George Takei, Georgia Stitt & More to be Honored at Prospect Theater Company Spring Gala

Prospect Theater Company's annual Spring Gala will honor four extraordinary members of the theatre community with the second annual Muse Awards: legendary actor and activist George Takei; educator and Tony & Grammy Award nominee Michael McElroy, Founder of Broadway Inspirational Voices; theater education leader Jim Hoare, Executive Vice President of Theatrical Rights Worldwide; and composer, lyricist, music producer, and activist Georgia Stitt.

Prospect's Spring Gala will be held on Monday, May 1st at The Edison Ballroom (240 West 47th Street). The evening will include cocktails, dinner, and entertainment from special guests in celebration of this year's Muse Award recipients.

"The collective impact that the 2023 Muse Award recipients have had on the theater community is truly inspiring," said Producing Artistic Director Cara Reichel. "Their individual commitments to both creativity and change-making inspire all the artists of Prospect Theater Company, and we are honored to celebrate their work and sing their praises!"

Prospect's Board Gala Committee Co-Chairs include Jane Abramson, Tira Harpaz, and Jason Ma. 



Additional event information, including gala co-hosts, award presenters, and performers will be announced shortly.

To reserve tickets for the Spring Gala, please visit ProspectTheater.org.


MUSE AWARD RECIPIENTS


JIM HOARE

is the Executive Vice President for Education & Community Initiatives at Theatrical Rights Worldwide (TRW). He has been involved in theatre education for over 45 years, working with high school, college, and community theatres. Jim helped create the School Editions of Les Miz, Spamalot, The Addams Family, Big Fish, Bright Star, and most recently, The Prom. He has also helped bring The Hello Girls, originally commissioned by Prospect Theater Company, to dozens of student productions across the country and around the world, promoting this empowering story. He is a member of the Advisory Board for EdTA's Educational Theatre Foundation, and a recipient of the New York State Theatre Education Association's Rod Marriott Award for Lifetime Achievement in Educational Theatre. Jim has presented workshops throughout the USA and UK, and this past September received the Florida Association for Theatre Education's Outstanding Theatre Arts Advocate award. Jim is the author of Your High School Improv Show Playbook, (Theatrefolk, 2019) and Your School Theatre Director's Playbook (TRW Plays, 2022).

Michael McElroy

is the Chair of the Department of Musical Theatre at University of Michigan. His Broadway credits include: Sunday in the Park with George (2017 revival), Next To Normal, Rent (Closing Cast), The Wild Party, Big River (Tony Nomination Best Supporting Actor in a Musical), The Who's Tommy, Miss Saigon, Patti LuPone on Broadway, and High Roller Social Pleasure Club. New York Philharmonic: Candide. National Tour: Next to Normal, Rent, Big River Sarafina. Off-Broadway: Some Men by Terrence McNally (Second Stage Theater), Blue (Roundabout), Violet (Original Cast, Playwrights Horizons, Drama Desk Nomination), Thunder Knocking on the Door (Minetta Lane), Richard III (NYSF starring Denzel Washington). Michael is the Founder and Artistic Director Emeritus of Broadway Inspirational Voices. He received a Grammy nomination in 2005 for his arrangement of Joy to The World on BIV's first holiday CD: Great Joy! A Gospel Christmas. Michael is an Artist in Residence at Little Island, serves on the board of YoungArts, and is a founding member of Black Theatre United where he currently serves as Vice President.

Georgia Stitt

is an award-winning composer, lyricist, music producer, pianist, and activist. Her original musicals include Snow Child, Big Red Sun, The Danger Year, Samantha Spade: Ace Detective, The Big Boom, Mosaic, and The Water. Georgia has released four albums of her music: A Quiet Revolution, My Lifelong Love, This Ordinary Thursday, and Alphabet City Cycle. She is currently at work on a new album of theatrical art songs and an oratorio called The Circling Universe. Her choral piece with hope and virtue was featured on NPR and her orchestral piece, Waiting for Wings, co-written with husband Jason Robert Brown, was commissioned and premiered by the Cincinnati Pops. She is the Founder and President of Maestra, an organization for women and nonbinary theater musicians, and she is in leadership at The Dramatists Guild, The Recording Academy, and MUSE. Georgia has worked in the music department on projects including NBC's "The Sound of Music (Live!)", Off-Broadway's Sweet Charity (starring Sutton Foster), the films of The Last Five Years (starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan) and 13: The Musical, and the current Broadway revival of Parade. She teaches at Princeton University and lives in New York with her husband and their two wonderful daughters.

George Takei

is a civil rights activist, social media superstar, Grammy-nominated recording artist, New York Times bestselling author, and pioneering actor whose career has spanned six decades. He has appeared in more than 40 feature films and hundreds of television roles, most famously as Hikaru Sulu in "Star Trek", and he has used his success as a platform to fight for social justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and marriage equality. His advocacy is personal: during World War II, Takei spent his childhood unjustly imprisoned in United States internment camps along with 120,000 other Japanese Americans. He now serves as Chairman Emeritus and a member of the Japanese American National Museum's Board of Trustees. Takei served on the board of the Japan-United States Friendship Commission under President Bill Clinton, and, in 2004, was conferred with the Gold Rays with Rosette of the Order of the Rising Sun by the Emperor of Japan for his contribution to US-Japan relations. He made his Broadway debut in 2015, in the musical Allegiance, which was inspired by his family's true-life experiences during World War II.

ABOUT PROSPECT THEATER COMPANY

Prospect Theater Company is dedicated to fostering and showcasing today's new voices shaping tomorrow's musicals. Over two decades, the company has premiered more than 35 musicals in New York City, in addition to new plays and numerous re-inventions of classic works. Reflecting its investment in the future of the field, Prospect leads a variety of developmental initiatives: including an annual Musical Theater Lab for emerging writers, and the IGNITE Series of new musical theater in concert. In 2020, Prospect launched the VISION Series of original music-theater works on film, created for online streaming. In recognition of its enterprising and risk-taking new musical theater, the company has received an OBIE Award grant, and its role as a community anchor for emerging artists that strengthens the quality, diversity, and dynamism of American theater was honored by the American Theatre Wing.

Up next at Prospect Theater is the New York premiere of the award-winning, indie-rock musical Lizard Boy, with book, music and lyrics by Justin Huertas and directed by Brandon Ivie. Recently, Prospect produced the musical song-cycle Notes From Now - Songs of Resilience & Renewal (2022) featuring a lineup of newly-commissioned original songs created by 21 of today's brightest musical theater writers. Previously, Prospect produced the Drama Desk Award-nominated Einstein's Dreams (2019) by Joanne Sydney Lessner & Joshua Rosenblum, adapted from the novel by Alan Lightman, and the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award-nominated The Hello Girls (2018), by company founding artists Peter Mills & Cara Reichel. Both of these shows ran Off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters and have original cast albums available from Broadway Records. Other notable productions include: Kerrigan & Lowdermilk's The Mad Ones (2017); Ryan Scott Oliver and Hunter Foster's Jasper in Deadland (2014); the Drama Desk nominated Tamar of the River (2013) by Joshua H. Cohen and Marisa Michelson; Carner & Gregor's Unlock'd (2013); Gordon Greenberg's revisal of Working (Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Ensemble, 2012) including new songs by Lin Manuel Miranda; and Elizabeth Lucas' re-imagining of Guettel's Myths and Hymns (2012).


For more information visit: ProspectTheater.org
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