Fall 2010 Public Events Announced By The League of Professional Theatre Women

This fall, the LPTW celebrates Oral History, a project made possible by generous grants from the Edith Meiser Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts. The ongoing Edith Meiser Oral History Project chronicles and documents the contributions of significant theatre women in many fields. Interviews with such outstanding women are videotaped and housed in the Theatre on Film and Tape Archives at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

On Monday, October 4th at 6pm, producer Elizabeth Ireland McCann will interview Kathleen Turner at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 65th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Admission is free; reservations are recommended through oralhistory@theatrewomen.org or by phone 888-297-3117. Past Oral History Projects have featured interviews with Carole Shelley, Marge Champion, Frances Sternhagen, Mary Rodgers, Susan Hilferty, Jennifer Von Mayrhauser, Elaine Stritch, Betty Comden, Estelle Parsons, Zoe Caldwell, Jane Alexander, Ruby Dee and Kitty Carlisle Hart.

OCTOBER 18TH MILLY BARRANGER ON Cheryl Crawford

League member and author Milly Barranger has been invited to present her recently published book, A Gamblers Instinct: The Story of Broadway Producer Cheryl Crawford, as part of "Life Upon the Wicked Stage: New Books in the Performing Arts," a series sponsored by the New York Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Ms. Barranger will draw upon the Library's archive to illustrate her talk on Cheryl Crawford's adventures in producing - from Tennessee Williams to Lerner and Loewe.

The event is free, and first come, first served on Monday, October 18th at 6 p.m. in the Library's Bruno Walter Auditorium, 111 Amsterdam Avenue near 65th Street.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9TH AWARDS PRESENTATION LUNCHEON
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD, Josephine Abady AWARD,
AND Lee Reynolds AWARD

The LPTW's Lifetime Achievement Award honors women exhibiting exemplary service to the theatre. Past recipients include Dorothy Olim, Betty Comden, Ellen Stewart, Fifi Oscard, Martha Swope, Sylvia Herscher, Rosetta LeNoire and Lucille Lortel, among others.

The Josephine Abady Award honors an emerging director or producer of a work of cultural diversity, who has worked professionally in the theatre for a period of at least five years. Past recipients of this award include Evelyn Collins, founder and director of the Harlem Ensemble Company; Debra Ann Byrd, founder and producing artistic director of Take Wing and Soar Productions, Inc.; and directors Gisela Cardenas and Tamilla Woodard.

The Lee Reynolds Award annually honors women active in any aspect of theatre whose work for, in, about or through the medium of theatre has helped illuminate the possibilities for social, cultural or political change. Karen Finley, Caridad Svich, Emily Mann, Estelle Parsons, Lynne Meadow, Marlo Thomas, Ruby Dee, Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford, Betty Corwin and Harriet Slaughter are past recipients.

Recipients will be announced at a later date. Awards will be presented on Thursday, December 9, 2010 at Sardi's (234 West 44th Street) at 12:00 noon. Tickets are $65 and will be available online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/122700 or by phone: 1-800-838-3006 option 1 (use event code 122700).
ABOUT THE LPTW

In the early 1980's several professional theatre women emerged from a meeting of The American Theatre Conference (ACT) in San Diego dismayed by the lack of opportunities for women in the theatre, especially in the commercial New York Theatre World. These commercial artists assembled a 10-woman steering committee, comprised of professional designers, directors, managers, producers, and press agents, which in 1982 became the first Board of Trustees of the League of Professional Theatre Women. Incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1986, today the League boasts a national and international membership numbering in the hundreds and comprised of both established professionals and those just starting out in their theatrical careers.

The League's original goals were, as they remain today, to promote women in all areas of professional theatre, to create industry related opportunities for women, and to provide an ongoing forum for ideas, methods, and issues of concern to the theatrical community and its audiences. These goals are accomplished through the offering of seminars, educational programs, social events, awards and festivals. These, as well as various League publications, continue to serve as links between professionals in every variety of theatrical pursuit, including university and community theatre wherever it exists.

Please visit our website for more information: www.TheatreWomen.org