Diversionary Theatre Announces 2025 Annual Gala: THE OUT LOUD BALL

Diversionary Theatre has announced its 2025 Gala: The Out Loud Ball. This year's annual fundraising event will be emceed by Tony Award Nominee and Drama Desk Award winning musical theater star Jenn Colella (Come From Away, Suffs).

The ceremony will include recognition of Fritz Klein Award honorees Irma Cota, retired public health worker and board member of Prebys Foundation and The California Wellness Foundation; Javier Muñoz, Broadway star (In The Heights, Hamilton) and HIV/AIDS activist; and Tony Award Winner Christopher Ashley, Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse.

The Out Loud Ball will take place on April 5th, 2025 at the Mingei International Museum, located at 1439 El Prado in San Diego, CA. Tickets for the event can be found at diversionary.org.

Diversionary's Out Loud Ball will be a dazzling and delightful evening celebrating the third oldest LGBTQIA+ theatre in the nation. This fabulous party will celebrate LGBTQIA+ strength, beauty, resilience, and visibility while affirming Diversionary's commitment to living out loud, proud, and in the open - while centering the voices and stories of LGBTQIA+ artists on their stages. The evening will include delicious dining, show-stopping performances, and a high-energy dance party in the Neeley Courtyard of the Mingei International Museum.

Emcee Jenn Colella is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her work in musical theatre. She received a Tony Award nomination and won the Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, and three regional theater awards for her portrayal of Annette/Beverley Bass in Come from Away. She reprised her roles in the 2021 filmed recording of the musical. Colella was in the original Broadway casts of Urban Cowboy, High Fidelity (2006), Chaplin: The Musical (2012), If/Then (2014) and Suffs (2024), and Off-Broadway original productions of Slut (2005) and Lucky Guy (2011). Her Off-Broadway work includes the title character in the Beebo Brinker Chronicles (2008), Closer Than Ever (2012), and a staged reading of Twelve Angry Men (2018) with an all-female cast.

Fritz Klein Award honoree Irma Cota, now retired, dedicated her 42-year career to public health primarily in the community health center sector in San Diego County. From 1997 to March of 2018, Cota was the CEO of North County Health Project, also known as North County Health Services (NCHS). Under her leadership, NCHS went from five clinics with a $12 million budget to a system of 10 comprehensive health centers with a $74 million budget serving more than 66,000 patients. She also helped build capacity by expanding its primary care services, dental services, behavioral health and specialty care. She currently serves a Board Member for both the California Wellness Foundation and Prebys Foundation and continues to serve the Greater San Diego community through her work as a philanthropist.

Fritz Klein Award honoree Javier Muñoz is an American actor and singer. He is most notable for his Broadway performances as Usnavi de la Vega in the 2008 musical In the Heights and Alexander Hamilton in the 2015 musical Hamilton, in which he played the titular role from July 11, 2016, until January 14, 2018. He is not only a renowned actor of stage, film, and television, but has also been an outspoken activist for LGBTQ+ rights and HIV/AIDS for over 30 years. From 2020-2022, he served on the Board of Directors of GMHC, the world's first HIV/AIDS service organization and continues to support GMHC. In 2020, Javier became a member of the Board of Trustees for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids (BC/EFA), one of the nation's leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS organizations, providing funding for essential services for people living with HIV/AIDS and supporting organizations in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington DC. Since 2016, Javier has also served as a global ambassador for (RED), formed in 2006 by Bono and Bobby Shriver to fight AIDS, and has traveled to sub-Saharan Africa to support their work on the ground. His LGBTQ+ activism has allowed him to partner with major organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal, and The Point Foundation.

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