Annual Gala


ANNUAL SPRING GALA
Celebrating Shakespeare’s Birthday

Monday, May 16, 2022
Gala and Silent Auction

Capitale
130 Bowery, New York City

6:30 PM EDT Cocktail Reception and Silent Auction
7:30 PM EDT Dinner and Program

 

 

Featuring the 18th Presentation of the Samuel H. Scripps Award
for Extraordinary Artistic Achievement to

Harry Lennix
Leading Actor of Stage, Television, and Film

Presented by Julie Taymor

And the 11th Presentation of the Life in Art Award to

Sally Brody
Artist and Board Member Emerita

Presented by Jeffrey Horowitz,
Founding Artistic Director

Gala Co-Chairs

Kathleen C. Walsh
Robert E. Buckholz

The Annual Gala raises significant support for TFANA’s critically-acclaimed and award-winning productions, as well as for its in-depth education programs that serve public school students in every borough of New York City.

Theatre for a New Audience’s elegant and entertaining Gala is attended by many of New York’s leading arts patrons and has been hosted by eminent theatre artists such as Jessica Hecht, Alfred Molina, Kristine Nielsen, and Maggie Siff. The Gala includes a cocktail reception, auction, seated dinner, and program.

 

About the Honorees

Harry Lennix is a distinguished film, television and stage actor who currently stars as Harold Cooper, Asst. Dir of Counterterrorism for the FBI on NBC’s The Blacklist. Lennix made his Broadway debut in Pulitzer Prize winning playwright August Wilson’s Tony nominated Radio Golf. In 1994 at Theatre for a New Audience, he played Aaron in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus directed by Julie Taymor and he played Aaron again in the 1999 film Titus again directed by Julie Taymor with Jessica Lange and Anthony Hopkins; in 2001, he played Iachimo in TFANA’s Cymbeline directed by Bartlett Sher which premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He is also on the staff of the Goodman Theater Co. (Chicago) and is an internationally recognized Shakespeare practitioner, writing for various theatrical and literary journals dedicated to the Bard. Film roles include The Martian Manhunter in Zack Synder’s Justice League, Dresser in The Five Heartbeats, General Swanwick in Man of Steel and Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, Commander Lock in The Matrix and The Matrix: Reloaded and the Oscar-winning Ray. He is regularly seen on Showtime’s Billions.

 

Sally Brody is an Emerita Board Member after 26 years of service to Theatre for a New Audience and has been painting professionally most of her life. Born in Washington, DC, Sally is a long-time Brooklyn Heights and Ancramdale, New York, resident. She graduated from Smith College and studied painting and printmaking at the Art Students League, the Brooklyn Museum, the Art Students League and the New York Institute of Technology. Other longtime Board service includes Brooklyn Community Services, as well as Atlantic Gallery, a New York-based non-profit artists gallery cooperative. She has had solo exhibitions at The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Garrison Art Center and Home Box Office, and has participated in numerous group exhibitions. Sally Brody has designed tapestries for IBM and for commercial and private clients. Her work is in numerous private and corporate collections.

 

  

Harry Lennix
Harry Lennix

 

Sally Brody
Sally Brody

 

Lead Sponsor

 

Premium Sponsor

 

Partner Sponsors

 

 

    The Samuel H. Scripps Award

Samuel H. Scripps (left) was a visionary philanthropist who played a pivotal role in supporting theatre and dance. For Theatre for a New Audience, Samuel Scripps made a leadership gift to enable the Theatre to expand its body of work in Shakespeare and classical drama and increase its season from two to three annual productions. Samuel Scripps championed Shakespeare’s Globe in London. He has provided leadership support to BAM, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, the American Dance Festival and the American Society for Eastern Arts where one summer in the 1970s, Julie Taymor first studied Asian art. This directly led to her study in Indonesia – an experience which has profoundly influenced her as an artist. Each year, we honor a great artist with the Samuel H. Scripps Award for Extraordinary Artistic Achievement.

Past Scripps Honorees
Arin Arbus
jdtbw Merchant of Venice 1 - 158x158gray
Gala-John-Turturro-pic-158x158-B&W Michael Boyd circa 2007
Past Scripps Honorees:
Marie Maignan (2021), Jeffrey Horowitz (2020), Christian Camargo (2019), Arin Arbus (2018), Bartlett Sher (2017), Kathryn Hunter (2016), John Douglas Thompson (2015), F. Murray Abraham (2014), John Turturro (2013), Michael Boyd (2012), Robert Woodruff (2011), Julie Taymor (2010), Elliot Goldenthal (2010), Mark Rylance (2009), Wallace Shawn (2008), Cicely Berry CBE, Hon.D. Lit (2007), Tony Kushner (2006), and Robert Neff Williams (2005).
 

The Life in Art Award

Theatre for a New Audience’s Life in Art Award honors the achievements of individuals whose support for theatre has set the standard for leadership and generosity, and whose example has inspired others to ensure that theatre remains a vibrant part of our cultural life.  The award, a signed giclée print by Milton Glaser, is named for the autobiography by the great theatre artist Constantin Stanislavski, My Life in Art.


Past Life in Art Honorees
Terry Christensen
Polonsky-Photo
BarrySalzberg_150x150 Ted-2-(2)
Past Life in Art Honorees:
Amanda Riegel and the Thompson Family Foundation (2021), Barbara G. Fleischman (2020), Anne Tatlock (2019), Terry Christensen (2018), Richard E. Feldman and the SHS Foundation (2017), Elayne Bernstein and Sol Schwartz (2016), Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, LLP. (2015), Leonard Polonsky and Georgette Bennett (2014), Barry Salzberg, CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (2013), Theodore C. Rogers, Former TFANA Board Chair (2012).