HB Studio to Produce 2016-17 Benefit Series

HB Studio, one of New York's most venerable institutions for theater training and practice, is shaking things up this year for their annual benefit. This year HB Studio is bringing attention back to its roots, and back to the process of making great theater. Instead of one big benefit bash honoring esteemed alumni and colleagues (such as Fritz Weaver, Austin Pendleton, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, Eric Bentley and David Hyde Pierce, Amanda Peet and Lee Grant, Tony Walton and Katie Finneran, Alfred Molina), HB will be hosting a series of intimate benefit performances featuring notable HB alumni and friends, exclusively produced in the HB Playwrights Theater. First up for the exciting 2016-17 season is:

EVENT: Shakespeare on Bank Street
FEATURING: Monica Bell, Richard Dent IV, Laura Esterman, Alfredo Narciso, Paul Pryce, Amanda Quaid, Myra Lucretia Taylor and Eric Rausch (Piano). Curated by Alan Pally (NYPL for the Performing Arts).
DATE & TIME: Monday, December 5th, 2016 at 7:00pm.
LOCATION: HB Playwrights Theatre (124 Bank Street in Greenwich Village, NYC).
TICKETS: Premium $300 | Priority $150

Benefit proceeds support HB Studio's World-Renowned Training, Practice and Development Programs for Aspiring and Professional Theater Artists. Seating is limited. No tickets will be sold at the door.

To learn more or to purchase tickets, visit http://hbstudio.org/giving/hb-benefit-events/.

Shakespeare on Bank Street will explore Shakespeare's influence on HB 's founders, Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof, while paying tribute to the genius of the Bard and his 400-year legacy. Performed in a warm and welcoming space, you won't want to miss notable HB alumni and colleagues performing excerpts from classics such as Twelfth Night, Hamletand Midsummer Night's Dream. You also won't want to miss hearing the voices of Uta Hagen and Paul Robeson as they perform their iconic Othello and Desdemona! The eclectic evening includes an exclusive VIP reception, featuring live jazz, hors d'oeuvres and champagne.

THE REMAINDER OF THE 2016-17 BENEFIT SERIES WILL INCLUDE THE TALENTS OF:

Dael Orlandersmith*
Winter/Spring 2017
New Play Reading (NY Premiere)
The Pulitzer Prize finalist and Obie-Award winning playwright brings her latest work to HB Studio for it's first NY reading. "There is a tough and necessary beauty in {her} writing...Orlandersmith hears the human need for dignity and justice, for love-- She is critic, witness, and poet."--Tony Kushner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angels in America

Austin Pendleton + Christopher Abbott*
Winter/Spring 2017
HB Alumni Presentation
Exclusive alumni production featuring Christopher Abbott, directed by Drama Desk and Obie Award winning director, actor and playwright, Austin Pendleton.

Robert McQueen*
Spring 2017
New Musical Premiere
Powerhouse director Robert McQueen joins forces with musical theater legends for an exclusive night featuring the American debut of a new musical project.

HB FOUNDERS AND ALUMS ON FILM
May 1-7, 2017
A week-long screening event celebrating HB talents on film, including movies starring our founders - Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof - along with HB alum Robert Duvall, Amanda Quaid and more.

*Events subject to possible change.

Each benefit evening will spotlight some of the wonderful talent that makes the HB Studio community so vital. HB Studio encourages interested patrons to join the HB PRODUCER'S CIRCLE for this year's slate of benefit performances, securing the best seats and ticket prices for each performance, in addition to access to each production's VIP reception. To purchase tickets online for benefit events, and receive the most up to date information about our upcoming productions, visit HB Studio online at http://hbstudio.org/giving/hb-benefit-events.

HB Studio provides an artistic home and vibrant creative community where both aspiring and professional artists find opportunity, education, encouragement, and support. HB's practical approach to theater and high artistic principles are the enduring legacy of its founders, Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen.

About HB Studio:
HB Studio is a nonprofit organization that supports vigorous, lifelong practice in the theatre arts based on a solid foundation of practical training. The Studio was conceived as a place where artists at all stages of their careers could continue to work and train between engagements, supported and challenged by their more experienced colleagues, in a space free from pressures related to commercial success. HB is open to any person with a serious interest in the theater and its related disciplines. Its students, faculty, and alumni form a vibrant community of actors, playwrights, and directors.

HB Studio alumni include some of the most notable actors of American theater and film including Christopher Abbott, F. Murray Abraham, Carroll Baker, Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, James Cromwell, Billy Crystal, Robert DeNiro, Faye Dunaway, Whoopi Goldberg, HAl Holbrook, Christine Lahti, Jessica Lange, Linda Lavin, Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli, Al Pacino, Sarah Jessica Parker, Amanda Peet, Doris Roberts, Mercedes Ruehl, George Segal, Molly Shannon, and Barbra Streisand.

Founded by Viennese actor/director Herbert Berghof in 1945, HB is one of the original New York acting studios. In 1947, Berghof met the celebrated actress Uta Hagen and invited her to join him in teaching at the Studio. The two later married, and Hagen, author of the seminal acting texts Respect for Acting and A Challenge for the Actor, became one of the most renowned and respected acting teachers of the 20th century. HB's faculty of master teachers and practicing artists carry on in that tradition today.