Arizona Theatre Company Celebrates Its 43rd Season With CURTAIN UP! 2010: Live From New York City

Arizona Theatre Company celebrates its 43rd season on Saturday, April 17 with CURTAIN UP! 2010: Live from New York City. Experience an evening filled with the music, sights and sounds of New York at the Herberger Theater Center and the Phoenix Convention Center in downtown Phoenix. Chairing the CURTAIN UP! 2010 committee are ATC Trustees Zelda Faigen and Laura Green.

The evening begins at 5 PM with a cocktail reception, followed by a private concert featuring the Tony-winning Broadway star of "Phantom of the Opera," "Souvenir," "Mamma Mia! and "Ragtime," Judy Kaye! The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust will be honored with the "Standing Ovation" Award before guests enjoy dinner and dancing at the Phoenix Convention Center's new ballroom. Attire for the event is "New York Cocktail."

The evening will include a raffle for several exciting prizes, and the live auction of a "Dancing with the Stars" package that includes airfare to and from Los Angeles, front row seats at a taping of the popular television show, lodging in a premium hotel and limousine service to the taping. The dinner at CURTAIN UP! 2010 will feature several food stations representative of various New York neighborhoods. Dinner will be followed by dancing to music by Katy & Company.

Judy Kaye returns to Arizona Theatre Company where she last starred as Florence Foster Jenkins in ATC's 2007 production of Souvenir. Prior to that, she appeared in The Dybbuk in 1975. She starred in Souvenir on Broadway (Tony Award nomination), at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, in the original production off-Broadway at the York Theatre (Lortel and Drama Desk Award nominations) and, most recently, in Los Angeles. She has appeared as the Old Lady in Candide with the New York City Opera, Hortense in the Reprise! Production of Zorba in Los Angeles (LA Ovation nomination) and as Mrs. Lovett in the Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd, a role she has played three other times opposite both George Hearn and the original Sweeney, Len Cariou, in a performance at London's Royal FestivAl Hall. Her other Broadway credits include The Phantom of the Opera (Tony Award), Mamma Mia! (Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations), On the Twentieth Century (Theatre World Award and Drama Desk Award nomination), Ragtime and Grease, among others.

Judy Kaye is a native of Phoenix, Arizona, having left to pursue a degree in acting from the University of California at Los Angeles. Ms. Kaye's parents still reside in the Valley.

The "Standing Ovation" Award has only been awarded once previously by Arizona Theatre Company, and is given to an individual or an organization that has truly gone "above and beyond" in their support of ATC. The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust has provided support to ATC several times, including a recent technology-enhancement grant that is supporting upgrades to the theatre's website and ticketing system. In November 2009, the Trustees of the Piper Trust approved taking $1 million from assets, specifically to support the operations of 37 Maricopa County arts organizations - ATC was once again the grateful beneficiary of one of those grants.

Tickets to the event are $250 per person or $2500 for a table of ten. Event sponsorships are also available at the $5000 and $3500 level, and each includes a table for ten guests. Proceeds will benefit Arizona Theatre Company and further the company's mission of producing professional theatre as well as serving as an educational and cultural resource in the state. For more information, call the ATC Development Department at (602) 256-6899 x 6302.

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