The Spectrum School. She guides elementary and middle school students through the process of putting on a musical for friends and family. She also teaches a career readiness through the arts class, which allows high school students on the autism spectrum to explore different theater careers as they prepare for the transition out of high school. She also teaches with the Stuttering Association for the Young (SAY) - a nonprofit dedicated to empowering young people who stutter and teaching the world that every voice matters.

She is a co-founder, administrator, and teaching artist for CO/LAB Theater Group - a non-profit that offers individuals with developmental disabilities a creative and social outlet through theater arts. To find out more about CO/LAB, visit www.colabtheatergroup.com.

ABOUT THE ZIEGFELD CLUB, INC.

The Ziegfeld Club is among the first not-for-profits in the Broadway community. Founded in 1936 by Billie Burke in honor of her late husband Florenz Ziegfeld musical theater impresario and producer of the legendary Ziegfeld Follies. The organization was originally formed to provide help to Ziegfeld Girls who had fallen on hard times. As all of the Ziegfeld Girls have now passed away, the Ziegfeld Club's mission remains to help women of today's musical theatre.

Additionally, the Ziegfeld Club has preserved exciting theater history in their treasured archives that include original programs, sheet music, personal correspondence, and costumes, as well as portraits of Ziegfeld Girls.

Today the Ziegfeld Club is expanding its legacy of helping women in the theatre by establishing, along with the Liz Swados Inspiration Grant, The Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award a $10,000 grant and a year of professional mentorship which is awarded to an emerging, female composer-lyricist who compellingly demonstrates outstanding artistic promise in musical theater composing and who can clearly show how the grant money and mentorship will further her artistic career.

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