Anna D. Shapiro Receives 2010 Princess Grace Statue Award 11/10

The 2010 Princess Grace Awards Gala will be held tonight to continue the legacy of Princess Grace (Kelly) of Monaco, who anonymously helped emerging artists pursue their artistic goals during Her lifetime. This year's Awards winners represent 18 states around the country and eleven organizations that are new to partnering with the Foundation. They will travel to New York City as guests of the Princess Grace Foundation-USA, where they will receive their Awards at the annual black-tie Princess Grace Awards Gala, held in the presence of HRH The Princess of Hanover, on November 10, 2010 at Cipriani 42nd Street.

The Princess Grace Foundation-USA, a public charity, was formed after the death of Princess Grace in 1982. They award scholarships, apprenticeships, and fellowships to assist artists at the start of their careers. The Foundation cultivates a diverse group of nearly 500 artists to date who continue to advance the spectrum of performing arts with innovative, cutting-edge, and vibrant theater, dance, choreography, film, playwriting and design. Since the Foundation's inception, more than 650 Awards have been given to recipients, totaling more than $7 million.

For the second year in a row, celebrated artist Alex Soldier, known for his mastery of fine jewelry and precious miniatures, has created an objet d'art to symbolize the Princess Grace Awards. The Award symbolically combines the three art forms lauded by the Foundation: theater, dance, and film by using precious metals and Swarovski crystal accents. The sculpture is made for each recipient to wear as a pin, a special reminder of their Award for the world to see.

PRINCESS GRACE STATUE AWARD
Past winners of the Awards who distinguish themselves in their artistic disciplines since receiving their initial Princess Grace Awards are eligible to win the coveted Princess Grace Statue Award. It includes a $25,000 unrestricted cash gift and a special Bronze Statue of Princess Grace created by Dutch artist Kees Verkade. This year's Statue Award winner is: Anna D. Shapiro - 2008 Tony® Award winner for Best Direction of a Play (August: Osage County) - Steppenwolf Theater Company Ensemble Member - Head of Graduate Directing Program at Northwestern University.

PRINCESS GRACE AWARDS
Each year, the Foundation presents the Princess Grace Awards to artists who show excellence and promise in the areas of theater, dance, and film. Students are eligible for scholarships; emerging artists working in companies qualify for apprenticeships and fellowships. A playwriting fellowship is available for individual artists through a residency at New Dramatists in New York City, which includes the opportunity to have the winning play be licensed and published by Samuel French, Inc. In addition to these, the Foundation also gives honorable mention grants to applicants through Honoraria.

The 2010 Princess Grace Awards winners (listed below) represent 20 colleges, universities, and not- for-profit theater and dance companies throughout the United States. The Awards winners exemplify both classical and experimental artistic disciplines and, while still considered emerging talent, already show exceptional promise in their areas of expertise. The Foundation's support assists their theater and dance studies, helps pay their artistic fees at non-profit theater and dance companies and helps support their thesis film projects. In addition to the Awards, the Princess Grace Foundation-USA extends general operating monies to companies hosting an Awards winner. This year's Princess Grace Awards winners are:

THEATER AND PLAYWRITNG
Andrea Assaf
Theater Fellowship, Gant Gaither Theater Award Pangea World Theater

Charlotte Brathwaite
Theater Scholarship, George C. Wolfe Award Yale School of Drama

Shana Cooper
Theater Fellowship, Robert & Gloria Hausman Award Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Tom Gleeson
Theater Fellowship, Faberge? Theater Award Arden Theatre Company

Virginia Grise
Theater Apprenticeship, Pierre Cardin Theater Award Playwrights' Arena

Adam Pinti
Theater Scholarship, Grace Le Vine Award Arizona State University

A. Rey Pamatmat
Playwriting Fellowship New Dramatists Inc.

DANCE AND CHOREOGRAPHY
Kyle Abraham
Choreography Fellowship Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School & Camp

Craig Black
Dance Scholarship The Juilliard School-Dance Division

Ashley J. Jackson
Dance Fellowship, Chris Hellman Dance Award Alonzo King's LINES Ballet

Rachel Meyer
Dance Fellowship Dominic Walsh Dance Theater

Andrea Parson
Dance Fellowship Northwest Dance Project

Brett Perry
Dance Fellowship Trey McIntyre Project

Victor Quijada
Choreography Fellowship Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

Andrew Wojtal
Dance Scholarship California Institute of the Arts

FILM
Jessica Anne Bardsley
Film Graduate Scholarship School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Mike Gibisser
Film Graduate Scholarship University of Illinois, Chicago

Laura Kraning
Film Graduate Scholarship, John H. Johnson Film Award California Institute of the Arts

Sara Newens
Film Graduate Scholarship Stanford University

Willie Williams
Film Graduate Scholarship University of Southern California

Javi Aitor Zubizarreta
Film Undergraduate Scholarship, Cary Grant Film Award University of Notre Dame

HONORARIA
Lorianne Arden
Film Honorarium Vassar College

Chris Bryant
Film Honorarium Chapman University

Devan McGrath
Film Honorarium Columbia College Chicago

SPECIAL PROJECT and WORKS IN PROGRESS AWARDS
Special Project Awards and Works in Progress Residencies at the Baryshnikov Arts Center are grants available to past Princess Grace Awards winners and Honoraria recipients for uniquely significant projects that advance their artistic development. This year's Special Project Awards and Works in Progress Residencies are:

SPECIAL PROJECT AWARDS
Carlos Armesto, John Fiege, Michael John Garce?s, Zach Horton, Kara Manning, Benjamin Russell, Uri Sands

WORKS IN PROGRESS RESIDENCIES
Jim Findlay,  Andrea Miller,  Chi-wang Yang

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The Princess Grace Foundation-USA is a not-for-profit, publicly-supported foundation, headquartered in New York City and founded more than 25 years ago by Prince Rainier III of Monaco in honor of his wife, Princess Grace [Kelly]. The Foundation's mission, that mirrors Princess Grace's in Her lifetime, is to support emerging artists in theater, dance and film through the awarding of scholarships, apprenticeships and fellowships. Since the Foundation's inception, more than 650 Awards have been given to recipients, totaling more than $7 million. Some notable Princess Grace Awards recipients in Theater include: 2008 Tony® Award winner for Best Direction of a Play, Anna D. Shapiro; Pulitzer and Tony® Award winning playwright Tony Kushner; and Academy Award® winner Eric Simonson. Film recipients include: Stephen Hillenburg, creator of SpongeBob SquarePants; Greg Mottola, director of Adventureland and Superbad; and Cary Joji Fukunaga, writer and director of Sin Nombre. Dance/Choreography Awards recipients include: American Ballet Theatre's Ethan Stiefel and Jacoby&Pronk's Drew Jacoby; as well as choreographers Robert Battle and Dominic Walsh.

For more information, visit www.pgfusa.org.

Photo Credit: Linda Lenzi