New Georges, the OBIE Award-winning downtown theater company founded in 1992, will hold its 2008 Gala Benefit entitled "BAREFOOT IN TRIBECA" in the five-story Tribeca apartment of Morgan Brill and Greg Agran, at 13 Harrison Street (between Hudson and Greenwich Streets) on Monday, June 9 from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. The benefit will celebrate New Georges downtown. The invitation states: "festive dress, but don't stress the shoes, as footwear will be provided."
Actress and current Tony nominee
Martha Plimpton will be awarded New Georges' second Luminosity Award (the first went to
Cherry Jones at New Georges' 2005 Sunday in the Park with New Georges benefit at the famed Dakota apartment building). Ms. Plimpton is nominated for her performance in Caryl Churchill's
Top Girls, now running at MTC's Biltmore Theatre. Last year she was Tony nominated and a Drama Desk winner for her performance in
Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia. Other recent New York appearances include A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Delacorte and Cymbeline at the Vivian Beaumont. Having started her illustrious career as a teenager in films (The Goonies, Running on Empty, The Mosquito Coast, Parenthood), in recent years she has become one of the foremost actors of the American stage.
Like at the New Georges' Dakota benefit the evening will also feature short plays (this time called The Tribeca Plays) throughout the house by playwrights: Neena Beber (Jump/Cut) in the harem room, Kara Lee Corthron (Cave Krewe) and Kia Corthron (Force Continuum) in the master closet, Eisa Davis (Bulrusher, 2007 Pulitzer Prize finalist) in the long patio, Jenny Schwartz (God's Ear) in Dylan's room, and Kathryn Walat (Victoria Martin: Math Teen Queen) in the rooftop pool. Actors included in the plays will be Kal Penn (The Namesake and Kumar in the Harold & Kumar films),
Alison Pill (Mauritius, Blackbird and New Georges' None of the Above), Carolyn Baeumler (Beebo Brinker Chronicles and New Georges' Self Defense), Michel Chernus (Hunting and Gathering and American Sligo), Deborah Green, Marielle Heller (Peninsula), and
Tommy Schrider (Acts of Mercy). The Tribeca Plays will be directed by Jessica Bauman (The 52nd Street Project) and Sarah Cameron Sunde (Night Sings Its Songs).
Tickets start at $150. Admission will include cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, the
Martha Plimpton award presentation, "The Tribeca Plays" performed throughout the house, and a live auction (with brand-new OBIE winner Heidi Schreck and God's Ear's Raymond McAnally as the auctioneers). For tickets and more information, call 646-336-8077.
New Georges' (
www.newgeorges.org) notable productions have included: Susan Bernfield's Stretch (a fantasia); Jenny Schwartz's God's Ear; Sheila Callaghan's Dead City (a winner of the 2007 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); Deb Margolin's Three Seconds in the Key (winner of the 2005 Kesselring Prize); Catherine Filloux's The Beauty Inside; Lisa D'Amour's Anna Bella Eema;
Jenny Lyn Bader's None of the Above; and Carson Kreitzer's Self Defense, or death of some salesmen. The company, in addition to producing regular seasons, is a play and artist development organization, providing essential resources and opportunities to a community of venturesome artists.
