Tina Fey, Kelli O'Hara and More Among Trinity Rep's Pell Award Winners

Trinity Repertory Company has revealed the local and national honorees of the 2025 Pell Awards Gala. Emmy Award-winning comedian, writer, and actress Tina Fey and Tony Award-winning actress and singer and Emmy and Grammy Award nominee Kelli O’Hara will each receive the Pell Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. Mixed Magic Theatre co-founder and executive director Bernadet V. Pitts-Wiley will receive the Rhode Island Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts. This year’s recipient of the Pell Award for Leadership in the Arts is Lorén M. Spears, the executive director of Tomaquag Museum, Rhode Island’s only Indigenous arts, culture, and history museum.

“Senator Claiborne Pell was a great champion for the American people,” The Laura H. Harris Artistic Director Curt Columbus said. “Now more than ever, we need leaders like Claiborne Pell. The honorees for this year's Pell Awards Gala exemplify the spirit of our legendary senator, in their contributions to the arts and their communities.”

The 26th Pell Awards Gala will be held on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Providence, Rhode Island at The Lindemann Performing Arts Center on Brown University’s campus. The event co-chairs are Sally Lapides and Joan Sorensen.