Busch And Halston To Host Primary Stages 25th Anniversary Gala 11/9

It's a year of celebration! Charles Busch and Julie Halston will host this year's Primary Stages 25th Anniversary Gala Benefit to be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel (109 East 42nd Street) on Monday, November 9, 2009. This year's "Leading Ladies" Penny Fuller and Isabel Keating are set to perform and will be joined by Elysabeth Kleinhans, and celebrity guests Allison Janney, Marian Seldes and Elizabeth Wilson in helping Primary Stages celebrate their 25th Anniversary Season. Primary Stages (Casey Childs, Executive Producer; Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director; Elliot Fox, Managing Director), is one of Off-Broadway's preeminent theater company's. Angela Susan Anton and Sue Breger are the 2009 Co-Chairs, with Marlene Freeman as the Silent Auction Chair.

"This year's gala is a night to celebrate Primary Stages and our 25 years of commitment to the theater. We are honored to have this distinguished list of leading ladies help us usher in the next 25 years," stated Primary Stages Artistic Director Andrew Leynse.

Past gala honorees have included Patti LuPone and The Baruch-Routh-Frankel-Viertel Group (2008), Daryl Roth and Jack O'Brien (2007), Julie Harris (2006), Susan Stroman (2005), Horton Foote and Primary Stages Founder and Executive Producer Casey Childs (2004), Harvey Fierstein (2003), A.R. Gurney (2001), John Guare (2000), Betty Comden and Adolph Green (1998), Stephen Sondheim (1997), Wendy Wasserstein (1996) and Terrence McNally (1995).

The celebration begins at 6:30 p.m. with cocktails and Silent Auction followed by dinner and great entertainment. Ticket and table prices range from $500 - $10,000. For additional information, tickets and sponsorships contact Sue Breger at 212-840-9705 or sue@primarystages.org.

Primary Stages launched its 25th anniversary season of new works celebrating female playwrights with the world premiere of A Lifetime Burning by Cusi Cram that began performances July 28, 2009 and concludes September 5, 2009. Directed by Pam Mackinnon, the cast features Raul Castillo, Isabel Keating, Christina Kirk and Jennifer Westfeldt.

The season continues with the New York premiere of The Night Watcher, written and performed by Charlayne Woodard. An inspiring solo play, The Night Watcher is directed by Tony Award-winner Daniel Sullivan. Performances begin Tuesday, September 22, 2009 for a limited run through Saturday, October 31, 2009. Primary Stages concludes its 25th anniversary season with the New York premiere of Happy Now? by Lucinda Coxon (January 26, 2010 - March 10, 2010) with direction by Liz Dimond.

Subscription packages are available by calling Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or online at www.TicketCentral.com. For additional information about Primary Stages, please visit the website at www.primarystages.org.

Primary Stages was founded in 1984 as a New York State non-profit theater company with the mission of producing new plays and nurturing the development of playwrights. In our 24 seasons we have produced over 100 world and New York premieres of plays by such playwrights as Brooke Berman, Lee Blessing, Charles Busch, Constance Congdon, A.R. Gurney, Michael Hollinger, Willy Holtzman, David Ives, Julia Jordan, Romulus Linney, Michele Lowe, Donald Margulies, Melissa Manchester, Terrence McNally, Connor McPherson, John Henry Redwood, Lanie Robertson, John Patrick Shanley and Mac Wellman. We seek to provide a supportive environment where writers are encouraged to explore the scope of their creative vision. Our productions and our artists have received considerable critical acclaim including Tony, Obie, AUDELCO, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel (Outstanding Body of Work), Drama League, Drama Desk, Helen Hayes (Washington, DC), L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation and Joseph Jefferson (Chicago) awards and nominations. Many of our productions have been world premieres and all of them have been New York premieres. Lincoln Center Theater, by special arrangement with Primary Stages, recently produced Horton Foote's Dividing the Estate on Broadway at the Booth Theatre. Primary Stages continues to nurture playwrights through commissions, our weekly PrimeTime Reading Series and our emerging playwrights development program, The Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, now in its 14th year. We offer a wide array of classes and workshops at Primary Stages School of Theater, host free matinee performances for NYC public high school students, and enhance student appreciation of the theater through in-school programming with our Primary Voices program.

To learn more about Primary Stages please visit our website at www.primarystages.org.

Photo credit: Peter James Zielinski

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