Thom Sesma & Mickey Rolfe to be Honored at the Primary Stages 2025 Fall Gala

PRIMARY STAGES' 2025 Fall Gala will honor Thom Sesma with the Einhorn Mentorship Award and Mickey Rolfe with the Andrew Leynse Commitment to New Plays Award. The event will take place on Monday October 20, 2025, at 6pm at Sony Hall.

The Einhorn Mentorship Award is awarded each year to someone in the Primary Stages community who has been a true mentor and inspiration to those who work with them. Past recipients include Carl Andress, Charles Busch, Judy Gold, Adam Gwon, Kate Hamill, Marla Persky, Kimberly Senior, Jeanine Tesori, and Sharon Washington. 

A beloved stage veteran, Thom Sesma most recently appeared in Broadway’s Dead Outlaw, for which he won the 2024 Outer Critics Circle Award for Featured Performer in a Musical. Thom made his Primary Stages debut in 2018 as Leo Tolstoy in Scott Carter’s The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens, and Leo Tolstoy: Discord, and joined the Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA) acting faculty in 2019. During the COVID-19 lockdown, Thom developed a special online curriculum for ESPA actors to help them continue to work and create despite the social distance and continues to serve as a coach and mentor for young actors to this day. Primary Stages is thrilled to be honoring him with the Einhorn Mentorship Award.

Created in memory of Primary Stages’ late Artistic Director Andrew Leynse, the Andrew Leynse Commitment to New Plays Award is given each year to a member of the Primary Stages community who has been a dedicated champion of new plays and new playwrights. The inaugural award was given in 2023 to theater agent Beth Blickers, and last year was given to The Laurents/Hatcher Foundation. 

Mickey Rolfe is the Founding Patron of Primary Stages’ Liff Lab, a new play development program named for his mentor, legendary theater agent Samuel “Biff” Liff, that provides an exceptional early- to mid-career playwright with a 29-hour developmental workshop of an unproduced new work. A long-time advocate for the theater, Mickey dedicated most of his 40-year career to representing Broadway’s top designers, with Rolfe Company clients winning a total of 22 Tony Awards.

The Primary Stages 2025 Fall Gala is directed by Michael Heitzman (Frozen - regional premiere), with music direction by Will Van Dyke (Swept Away). The evening will include cocktails, dinner, musical performances, and a comedy set with Judy Gold (Yes, I Can Say That!).

Performers will include Andrew Durand (Dead Outlaw, Shucked), Judy Gold (Yes, I Can Say That!; The Judy Show! My Life as a Sitcom), Julia Knitel (Dead Outlaw, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), Zachary Noah Piser (Redwood, See What I Wanna See), A.J. Shively (Paradise Square, A Man of No Importance), David Van Tieghem (Carnegie Hall, “The Late Show with David Letterman”), and more to be announced. The program is subject to change. 

The 2025 Gala Benefit Committee includes Mary Borba, Jamie deRoy, Lynne Halliday, Marla Persky, Carol Roaman, and Mary Susnjara.

The Gala is Primary Stages largest annual fundraiser, and its income provides critical support for the company’s free educational programs benefiting over 1,000 New York City public school students and teachers annually. Single tickets start at $500, and tables start at $3,000. For more information, please call 212.840.9705 x214 or visit primarystages.org/gala.