The New Group To Present Annual Gala WOODSTOCK At Edison Ballroom This Weekend

The New Group's Annual Gala, "Woodstock," is set to take place Monday, March 13, from 6:00-10:00pm, at The Edison Ballroom (240 West 47th Street). The celebration will honor Thomas Bradshaw, John Greenwood and Frank Marshall with the 2023 Mimi and Michael Mendelson Award for Outstanding Commitment to Theater.

A night of celebration and colorful fun, The New Group's Annual Gala supports the company's mission to develop and produce powerful, contemporary theater that is adventurous, stimulating and most importantly "now", a true forum for the present culture. The event provides critical funding for programs, including New Group/New Works - the company's signature development program for new plays and musicals - and its free theater education programs for middle and high school students in New York City.

Performers include Tamika Lawrence, Britton & The Sting and others, with appearances by Jennifer Damiano, Ato Essandoh, Ethan Hawke, Cynthia Nixon, Parker Posey, and Ephraim Sykes. The evening's performances are directed by The New Group's Director of Artistic Projects, Shariffa Chelimo Ali.

Thomas Bradshaw has been called "one of the most deliberately and effectively confrontational American Playwrights of his generation" by The New York Times. His plays include: The Seagull/Woodstock, NY, Intimacy, and Burning (The New Group), Mary and Carlyle (Goodman), Southern Promises, Fulfillment, Job, and Dawn (Flea Theater), The Bereaved (Crowded Fire, Partial Comfort, and the State Theater of Bielefeld in Germany), Thomas and Sally (Marin Theater Company), Prophet, Purity, Southern Promises (P.S. 122), and Lecture on the Blues (Whitney Museum). He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award, the Prince Prize, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts award, a Doris Duke Implementation Grant, and a Special Citation of Excellence from The Laurents/Hatcher Foundation. He recently served as a Consulting Producer on the Emmy and Peabody award winning mini-series When They See Us. He has had development deals with HBO/HARPO and FX/PLAN B, among others. His work is published by TCG, Samuel French, and Dramatic Publishing. Mr. Bradshaw is a Professor in the MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage program, and the Department Chair of the Department of Radio/Television/Film at Northwestern University.

John Greenwood is proud of his 21 years on the Board of Directors of The New Group. During that time, he has served terms as both Treasurer and Secretary of the company. John is a retired attorney, having specialized in corporate and tax matters for companies in the shipping industry. John spent more than 20 years on the Board of Directors of the 92nd Street Y, serving on the Performing Arts Committee and as co-chair of the Poetry Committee, which oversaw the activities of the Unterberg Poetry Center. Since retirement, John has pursued writing projects, travelled the globe, and tutored public school students for the SAT exam. In recent years he has been taken out for a walk four times a day by his Boston Terrier, Nettie.

Frank Marshall is a producer/director, with a film career marked by five Academy Award nominations and classic series like Indiana Jones, Jason Bourne, and Jurassic World. In November 2018, he and wife, Kathleen Kennedy, received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, an honor presented to creative producers "whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production." Marshall has directed several successful films, including JazzFest: A New Orleans Story (2023 Grammy Award Winner for Best Music Film) and several projects for The Geffen Playhouse. Currently, he is producing Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which will be released in theaters on June 30th, and Good Night, Oscar, which will open on Broadway at the Belasco Theater in April.

Tickets start at $1,000. For additional info contact Marshall Gunter, Manager of Individual Giving and Special Events, at marshall@thenewgroup.org, 212-244-3380 ext. 311.

The 2023 Gala Committee includes: Cynthia Nixon (co-chair), Charles Renfro (co-chair), Jesse Eisenberg, Edie Falco, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, Robin Lathrop, Amy Madigan, Abby Merrill, Mimi O'Donnell, Chloë Sevigny.

The New Group is currently represented by the world premiere of The Seagull/Woodstock, NY, by Thomas Bradshaw, adapted from Chekhov, featuring David Cale, Ato Essandoh, Patrick Foley, Hari Nef, Daniel Oreskes, Parker Posey, Bill Sage, Aleyse Shannon, Amy Stiller and Nat Wolff, directed by Scott Elliott, in a limited Off-Broadway engagement extended by popular demand through April 9 at The Pershing Square Signature Center (The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre, 480 West 42nd Street). The company's season will conclude with Bernarda's Daughters, by Diane Exavier, directed by Dominique Rider, a co-production with National Black Theater (starts April 2023).

The New Group (Scott Elliott, Founding Artistic Director; Adam Bernstein, Executive Director) is an award-winning, artist-driven company with a commitment to developing and producing powerful, contemporary theatre. The organization's New Group/New Works play and musical development program champions original works by emerging and established authors. The New Group Off Stage celebrates work at the intersection of art, multimedia and social engagement by showcasing some of today's most compelling storytellers through web series, films, audio plays and more. The New Group also operates a variety of theater education programs from teen acting ensembles to college access programs, and a college-level acting studio in collaboration with Long Island University-Brooklyn. Last season, The New Group Off Stage premiered the digital series i need space created by Donja R. Love and two audio plays with Audible Originals: The Fever and Bernarda's Daughters. On stage the company was most recently represented by Evanston Salt Costs Climbing by Will Arbery, directed by Danya Taymor, and the world premiere of the new musical Black No More by John Ridley and Tariq Trotter, directed by Scott Elliott. thenewgroup.org