Photo Flash: Princess Grace Foundation-USA Hosts Benefit Performance Of Steppenwolf's UP
On June 26, 2009, The Princess Grace Foundation-USA hosted a special benefit performance of Steppenwolf Theatre Company's production of Up, written by Princess Grace Awards winner Bridget Carpenter (Playwriting, 1997) and directed by Princess Grace Awards winner Anna D. Shapiro (Directing, 1996). Anna won the 2008 Tony® Award for Best Direction for Steppenwolf's hit Broadway play August: Osage County. Bridget Carpenter is a renowned award-winning playwright and many pieces of her work have been produced at theaters across the country.
The Princess Grace Foundation-USA (PGF-USA), in partnership with Steppenwolf Theatre, identified a past Princess Grace Awards winner, Alex Torra (Directing, 2007) and gave him the opportunity to travel to Chicago and be the Assistant Director on the production, a unique opportunity for any aspiring director.
The performance of Up - described as a quirky, bittersweet tale about escaping the boundaries of everyday life and how we dream ourselves into a future - was preceded by a dinner at Vinci attended by PGF-USA Executive Director Toby Boshak, Anna Shapiro, Bridget Carpenter and Alex Torra and followed by a lively post-performance discussion with Alex Torra and Bridget Carpenter.
The Princess Grace Foundation-USA, a public charity formed after the death of Princess Grace in 1982, awards scholarships, apprenticeships and fellowships to assist emerging theater, dance and film artists in America. Notable Princess Grace Award recipients include: Anna D. Shapiro, winner of 2008 Tony® Award for Director of current Broadway hit August: Osage County; Stephen Hillenburg, creator of Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants; Tony Kushner, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright; Gillian Murphy, principal dancer of American Ballet Theatre; Eric Darnell, director of Madagascar 1 & 2; Greg Mottola, director of Superbad and Eric Simonson, Academy Award winning filmmaker. For more information about PGF-USA, please visit www.pgfusa.org.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Princess Grace Foundation-USA
Toby Boshak, Anna D. Shapiro, Bridget Carpenter, and Alex Torra
Toby Boshak, Bridget Carpenter, and Jelena Tadic
Marlene Minnaert and Toby Boshak
Bob Berland, Mike Carpenter, George Hauptfuhrer, and Toby Boshak
David New and Bridget Carpenter
Grace Barry and Diane Carpenter
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