Actor Phylicia Rashad, Pulitzer-winning playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes, composer Jason Robert Brown, and actor Betsy Wolfe are among the celebrities who will gather April 3 at The Pierre hotel in New York to salute Emmy Award and Tony Award winner Glenn Close, currently starring on Broadway in Sunset Boulevard.
Close will be honored at the Chairman’s Awards Gala of Theatre Forward, an organization dedicated to advancing American theatre and its communities through its initiatives Educating Through Theatre and Advancing Strong Theatre. The gala will also honor philanthropist Roe Green and the Center Theatre Group of Los Angeles on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.
Close (Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons, Albert Nobbs), a six-time Academy Award nominee, will accept the Theatre Artist Award, presented by members of her Sunset Boulevard company Nancy Anderson, Preston Truman Boyd, Britney Coleman, Katie Ladner, Lance Roberts, and Jim Walton. Hudes (Water by the Spoonful, In the Heights) will present the Theatre Forward Leadership Award to Green. Rashad will present the Achievement in Theatre Award to Center Theatre Group.
The event will also include performances by Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown (Bridges of Madison County, The Last Five Years) and Betsy Wolfe (Bullets Over Broadway, Mystery of Edwin Drood). Lee MacDougall and Sharon Wheatley will perform a number from the Broadway musical Come From Away. Bjorn Dupaty (Carnival), Nedra McClyde (upcoming Marvin’s Room), Leenya Rideout (Cyrano De Bergerac), and Brian Sills (The Lion King) will perform an excerpt from the play Fairfield by playwright Eric Coble (Velocity of Autumn).
The performances will be preceded by cocktails and dinner, as well as a live and silent auction. Auction proceeds will benefit the creation of theatrical works and theatre education programs across the country serving 500,000 students. Individual tickets are priced $1,000 to $25,000. Full tables are being sold for $10,000 to $25,000. For more information and to order tickets, visit theatreforward.org.
Theatre Forward, formerly National Corporate Theatre Fund, includes the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alley Theatre, Alliance Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, American Repertory Theater, Arena Stage, Center Theatre Group, Cleveland Play House, Dallas Theater Center, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Hartford Stage, Long Warf Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Old Globe, Seattle Repertory Theatre and Trinity Repertory Company, and Walnut Street Theatre.
The Pierre is located at 2 East 61st Street (at Fifth Avenue) in Manhattan.
