Applegate, Hanks, Shatner, & More Set for SCLA Fundraiser, 5/9

The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles (SCLA) continues the celebration of its 25th anniversary by holding its 21st Simply Shakespeare reading of "The Merry Wives of Windsor."  The participants for this rhinestone-studded cast in a down-home evenin' that will be more colorful than a clown at a rodeo include Christina Applegate, Kenneth Branagh, Faith Hill, Eric Idle, Arte Johnson, Eugene Levy, Tim McGRaw, William Shatner, Martin Short, Tracey Ullman and the co-chairs of the event Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks, all of whom will be reading one of Shakespeare's best known and beloved comedies.  The special musical guests are Reba McEntire, Sara Watkins, Sean Watkins, and Chris Wilson.

The fundraising event is Monday, May 9 at 8 pm at UCLA's Royce Hall, 340 Royce Drive Los Angeles, CA 90095.   Gala tickets at $500 and sponsorship opportunities are available by contacting Lauran Huff at Levy Pazanti Associates at 310-201-5033 or by email at Lauran@lpaevents.com.  

Tickets to the general public go on sale on Friday, April 15, for the performance only and are priced at $95 and $175.  Tickets can be purchased by visiting uclalive.com or calling Ticketmaster at 800-745-3000. 

The SCLA Simply Shakespeare reading of "The Merry Wives of Windsor" is made possible by the support of its premiere sponsor Deutsche Bank and benefactor sponsor Bingham McCutchen.

The evening is directed by Ben Donenberg, founding Artistic Director of The SCLA.   Last year's Simply Shakespeare reading of "Much Ado About Nothing" with Helen Hunt lead to the company's recent triumphant full-scale production of that play starring Ms. Hunt which also starred Tom Irwin and Lyle Lovett at the Kirk Douglas Theatre.

As part of the Simply Shakespeare event, The SCLA is auctioning off a speaking role in the show, where the winner will join the cast on stage with a line of dialogue, participate in limited rehearsal, have billing in the program, gain admission to the VIP post-show party and take a group photo with the cast.  This eBay auction commences on April 21 and concludes on May 1. The SCLA' auction site is http://tiny.cc/simplyshakespeare.

All proceeds from the event and the eBay auction support The SCLA and its arts based youth employment programs for inner-city youth, arts education in local schools, and professional union contracted productions that are accessible to all.

For more information on the Simply Shakespeare fundraiser or The SCLA, please visit www.ShakespeareCenter.org. 

The charity auction is being managed by Auction Cause, a premier online auction management agency specializing in high-profile design, strategy, and cause marketing for corporations and nonprofits worldwide. For more information, please visit  http://www.auctioncause.com/.

About The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles

Since 1985, The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles has been a vibrant hub of unique programs and events designed to make Shakespeare accessible and engaging in Los Angeles.  The center recently presented the West Coast Premiere of "The Trial of Hamlet" having previously been presented at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Boston and Chicago and its 25th Anniversary production of "Much Ado About Nothing" at the Kirk Douglas Theatre starring Helen Hunt, Tom Irwin, Lyle Lovett, Grace Gummer, Dakin Matthews, Stephen Root, David Ogden Stiers, Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins. 

The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles recently received the 2011 Rosetta LeNoire Award from Actors' Equity Association. The award recognizes outstanding artistic contributions to the universality of the human experience in American Theater and is given to an individual, theater or producing organization with an exemplary record in the hiring or promotion of ethnic minorities, female actors and actors with disabilities through multi-racial and/or non-traditional casting.

Ben Donenberg, one of the city's greatest proponents of Shakespeare, started The SCLA with a free production of "Twelfth Night" in Pershing Square and since then has provided performances of Shakespeare, along with outreach programs such as Will Power to Youth, which provides hands-on artistic experience with paid job training and arts education for at-risk youth.  The program has been so successful that it has been replicated in communities around the country.

Well known for its L.A.-centric approach to Shakespeare, past Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles production highlights include "A Midsummer Night's Dream" featuring jazz standards set in 1920's along Central Avenue, a 1990's "Julius Caesar" on the Steps of City Hall, "Twelfth Night" on Venice Beach, "As You Like It" featuring Peter Seeger's music imagined in Yosemite National Park, "The Two 

Gentlemen of Verona" featuring Beatles music in a suburban 1970's San Fernando Valley, and most recently a "Much Ado About Nothing" set in a fairy tale California vineyard. Throughout its 25 year history, the Shakespeare Center presents Shakespeare that reflects the landscape, history and people of Los Angeles, rendering interpretations that are artistically, financially, geographically, and physically accessible to all. 

About Ben Donenberg

Ben Donenberg has performed as an actor on and off-Broadway, in Central Park at the New York Shakespeare Festival's Delacorte Theater, on television and in film.  In 2006, the United States Senate unanimously approved his Presidential appointment to a six-year term as a Member of the National Council on the Arts, overseeing the work of the National Endowment for the Arts.  Donenberg is also featured in the National Endowments' award-winning inspirational documentary "Why Shakespeare?" which was distributed to more than 40,000 high schools throughout the country.

He has served as a National Juror for the Coming Up Taller Awards, under the auspices of The President's Committee for the Arts and the Humanities, a volunteer on the National Endowment for the Arts Theater Grant Panel and the Los Angeles County Performing Arts Commission's Theater Grant Panel. Mr. Donenberg holds a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy from the University of Southern California and is a graduate of The Juilliard School's Drama Division.