John Douglas Thompson and More to be Honored at Running of the Red Bulls Gala Benefit

John Douglas Thompson will be presented with the Matador Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Classical Theater by Phylicia Rashad and The Noël Coward Foundation will receive the George Mayer Award for Extraordinary Service to Classical Theater,  presented by Matthew Broderick, when Red Bull Theater presents the annual Running of the Red Bulls Gala Benefit on Monday May 5th (6pm). This intimate soirée will be held on the expansive terrace of the chic Bowery Hotel (335 Bowery at East 3rd Street) and will feature an evening of live entertainment, fine dining, and great company.

The event will be hosted by Charlayne Woodard & Stephen DeRosa. Nathan Winkelstein will direct the evening’s entertainment, scripted by Jeffrey Hatcher, featuring performances by Norbert Leo Butz, Emilie Kouatchou, Mark Linn-Baker, Sarah Stiles, and John Yi. Special guests will include Grantham Coleman, Kelley Curran, Paige Davis, Jacob Ming Trent, Patrick Page, Luis Quintero, Cara Ricketts, Miriam Silverman, and many more.
 

John Douglas Thompson was honored with the 2024 Obie Award for Sustained Achievement in Performance and has been hailed by The New York Times “as one of the most compelling classical stage actors of his generation.”  He most recently appeared in the title role of Othello at the RSC and as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice at The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh. John has appeared on Broadway in King Lear with Glenda Jackson; Julius Caesar opposite Denzel Washington; Cyrano de Bergerac with Kevin Kline; the revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel; A Time to Kill based on the novel by John Grisham; and August Wilson’s Jitney, for which he received Tony, Drama Desk and Drama League nominations. Red Bull Theater audiences have enjoyed his appearances in Titus Andronicus, Antony and Cleopatra, The Spanish Tragedy, and Women Beware Women. Other Off-Broadway credits include Satchmo at the Waldorf (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and the NAACP Theatre awards); The Iceman Cometh with Brian Dennehy and Nathan Lane at BAM (Drama Desk Award); Troilus & Cressida and King Lear opposite Sam Waterston at The Public Theater; Lost in the Stars for City Center Encores!; The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, Othello (Obie Award, Lucille Lortel Award), Tamburlaine (Obie, Drama Desk awards), A Doll's House, and The Father for Theatre for a New Audience; The Forest for Classic Stage Company; The Emperor Jones at Irish Rep (Lucille Lortel, Drama League, and Drama Desk nominations); and Hedda Gabler at New York Theatre Workshop.  Television credits include “The Gilded Age,” “Bull,” “Person of Interest,” “For Life,” “Mare of Easttown,” and  “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.” Film: 21 Bridges, 355, Let Them All Talk, Wolves, The Bourne Legacy, Glass Chin, Midway, and Malcolm X. He is a Fox Fellowship recipient, and has received the Samuel H. Scripps Award and the Robert Brustein Award for sustained excellence in American theater.
 

The Noël Coward Foundation is a grant-giving charitable trust which awards funds to educational and professional development projects across the performing arts. Founded in 2000 by Noël Coward’s partner Graham Payn, the Foundation also works to promote Coward’s legacy and to continue the keen interest Coward himself took in charitable work during his lifetime. The Foundation is enormously proud to support a diverse range of outstanding organisations working in theatre, music, playwriting, dance, technical training and many other areas.

 
MATADOR AWARDS FOR EXTRAORDINARY ACHIEVEMENT IN CLASSICAL THEATER

Begun in 2009, Matador Awards are given annually to recognize individuals or organizations that have demonstrated extraordinary talent, service, or significant achievements in the Classical Theater. The awards are presented each year at the Running of the Red Bulls, Red Bull Theater's annual gala benefit. Previous honorees have included F. Murray Abraham, Kate Burton, André De Shields, Olympia Dukakis, Richard Easton, Michael Kahn, Alfred Molina, Jack O'Brien, Patrick Page, Lynn Redgrave, Sir Patrick Stewart, Daniel Sullivan, Julie Taymor, and Charlayne Woodard. The Matador Award for Extraordinary Talent for Classical Theater has been awarded to Oscar Isaac, Hamish Linklater, Ismenia Mendes, Martha Plimpton, Lily Rabe, Condola Rashad, Matthew Rauch, Olivia Reis, Juliet Rylance, Liev Schreiber, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Michael Urie. Previous recipients of the George Mayer Award for Extraordinary Service to Classical Theater include Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York, American Theatre Wing, The Angelo Patri Middle School, Arts in the Armed Forces, Axe-Houghton Foundation, Jim Bredeson, Fund for the City of New York, Katherine Hood, The Lucille Lortel Theatre Foundation, George Wm. Mayer Jr., K. Ann McDonald, Off-Broadway Angels, Howard Owens, Heather Randall, The Shakespeare Society, The Michael Tuch Foundation, and Theatre Development Fund.