Neil Patrick Harris, John Benjamin Hickey & More Join American Theatre Wing's Advisory Board

The American Theatre Wing (William Ivey Long, Chairman, Board of Trustees; Heather Hitchens, Executive Director) have announced new appointments to its Board of Trustees and Advisory Committee.

Joining the Board of Trustees are Patricia Crown, Philip M. Getter and LaTanya Richardson Jackson.

A complete list of the American Theatre Wing's Board of Trustees can be found here: http://americantheatrewing.org/about/board_of_trustees.php.

The American Theatre Wing Board of Trustees is the governing body responsible for oversight of all of the Wing's activities and its overall well-being.

Joining the Advisory Committee are John Barlow, Thomas Brandt, Dale Cendali, John Benjamin Hickey, John Howard, Neil Patrick Harris, and Edward Pierce.

A complete list of the American Theatre Wing's Advisory Committee can be found here: http://americantheatrewing.org/about/advisory_committee.php.

The American Theatre Wing Advisory Committee provides support and guidance to the Board and staff of the Wing as they implement the Organization's goals and objectives.

"I am thrilled that these remarkable individuals are joining the ranks of those of us who care so passionately about the American Theatre Wing that we devote our time, energy, and resources to ensuring that it thrives," remarked William Ivey Long, Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

"I am incredibly honored to work with the extraordinary people who serve on the Wing's Board and Advisory Committee," addEd Heather Hitchens, Executive Director. "These latest appointments are outstanding additions -- each new member is tremendously accomplished and dedicated. I look forward to working with all of them in the months and years ahead."

Patricia Crown has been an active member of the American Theatre Wing Advisory Committee since its inception in 1993. Patricia runs her own law office and was formerly with Coblence and Associates. Prior to joining the predecessor to that firm in 1992, she spent five years as a partner in the New York office of Morrison & Foerster. She began her legal career as a corporate attorney at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. Ms. Crown has a J.D. degree from New York University School of Law where she was elected to Order of the Coif, an M.A. from the University of Rochester in Paris and a B.A. from the University of Rochester. Before becoming a lawyer, Ms. Crown lived for 10 years in Paris, France where she worked as a translator, interpreter and production assistant in the motion picture industry. For the last 25 years, Ms. Crown has practiced exclusively in the field of entertainment law, with a particular focus in theatre, film, publishing and copyright. She represents theatrical producers both in the U.S., France, England and China, French motion picture production companies, U.S. independent film producers, dance companies, cable television companies and authors.

Philip M. Getter is President and CEO of KIDSRx International provider of natural healthcare products for children. He has more than 35 years of investment banking experience most recently as the head of Investment Banking and member of the Board of Prime Charter, Ltd. He was a partner of Shearson, Hammill and Senior Partner of Devon Securities. Mr. Getter was for many years the President and Chief Executive Officer of Generics Corporation of America, one of the largest generic pharmaceutical companies in the United States. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Trustees of TCI College of Technology, the second largest post-secondary school in New York, founded by Nobel Prize winner Guglielmo Marconi and is chairman of the Audit Committee of ICTS International, a company that provides security solutions to the transportation and banking industries. Mr. Getter has held board positions on public companies in the pharmaceutical, film, entertainment and technology industries and was Chairman of the Board of InkSure Technologies, a provider of secure inks for government and commercial use. He has been a trustee of a number of not for profit organizations such as the St. Luke's Orchestra and the Lehman College Center for the Performing Arts. Mr. Getter has produced for Broadway, film and television. Among the theatrical productions in which he has been actively involved are Harry Chapin's Cotton Patch Gospel; the original Broadway production of Grease; Michael Cristofer's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning The Shadow Box; Tommy Tune's A Day In Hollywood/A Night In The Ukraine; David Copperfield's The Magic Man; Michael Jacob's Cheaters; Albert Innuarato's Gemini, with the PAF Playhouse; and Nicholas Kazan's Blood Moon, with The Production Company. He has been an active member of the American Theatre Wing's Advisory Committee for many years, serving on the Finance and the Tony Administration committees. He is married and the parent of five children and five grandchildren.

LaTanya Richardson Jackson is an American actress with a career in stage, film, and television. A native of Atlanta, GA, she graduated from Spelman College with a B.A. in Theatre. In 2012, Spelman awarded her an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts. Her professional theatre credits include many years at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theatre where she appeared in the critically acclaimed For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. In 2009, she starred on Broadway in the Tony Award winning revival of Joe Turner's Come and Gone directed by Bartlett Sher. Additionally, she has performed for Douglas Turner Ward at The Negro Ensemble Company, Mike Nichols at Second Stage Theatre Company, Neema Barnett at Manhattan Theatre Club, Joanna Woodward at the Westport Country Playhouse, and Kenny Leon at the Kennedy Center among others. Most recently, she was in Love Loss and What I Wore at New York's Westside Theatre, and directed the True Color Theatre Company's production of August Wilson's Two Trains Running. Her film credits include Mother and Child, Bolden, The Fighting Temptations, U.S. Marshalls, and Losing Isaiah. Television credits include "Harry's Law," HBO's "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge," "Boston Public," and the critically acclaimed "100 Center Street." Her civic activities include: Past trustee of Spelman College; board member at Ebony Repertory Theater, The Urban World Film Festival, and Artists for a New South Africa; advisory board member of The Women's Center; advisory committee member of Atlanta's True Colors Theatre Company. She has received numerous awards for her civic activity from the Atlanta Urban League Guild, the United Negro College Fund, the Broward County Public Library, the National Kidney Foundation, and the Catalog for Giving. Most recently, she and her husband were among the recipients of the National Action Network's Keeper of the Dream Award, and were honored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is married to actor Samuel L. Jackson and they have one daughter, Zoe Dove, who is an associate producer for Maggie Vision at ESPN.

John Barlow has been a publicist working in the New York theater since 1989. From 1999-2009 he was partner at Barlow-Hartman Public Relations where he represented over 100 productions on and off-Broadway. These included The Producers, Young Frankenstein, The Wild Party, Seussical, King Hedley II, Bombay Dreams, The Woman in White, A Chorus Line, Taboo, The Pillowman, Sweeney Todd, Company, Gypsy and most recently, Billy Elliot. He was the Executive Producer of Joan Didion's play The Year of Magical Thinking on Broadway in 2007. He is a trustee on the board of the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, CT and a member of the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers.

Tom Brandt is Co-CEO of Trans-Lux Corporation. Trans-Lux is a movie theatre exhibition and real estate development company as well as an outdoor LED signage manufacturer. It has theatres located in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming. Mr. Brandt is also co-founder of the CoolTea Networking Group with over 5,000 members, producer of the New York Experience and Seaport Experience multimedia shows, and owner and operator of a multimedia jazz club in the South Street Seaport. He is also a member of the Third Decade Council of the American Film Institute, investor in various Broadway productions, patron of the Telluride Film Festival, and past owner, with his family, of Brandt Theatres on 42nd Street: the Lyric, Selwyn, Apollo, Victory and Times Square. Mr. Brandt holds a B.S. from Skidmore College, and Business Management Degree from Northwestern University.

Dale M. Cendali is a partner in Kirkland & Ellis LLP's New York office and the head of the firm's Copyright, Trademark, Internet and Advertising practice. Dale is a nationally recognized leader in the field of intellectual property litigation, having successfully litigated and tried numerous high-profile cases and argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. She has particular expertise in film, television, publishing and theatrical disputes. Managing Intellectual Property named her well-publicized trial victory for J.K. Rowling as the "Copyright Trial of the Year." She has been repeatedly ranked as a "top tier" lawyer by Chambers Global and Chambers USA, which describe her as "one of the best lawyers in the country" in her field. They praise Dale as a "superb litigator" who combines "intellectual acuity" with a "tough, hard-working attitude," and who "thinks quickly on her feet and vigorously defends her clients." Dale was named one of the 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America by the National Law Journal. She is a summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Yale College, where she was president of the Yale Dramatic Association. Dale also is a graduate of the Harvard Law School, where she is now an adjunct professor, teaching a class on Copyright and Trademark Litigation.

Neil Patrick Harris is an American actor, singer, director, producer and magician. He is best known for portraying the womanizing Barney Stinson in "How I Met Your Mother," the title role in "Doogie Howser, M.D.," the title role in Joss Whedon's musical web series "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," and a fictionalized version of himself in the Harold & Kumar series. Harris was named as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2010, and was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in September 2011. After playing Mark in the Los Angeles production of Rent, he appeared on Broadway as Balladeer/Lee Harvey Oswald in Assassins, Hal in Proof (opposite Anne Heche), the Emcee in Cabaret (alongside Deborah Gibson and Tom Bosley), and this season will return to the stage in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. As a director, Harris helmed Rent at The Hollywood Bowl, The Expert at the Card Table at the Broad Stage Theater, and most recently directed Nothing to Hide at The Geffen Playhouse. Harris has hosted the Tony Awards four times, in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013. He has been nominated for several Emmys, and has won three - one for his guest starring performance on "Glee" and two for the Tony Awards. He will be hosting the 65th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards in September.

John Benjamin Hickey is an American actor with a career in stage, film and television. He won the 2011 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for his performance as Felix Turner in The Normal Heart. On Broadway, he originated the role of Arthur in Terrence McNally's Tony Award-winning play Love! Valour! Compassion! in 1995, a role he would recreate for the 1997 film version. He played Clifford Bradshaw in the 1998 revival of Cabaret, which won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical, and played Reverend John Hale in the Tony-nominated 2002 revival of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, and the Earl of Leicester in the Tony-nominated 2009 revival of Mary Stuart. He has appeared in such films as "Pitch Perfect," Flags of our Fathers," "The Anniversary Party," and "The Ice Storm." His most recent television roles include Neil Gross, the internet billionaire, on "The Good Wife," and four seasons as Sean, the homeless brother of Cathy (played by Laura Linney), on the Showtime series "The Big C."

John Howard is the Chief Executive Officer of Irving Place Capital. Prior to founding Irving Place Capital in 1997, Mr. Howard was the co-CEO of Vestar Capital Partners, a private investment firm specializing in management buyouts. Previously, Mr. Howard was a Senior Vice President and Partner of Wesray Capital Corporation, one of the foremost private equity sponsors and a pioneer in the leveraged buyout business.

Edward Pierce operates a New York City based design studio specializing in the production design of Broadway, touring, and international stage productions. Notable Broadway collaborations include: the Tony Award winning scenic design for the hit musical Wicked with Eugene Lee [additional adaptations for both National Tours, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Japan, Germany and Holland, Australia, Universal Studios Japan]; national and international creative and design supervision for Billy Elliot; the scenic design for 9 to 5 - The Musical; the scenic design for Boublil & Schönberg's The Pirate Queen; Chaplin; Glengarry Glen Ross; Dead Accounts; The Homecoming; You're Welcome America. A Final Night with George W. Bush; the Tony Award winning lighting design for Disney's Aida; the lighting design forRagtime with Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer (Tony nomination); the lighting design for Cabaret (Tony nomination); the designs for Bring in 'da Noise/Bring in 'da Funk and The Tempest.

In 2012, the American Theatre Wing (William Ivey Long, Chairman, Board of Trustees; Heather Hitchens, Executive Director) celebrated 95 years of service to the American Theatre. For nearly a century, the mission of the Wing has been to serve and support the theatre by celebrating excellence, nurturing the public's appreciation of theatre, and providing unique educational and access opportunities for both practitioners and audiences.

Best known for creating The Antoinette Perry "Tony" Awards, now presented with The Broadway League, the Wing has developed the best-known national platform for the recognition of theatrical achievement on Broadway. Yet the Wing's reach extends beyond Broadway and beyond New York, with educational and media work that offers the very best in theatre to people around the world. In addition to its various media programs and a host of other online resources, The Wing sponsors many activities, all dedicated to recognizing excellence and supporting education in theatre. The Wing's programs include the Theatre Intern Group, a career development program for young professionals; SpringboardNYC, a two-week college-to-career boot camp for young performers moving to NYC; and the Jonathan Larson Grants, given annually to honor emerging composers, lyricists and book writers.

Visitors to americantheatrewing.org can listen to, watch or download from the Wing's extensive media collection, and learn more about all of its programming for students, aspiring and working professionals, and audiences who want to learn more about the making of theatre. Follow the Wing on Facebook.com/TheAmericanTheatreWing and Twitter.com/TheWing.

Photo by Walter McBride