Mary Testa, Chad Kimball, et al. Set for A PLAY IN FORTY ACTS, 5/2

Acclaimed Off-Broadway theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) will hold its annual Spring Gala Benefit on Monday evening, May 2nd at 583 Park Avenue. The company is currently celebrating its 40th Anniversary Season.

Titled "A Play in Forty Acts", the evening will honor Board Chair Judith O. Rubin for her 25 years at Playwrights Horizons. It will also feature performances by Tony Award winner LaChanze (The Color Purple, at Playwrights Horizons in The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin and Once on this Island) and Tony Award nominees Stephen Bogardus (Love! Valour! Compassion!, at Playwrights Horizons in March of the Falsettos, Falsettoland, James Joyce's The Dead and currently, Go Back to Where You Are), Chad Kimball (Memphis, at Playwrights Horizons in My Life with Albertine), Kelli O'Hara (South Pacific, The Light in the Piazza, at Playwrights Horizons in My Life with Albertine) and Mary Testa (Xanadu, 42nd Street, at Playwrights Horizons in The Wax, From Above, In Trousers and Lucky Stiff).

Judith O. Rubin has served on the Board of Playwrights Horizons for 25 years. Her passionate and peerless leadership has inspired trustees, staff members and artists alike, and has buoyed the organization through a multitude of challenges and triumphs. Few have been as ardent in their enthusiasm, wise in their counsel and generous with their expertise and resources. She has made the theater's professional mission to champion American Playwrights her personal mission and thousands of artists and audience members have benefitted in profound and significant ways.

The evening's Artistic Co-Chairs will include nine notable Playwrights Horizons veterans: Edward Albee (Me, Myself & I in '10), Annie Baker (Circle Mirror Transformation in '09), Reed Birney (Gemini in '76, An Imaginary Life in '93, The Butterfly Collection in ‘00, Pen in ‘06, The Savannah
Disputation ‘09, Circle Mirror Transformation in '09, A Small Fire in '11), Adam Bock (The Drunken City in ‘08, A Small Fire in ‘11), Christine Ebersole (Grey Gardens in ‘06), Michael Greif (Spatter Pattern in '04, Grey Gardens in ‘06), LaChanze (Once on This Island in ‘90, The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin in ‘00, Inked Baby in ‘09), Kelli O'Hara (My Life with Albertine in ‘03), Richard Nelson (James Joyce's The Dead in '99, Franny's Way in '02, My Life with Albertine in '03, Rodney's Wife in ‘04, Frank's Home in ‘07).

Trustee Jide J. Zeitlin (Founder, The Keffi Group) will serve as Gala Benefit Board Chair. Laura S. Langford (Managing Director, UniCredit Bank AG) and John E. Langford (Owner, GAA Books) will be Gala Benefit Patron Co-Chairs and Sam Gonzalez will be Gala Generation PH Chair.

Cocktails and a Silent Auction will begin at 6PM, followed by dinner at 7:45 PM and the evening's entertainment. Complete details on the Silent Auction, including preliminary online bidding which will begin April 26 and run through May 18, will be announced in the coming weeks.

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