Leslie Odom Jr. and Kara Young to Host Arthur Miller Foundation Honors

The Arthur Miller Foundation will present the fifth annual Arthur Miller Foundation Honors on Monday, November 6, 2023, at City Winery NYC (25 11th Avenue).  Hosted by Leslie Odom Jr. and Kara Young, the Arthur Miller Foundation will honor Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Martyna Majok, Philanthropists Jerre & Mary Joy Stead, and NYC Public School Theater Teacher Talia Jaime. AMF believes arts education is the right of every public-school student. To honor the legacy of Arthur Miller and his New York City public school education, AMF is a not-for-profit organization that provides theater teachers with certification, training, and critical resources to build and sustain quality in-school theater programs impacting over 52,000 public school students in all 5 boroughs of NYC and in Bridgeport Public Schools in Connecticut, one of the most underserved districts in the country.  The Arthur Miller Foundation Honors celebrates the power of public-school theater education and honors those who have made significant contributions to arts and culture in their own way. The Arthur Miller Foundation Honors is produced by AMF Executive Director Jaime Hastings. The AMF Honors student ensemble will be directed by AMF Master Artist Council member, Sasha Hutchings.
 
Martyna Majok will receive the “AMF Legacy Award,” celebrating her poignant body of work.  AMF will also honor Jerre & Mary Joy Stead with the “AMF Humanitarian Award,” for their investment in AMF theater education programs, making it possible for AMF to deepen its impact in NYC and providing the seed-funding for AMF's first program expansion to Bridgeport Public Schools.  New York City public school theater teacher Talia Jaime will be honored with the “AMF Excellence in Arts Education Award” for her extraordinary work as a public-school theater educator.
 
The Arthur Miller Foundation Honors, including cocktails, dinner, awards presentations, and performances will begin at 6pm on Monday, November 6, 2023, at City Winery NYC.
 

Martyna Majok

was born in Bytom, Poland and raised in Jersey and Chicago. She was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, Cost of Living, which was nominated for a 2023 Tony Award for Best Play.  Other plays include Sanctuary City, Queens, and Ironbound, which have been produced across American and international stages. Other awards include The Obie Award for Playwriting, The Hull-Warriner Award, The Academy of Arts and Letters’ Benjamin Hadley Danks Award for Exceptional Playwriting, Off Broadway Alliance Best New Play Award, The Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding New Play, The Hermitage Greenfield Prize, as the first female recipient in drama, The Champions of Change Award from the NYC Mayor’s Office, The Francesca Primus Prize, two Jane Chambers Playwriting Awards, The Lanford Wilson Prize, The Lilly Award's Stacey Mindich Prize, Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award, Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding Original New Play from The Helen Hayes Awards, Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, ANPF Women's Invitational Prize, David Calicchio Prize, Global Age Project Prize, NYTW 2050 Fellowship, NNPN Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, and Merage Foundation Fellowship for The American Dream. Martyna studied at Yale School of Drama, Juilliard, University of Chicago, and Jersey public schools. She was a 2012-2013 NNPN playwright-in-residence, the 2015-2016 PoNY Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center, and a 2018-2019 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University. Martyna is currently writing a musical adaptation of The Great Gatsby, with music by Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett, and developing TV and film for Plan B, Pastel, and MRC.
 

JERRE & Mary Joy STEAD

are passionate about children’s medicine, and in 2016, the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital was renamed The University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital.  Jerre has had a long and very successful career as a public company CEO and/or Chairman at over ten companies. In addition, Jerre has served on 37 corporate boards during his career and received numerous accolades for his work, including the Kenneth B. West Lifetime Achievement Award which he received in July 2017 by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) in recognition of his service on corporate and philanthropic boards.  Mary Joy has created a life of service in many different facets, from education, to leadership, to Alzheimer’s research.  She is also heavily involved with and serves on the boards of the Healthy LifeStars, Sing for Life and the Honor Health Foundation. Mary Joy is actively involved in several non-profit boards including serving as a Trustee of the University of Iowa Foundation and the Lambda Chi Alpha Educational Foundation Board.
 

TALIA JAIME

a New York native, is the Director of the theater program at New York City Public School X293 (Renaissance High School for Musical Theater and The Arts), located in the Bronx. There she developed the Renaissance Players, with a mission to bridge her school to its community with theater. Within the last ten years, Talia has worked with multiple theater education organizations to bring specialized and diverse opportunities to her students. She has partnered with York Theatre, New York Theater Workshop, Theater Development Fund, Statement Arts, and Broadway Bridges. In 2022, she began inducting students into the International Thespian Society. Talia has also worked with many of the programs offered by the Office of Arts and Special Projects, such as the Shubert High School Theater Festival, UCB Improv Teen Festival, Asylum NYC HS Improv Games, and the Broadway League's Theater Management Teen Diversity Intensive.  She is a proud alumnus of the Arthur Miller Foundation Fellows Program
 

LESLIE ODOM, JR.

is a multifaceted Tony and Grammy Award-winning, three-time Emmy and two-time Academy Award-nominated vocalist, songwriter, author, and actor. With a career that spans all performance genres, Odom has received recognition for his excellence and achievements in Broadway, television, film, and music. He can currently be seen on Broadway starring in Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch, and in Rian Johnson’s critically acclaimed Knives Out sequel, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, streaming worldwide on Netflix. Odom is currently in production on the highly anticipated sequel to the original iconic film The Exorcist. The film is scheduled to be released in October 2023. In 2020, Odom starred as legendary singer Sam Cooke in the award-winning Amazon film adaptation of One Night in Miami…, directed by Regina King. His portrayal of the soul icon and musical performance of original song “Speak Now” was met with widespread praise and critical acclaim, earning him multiple awards and nominations. He also starred in The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to David Chase’s award-winning HBO series The Sopranos, released in October 2021. Well known for his breakout role as ‘Aaron Burr’ in the smash hit Broadway musical Hamilton, Odom hosted “The Tony Awards Present: Broadway’s Back!” on CBS in September 2021 (2022 Emmy nomination). Additional film and television credits include Apple TV+’s “Central Park” (2020 Emmy nomination), Hamilton on Disney+ (2021 Emmy nomination), “Abbott Elementary,” “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder,” “Love in the Time of Corona,” “Harriet,” and many more. He is a BMG recording artist and has released four full-length albums. Co-written with Nicolette Robinson, Odom’s first children’s book, I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know, was published by Feiwel & Friends on March 28, 2023. The book debuted on the New York Times bestseller list at #7 in its first week.
 

Kara Young

is currently starring on Broadway in Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch and made her Broadway debut in Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s for which she received a Tony and a Drama Desk Nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play. Last season, Young received her second Tony and Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play in the Pulitzer Prize winner, Cost of Living. Her other accolades include: an Obie Award, an Audelco Award, and a Drama Desk nomination for her portrayal of Viola in Classical Theatre of Harlem's, Twelfth Night; the inaugural Florence Mills Rising Star Award from Black Women on Broadway and a Theatre World Award. Her other stage credits include All The Natalie Portmans, Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven, The New Englanders, The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll’d, Syncing Ink, and Pretty Hunger. She will next appear as a series regular in the highly anticipated Amazon series, “I’m a Virgo,” created by Boots Riley. Previous TV credits include: HBO Max’s “The Staircase;” Amazon’s feature “Chemical Hearts;” HBO's “Random Acts of Flyness;” and Netflix's “The Punisher.”
 
The Arthur Miller Foundation is a grassroots not-for-profit organization founded by Rebecca Miller to honor her father's legacy and his New York City public school education. AMF increases equitable access to quality theater education for public school students by supporting teachers with certification, mentorship, and robust, tailored resources to build sustainable theater programs.
 
The Arthur Miller Foundation Honors is the organization's preeminent annual benefit event that raises crucial funds for Arthur Miller Foundation Theater Education Programs in partnership with the New York City Public Schools, The City College of New York, and Bridgeport Public Schools. 
 

Arthur Miller FOUNDATION MISSION SUMMARY:

The Arthur Miller Foundation is a grassroots not-for-profit organization that was founded by Rebecca Miller to honor the legacy of her father who was a product of New York City public schools. The Arthur Miller Foundation's mission is to increase equitable access to quality theater education for public school students.
 
Arthur Miller attended public schools in Harlem and in Brooklyn during a time when arts education was an integral part of an academic curriculum. Since then, the arts have been repeatedly stripped away from the core content of a K-12 public school education.
 
When Rebecca Miller had children of her own in New York City public schools about 10 years ago, she was confronted with the harsh reality that only about 10% of NYC public schools had a theater teacher or program – here in the theater capital of our country. Rebecca joined forces with her Co-Trustee, Sandi Farkas, to honor her father’s legacy as an NYC public school student and began exploring ways to ensure that the arts weren’t considered an afterthought or a frill but, rather, placed squarely in the middle of a rounded education.
 
Now, 8 years since AMF programs began, 21% of NYC public schools have a dedicated theater teacher. (Up from 10% in 2015.) Our programs support teachers with scholarships, mentorship, and tailored resources to build sustainable in-school theater programs for public school students at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. What started as a pilot program in one school 10 years ago now reaches 49,500 students across all 5 boroughs of NYC and 3,000 students in Bridgeport, Connecticut, one of the most underserved districts in the country. While we have made significant strides since our inception, there is still a long way to go.
 
Arthur's legacy as a playwright continues to resonate with artists, students, and audiences worldwide, and the Arthur Miller Foundation seeks to expand that legacy by inspiring the next generation of artists, theater-goers, and creative global citizens in New York City and beyond.
 
For more information on the Arthur Miller Foundation, please visit:
https://arthurmillerfoundation.org/