New York Stage and Film (NYS&F), the not-for-profit company dedicated to the development and production of the new works of emerging and established artists, will host an all-star benefit chaired by producer Lewis and playwright Jay Presson Allen, Mary McDonnell, Rob Morrow and producer David Brown, on Nov. 25 at NY's Copacabana.
The evening will feature original entertainment written and directed by Roger Rees, currently on Broadway in Roundabout's Rehearsal, Bebe Neuwirth (Chicago), Jesse Martin (Rent), NYS&F co-founder Mark Linn-Baker, Melissa Errico (The Importance of Being Earnest). Other celebrity guests are expected to attend, including Amy Irving.
NYSF received the 1995 Jujamcyn Theaters Award for its outstanding contribution to the development of creative talent for the theatre. Over the past 12 years, the cornerstone of NYS&F has been its summer season presented in collaboration with Vassar College. Each summer, hundreds of actors, directors, designers and technicians, as well as over 40 apprentices from colleges across the country, come together to create and learn at Vassar.
Peter Manning, one of the Artistic Directors of NYS&F, says that their benefits are "special because fancy artists mix with emerging artists and then there are our supporters....it's a great mix of social, business, and theatre people.
Manning continues, "our benefits also provide a chance for people who haven't seen our work (because it's in Poughkeepsie) to get a sense of what our work is about." Incidentally, this writer's 1986 summer was spent with NYS&F, (then called Double Image Theatre Company) as an apprentice with Melissa Errico, working in a production of Wedekind's Spring Awakening. Acting classes that summer were taught by Mary McDonnell.
Cocktails begin at 7pm, dinner at 8pm. The presentation begins at 9:15pm, and drinks and dancing with DJ Christopher Ford begins at 10pm. The 1996 summer apprentices have all been invited to celebrate at the dancing portion of the evening.
"Patron" tickets are $500, "Friend" tickets are $200, and can be purchased by calling Julie Berney at (212) 681-2849.
--By Blair Glaser
