SoHo Rep Gala to Honor Mike Pratt and Celebrate Playwright Aleshea Harris
The gala directly supports the costs of Soho Rep’s next production: the world premiere of César Alvarez’s The Potluck.
In its 2026 Spring Fête, Soho Rep will honor Mike Pratt’s 30 years of transformative service at the Scherman Foundation. The event will also celebrate playwright Aleshea Harris and the release of her feature film Is God Is (Orion Pictures, Viva Maude, Linden Entertainment, distributed by Amazon MGM Studios), adapted from the play Soho Rep premiered to wide acclaim in 2018. The gala will take place on Monday, June 8, at 6pm, at the Edison Ballroom.
The gala directly supports the costs of Soho Rep’s next production: the world premiere of César Alvarez’s The Potluck, directed by Sarah Benson and co-produced by INTAR Theatre. Alvarez’ new work featuring a 12-person intergenerational cast uses the queer witchcraft of musical theater to grapple with the aftermath of the Greensboro massacre, in which five labor organizers were murdered at a protest by members of the KKK and American Nazi Party in 1979. The Potluck conjures the soft side of the revolution, and tells a story about what to do when the government is actually trying to kill you. The gala will ensure that Soho Rep can keep ticket prices for this high-caliber production affordable while simultaneously prioritizing living wages for the entire creative team.
In keeping with the production’s theme of collective and personal transformation, Soho Rep’s gala honorees this year are both themselves transformative voices in their respective fields. For three decades, Mike Pratt’s leadership of the Scherman Foundation has effected systemic change by supporting community organizing and movement-building. Tapping into his early career experience as an organizer and civil rights lawyer, Pratt has worked, in his role as President and CEO of the Foundation, with grassroots groups to strengthen the environmental justice movement, both nationally and in New York City, as well as the affordable housing and racial justice movements. Pratt will be introduced by Tom Finkelpearl (author, curator, educator, former director of the Queens Museum, and former Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs).
As a longtime fan, one of Pratt’s favorite plays that Soho Rep produced is Aleshea Harris’s Is God Is. With the film adaptation (trailer here), Harris makes her debut as both a screenwriter and film director. The movie stars Kara Young (Tony Awards for Purpose and Purlie Victorious, TV: I’m A Virgo) and Mallori Johnson (TV: Kindred, Vladimir)—both of whom participate in the gala—as twin sisters on an epic quest for revenge. Janelle Monáe, Vivica A. Fox, Sterling K. Brown, and Erika Alexander round out the film’s cast.
The gala also features performances honoring Pratt by actor and singer Noah Galvin (Dear Evan Hansen, ABC’s The Real O’Neals, Theater Camp) and by Baye & Asa (The Joyce Theater, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Pioneer Works), the movement art project directed and choreographed by Amadi Washington and Sam Pratt. Additionally, The Potluck cast members El Beh (Taylor Mac and Matt Ray's The Hang and Bark of Millions, James Harrison Monaco's Travels), Dionne McClain-Freeney (Drama Desk nominee-The Cotillion, Princess Grace Award) and Barbara Walsh (Broadway: Falsettos, Company) will perform a song from the musical.
Directed by Cheo Bourne, the Spring Fête creative team includes Deb O (Event Designer), Barbara Samuels (Lighting Designer), Aislinn Curry (Production Manager), Liene Camarena Fogele (Gala Producer), Laura Snow (Videographer), and Amanda Spooner (Stage Manager).
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