Richardson To Present Wallance Shawn With Scripps Award

Two-time Academy Award nominee Miranda Richardson will present playwright and actor Wallace Shawn with the Samuel H. Scripps Award at Theatre for a New Audience's Gala Celebrating Shakespeare's 444th Birthday. The celebration, Monday, May 12, will be held at The Powerhouse at the American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street.

Amy Ryan, Academy Award nominee for Gone Baby Gone, will serve as the Master of Ceremonies for the evening.  For Theatre for a New Audience, Ms. Ryan starred in Edward Bond's Saved opposite Norbert Leo Butz and participated in the American Directors Project led by Cicely Berry, Director of Voice, Royal Shakespeare Company.
 
The Gala Chair is William F. Lloyd, General Counsel for Deloitte LLP and a member of Theatre for a New Audience's Board of Directors. The Gala corporate sponsor is Deloitte LLP. Theodore C. Rogers is Chairman of the Board of Theatre for a New Audience.
 
Established in 2005, the Samuel H. Scripps Award recognizes extraordinary commitment to promoting the power of language in classic and contemporary Theatre. The award consists of a sculpture of Shakespeare by Milton Glaser. Prior year recipients include Cicely Berry, O.B.E. and author Tony Kushner.
 
Jeffrey Horowitz, Founder and Artistic Director of Theatre for a New Audience, explained "Samuel H. Scripps, a member of our Board, enabled this Theatre to bring Shakespeare to thousands of New Yorkers.  Harold Bloom wrote that Shakespeare's writing invented what we think of as human – characters of individuality and complexity.  Shakespeare, of course, also wrote about humankind in political and social situations.  Wallace Shawn is in this tradition.  His writing forces audiences 'to question our assumptions about ourselves as upholders of civilized values and high cultural standards in an otherwise barbarous world.'"  (New York Times).
 
Wallace Shawn is a man of letters, a noted stage and screen actor (appearing in films ranging from Woody Allen's Manhattan to The Princess Bride) and one of America's greatest living authors.  His plays, which have been produced nationally and internationally, include The Designated Mourner, Aunt Dan and Lemon, The Fever, Marie and Bruce, Our Late Night and A Thought in Three Parts and others. His adaptation of Brecht's Threepenny Opera opened on Broadway in 2006 at Studio 54. He is a recipient of three Obie Awards, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature and The PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award for Drama.  He and Andre Gregory wrote the screenplay for and performed in My Dinner with Andre. Three of Shawn's plays have been made into films: The Designated Mourner with Mike Nichols and Miranda Richardson, Marie and Bruce with Julianne Moore and Matthew Broderick, and The Fever starring Vanessa Redgrave. His latest play, Grasses of a Thousand Colors, is scheduled for production in 2009.
 
 
Samuel H. Scripps
Samuel H. Scripps was a visionary philanthropist who played a pivotal role in supporting theatre and dance. For Theatre for a New Audience, Samuel Scripps made a leadership gift to enable the Theatre to expand its body of work in Shakespeare and classical drama and increase its season from two to three annual productions. Samuel Scripps championed Shakespeare's Globe in London.  He has provided leadership support to BAM, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, the American Dance Festival and the American Society for Eastern Arts where one summer in the 1970's, Julie Taymor first studied Asian art. This directly led to her study in Indonesia – an experience which profoundly influenced her as an artist.
 
 
The Gala
The evening will begin at 6:30 pm with a cocktail reception and silent auction and continues at 7:30 pm with a seated dinner. Live music will be provided by the Jazz Museum in Harlem All-Stars followed by presentation of the Samuel H. Scripps Award and live auction of unique donated items conducted by George McNeely of Christie's.
 
Individual tickets are $500 to $1,500. Tables of ten are $5,000 to $25,000. To purchase tickets, a portion of which is tax-deductible, contact Karen Hershey at 212-343-1920.
 
 
Theatre for a New Audience
Founded in 1979 by Jeffrey Horowitz, Theatre for a New Audience's www.tfana.org mission is to help develop and vitalize the performance and study of Shakespeare and classical drama. The Theatre vigorously engages with Shakespeare and plays from the world repertoire.
 
The Theatre has mounted twenty-eight of the Bard's plays with directors who include Sir Peter Hall, Bartlett Sher and Julie Taymor, and a diverse repertory by authors such as Harley Granville Barker, Edward Bond and Adrienne Kennedy.  It has played on Broadway, toured nationally and internationally and is the first American theatre invited to bring a production of Shakespeare to the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon.   Cymbeline toured to the RSC in 2001 and in 2007, Theatre for a New Audience's production of The Merchant of Venice starring F. Murray Abraham was invited to the RSC.  The Theatre's productions have been honored with Tony, OBIE, Drama Desk, Drama League, Callaway and Lortel awards and nominations.
 
Theatre for a New Audience reaches an audience diverse in age, economics and cultural background.  It is committed to build a future audience for Shakespeare and great drama and offers programs of education and access.   It created and sustains the largest program in the New York City Public Schools for introducing students to Shakespeare which has served over 115,000 students.  In conjunction with Columbia University, it runs a summer institute for NYC Public School teachers on the teaching of Shakespeare.  It offers a free summer, drama program for high school students.   The Theatre's distinctive Talk Back series for general audiences is free in conjunction with performances and its economically accessible ticket program includes the lowest price reserved ticket for youth in the City -- $10 any show; any time for 25 years old and under.