Anthony Rapp, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Shoshana Bean & More to Take Part in NYTW 2022 Annual Gala

New York Theatre Workshop announced today performers and presenters for the NYTW 2022 Gala, honoring Artistic Director James C. Nicola, who will depart NYTW after 34 years on June 30, 2022. The Gala will be held on Monday April 11 at 6PM at Capitale (130 Bowery, New York, NY 10013).

Performers and presenters will include Anthony Rapp (RENT, "Star Trek: Discovery"), Daphne Rubin-Vega (RENT, In the Heights), Wilson Jermaine Heredia (RENT, La Cage aux Folles), Shoshana Bean (Mr. Saturday Night), Nikki M. James (Suffs, The Book of Mormon), Andy Mientus (Spring Awakening), the stars of Hadestown, The Bengsons (Hundred Days), Dina Martina (Chariots of Failure), Somi Kakoma (Dreaming Zenzile), Martha Redbone (for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf) & more.

The evening's program will be directed by Kevin Cahoon ("Monarch"), scripted by Tow Playwright-in-Residence Victor I. Cazares ("Pinching Pennies with Penny Marshall") and feature musical direction by Will Van Dyke (Little Shop of Horrors). The live auction will be conducted by Robbie Gordy.

The creative team will include production designer Frank J. Oliva (This Beautiful Future), lighting designer Stacey Derosier (The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe), sound designer Jaechelle Johnson (We Are Trying to Reach You) and line producer Rachel Frost. Terri Kohler (What the Constitution Means to Me) serves as Stage Manager with Kelsy Durkin (Good Grief) as Assistant Stage Manager. Video producer is Heredia Vision with video by ZANNI Productions.

James C. Nicola has been the Artistic Director of New York Theatre Workshop since 1988. Under his guidance, NYTW has remained steadfast in its founding commitment of nurturing emerging, mid-career and established theatre artists and promoting collaboration and bold experimentation with theatrical forms. Mr. Nicola initiated an extensive series of workshop opportunities that have continued for decades, including summer residencies and fellowships for artists representing a broad spectrum of cultures and backgrounds. He forged a unique community of theatre artists, the Usual Suspects, which now totals over 600 members and whose work has shaped our very idea of what theatre can be. This group of writers, directors, designers and actors form the core of NYTW's artist development activities. As Artistic Director, Mr. Nicola has been instrumental in the development of many NYTW productions, including Jonathan Larson's Rent; Tony Kushner's Slavs! and Homebody/Kabul; Doug Wright's Quills; Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life and Dirty Blonde; Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Valhalla; Martha Clarke's Vienna: Lusthaus; Will Power's The Seven and Fetch Clay, Make Man; Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, A Number and Love and Information; Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's Aftermath; Rick Elice's Peter and the Starcatcher; Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová and Enda Walsh's Once; David Bowie and Enda Walsh's Lazarus; Dael Orlandersmith's The Gimmick and Forever; Anaïs Mitchell's Hadestown; Heidi Schreck's What the Constitution Means to Me; Jeremy O. Harris's Slave Play; Sam Gold's production of Othello; and eight productions directed by Ivo van Hove. Before joining NYTW, Mr. Nicola spent seven years at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., first as a National Endowment for the Arts Directing Fellow and later as a Producing Associate. From 1975 to 1980, Mr. Nicola was a Casting Coordinator for the New York Shakespeare Festival where he developed his continuing, passionate commitment to new voices in the theatre. Mr. Nicola fueled his love of theatre during the early 1970s, when he was an Assistant Director at The Young Vic/National Theatre of Great Britain and an Assistant Stage Manager at London's Royal Court Theatre. Mr. Nicola is a graduate of Tufts University and is a recipient of Tufts University's P.T. Barnum Award, the Erwin Piscator Award, the 2015 Miss Lilly Award for supporting women in theater, and a 2019 Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement.

The NYTW Annual Gala raises nearly 10% of the Off-Broadway company's annual budget. Funds raised at this one-night-only event help NYTW to mount five world class productions each season and to share them with more than 50,000 audience members. Proceeds also support NYTW's Artist Workshop activities through which nearly 2,000 artists develop more than 80 projects each year and their Education Initiatives including Learning Workshop, Mind the Gap, and Public Programs that serve over 1,600 students of all ages.

Event tickets begin at $1,250 with tables starting at $12,500 and can be purchased at www.nytw.org or by calling 212-780-9037. The Gala will be chaired by Rachel Chavkin, Stephen Graham, Janet Harckham, Barbara Warner Howard and Heather Randall.

New York Theatre Workshop empowers visionary theatre-makers and brings their work to adventurous audiences through productions, artist workshops and educational programs. We nurture pioneering new writers alongside powerhouse playwrights, engage inimitable genre-shaping directors, and support emerging artists in the earliest days of their careers. We've mounted over 150 productions from artists whose work has shaped our very idea of what theatre can be, including Jonathan Larson's Rent; Tony Kushner's Slavs! and Homebody/Kabul; Doug Wright's Quills; Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life and Dirty Blonde; Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Valhalla; Martha Clarke's Vienna: Lusthaus; Will Power's The Seven and Fetch Clay, Make Man; Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, A Number and Love and Information; Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's Aftermath; Rick Elice's Peter and the Starcatcher; Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová and Enda Walsh's Once; David Bowie and Enda Walsh's Lazarus; Dael Orlandersmith's The Gimmick and Forever; and eight acclaimed productions directed by Ivo van Hove. NYTW's productions have received a Pulitzer Prize, 25 Tony Awards and assorted Obie, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards. NYTW is represented on Broadway with Anaïs Mitchell's Hadestown developed with and directed by Rachel Chavkin, and the upcoming Sing Street, based on the motion picture written and directed by John Carney, with a book by Enda Walsh, music and lyrics by Gary Clark & John Carney, directed by Rebecca Taichman. NYTW is also represented with the current National Tours of Hadestown and Heidi Schreck's What the Constitution Means to Me, directed by Oliver Butler.