The event featured Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner; celebrated playwright/actor/director Austin Pendleton; Bill Coco of The Actors Studio; Michael Paller of The American Conservatory Theater; Louise Kerz Hirschfeld, theatre historian and president emeritus of The Al Hirschfeld Foundation; James Shapiro, Edward Mendelson and Phillip Lopate of Columbia University; Roger Copeland, and Professor of Theater and Dance, Oberlin College and Conservatory, as well as musical performances by celebrated soprano Karyn Levitt, pianist Eric Ostling, and the Metamorphosis Chamber Orchestra conducted by Glen Roven.
