Laura Benanti and Celia Keenan-Bolger to Host NEW 42 VIRTUAL GALA 2020

Tony Award winners Laura Benanti and Celia Keenan-Bolger will be hosting the New 42 Virtual Gala 2020 on Monday, June 1. Honoring Marc Spilker with the Marian Heiskell Award, the virtual event will include appearances by New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Broadway stars John Lithgow, Raúl Esparza, Elizabeth Stanley, Rebecca Taichman and Sonya Tayeh, as well as performances by Erika Henningsen (Mean Girls), Adrianna Hicks (Six) and Emmy Raver-Lampman and Solea Pfeiffer (Gun & Powder).

"The New 42 Gala is for all the artists who rehearse and develop work with us, the teachers and students who learn alongside us, the families who choose us for their child's first theatrical experience and for anyone who wants to come together for a celebration of New York's great artistic community," says Russell Granet, President & CEO of New 42.

Free and open to all, the New 42 Virtual Gala 2020 will premiere on New42.org/Gala on June 1, 2020, at 5:30PM EST to raise critical funds for the performing arts engagement and education programs of New 42 and its signature projects, New 42 Studios and New Victory Theater, which recently launched New Victory Arts Breaks, a series of digital performing arts curriculum for families and teachers to adapt to kids' learning spaces at home.

Philanthropist Marc Spilker will also accept the Marian Heiskell Award, inspired by the spirit of New 42's Founding Board Chairman and given to extraordinary individuals whose leadership and foresight help shape the future of NYC.

"Marc is deeply committed to the health and humanity of his fellow New Yorkers and I'm delighted to honor a leader who gives so generously without asking for anything in return," says New 42 Board Chair Fiona Rudin.

Also speaking on behalf of the nonprofit are theater artists Kaneza Schaal and Christopher Myers, the creators of Cartography, developed through New Victory LabWorks and presented by the Theater last January; Amy Castanos, a New Victory Usher in the New 42 Youth Corps, a signature program that provides more than 30,000 hours of paid employment and valuable life and job skills for 75 high school and college age students annually; and Kalitchi Figueroa, a teacher from PS 48, just one of 200 schools who receive free arts education in their classrooms through New Victory Education.

New 42 Gala 2020 is directed by Jonathan Bernstein with music directed by Mary-Mitchell Campbell.