CLYBOURNE PARK Cast, Santino Fontana and More to Perform at Playwrights Horizons Spring Gala

Off-Broadway theater company Playwrights Horizons has announced participating artists for its annual Spring Gala on Monday evening, June 11 at the event space 583 Park Avenue.

Titled “The Highest Standard”, the evening will celebrate its five Pulitzer Prize-winning productions and honor the creators of these memorable works for the theater. The honorees are James Lapine (Sunday in the Park with George), Bruce Norris (Clybourne Park), Stephen Sondheim (Sunday in the Park with George), Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy), Wendy Wasserstein (The Heidi Chronicles) and Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife).

The evening will consist of songs from Sunday in the Park with George and excerpts from the four Pulitzer Prize-winning plays, as well as tributes by those connected to the projects. Participating artists will be as follows:

· CLYBOURNE PARK (2011 Pulitzer Prize)
The entire original 2010 Playwrights Horizons World Premiere cast (which is also the current Broadway premiere cast), featuring Crystal A. Dickinson, Brendan Griffin, Damon Gupton, Christina Kirk, Annie Parisse, Jeremy Shamos (a Tony Award nominee for this performance) and Tony Award winner Frank Wood, will perform an excerpt from the play. There will be a testimonial from Tony Award-winning director Anna D. Shapiro (who directed Mr. Norris’ The Pain and the Itch at PH)

· I AM MY OWN WIFE (2004 Pulitzer Prize)
A special three-minute version adapted by Jordan Harrison (Maple and Vine at PH) will be performed by Mark Nelson (Flaubert’s Latest at PH and I Am My Own Wife regionally).
There will be a testimonial by Sundance Theater Program Artistic Director Philip Himberg.

· THE HEIDI CHRONICLES (1989 Pulitzer Prize)
A three-minute, one-woman version adapted by Leslye Headland (Assistance at PH) will be performed by Tony Award nominee Maria Dizzia (The Drunken City at PH, nomination for In the Next Room, or the vibrator play). There will be a testimonial by original Heidi producer, former Playwrights Horizons Artistic Director and Lincoln Center Theater Artistic Director André Bishop.

· DRIVING MISS DAISY (1988 Pulitzer Prize)
A special three-minute version adapted by EVan Smith (The Uneasy Chair and The Savannah Disputation at PH) will be performed by Tony Award nominee Suzanne Bertish (Kin at PH), Michael Potts (Grey Gardens and Mud, River, Stone at PH, currently on Broadway in The Book of Mormon) and Brian Avers (Completeness at PH). There will be a testimonial by the original ‘Daisy,’ five-time Tony Award nominee Dana Ivey (Driving Miss Daisy, Sunday in the Park with George, The Uneasy Chair and The Savannah Disputation, all at PH).

· SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE (1985 Pulitzer Prize)
Musical excerpts will be performed by Santino Fontana (Sons of the Prophet, the Roundabout revival of Sunday…) alongside alumni and students from the Playwrights Horizons Theater School. There will be a testimonial by original Sunday… Musical Director, Tony Award winner Paul Gemignani.

Gala musical direction will be by Chris Haberl.