New York Theatre Workshop Spring Gala, Honoring James C. Nicola, Set for Tonight

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) has announced that its 2013 Spring Gala, honoring Artistic Director James C. Nicola in celebration of 25 years of service to the organization, takes place tonight, Monday, May 20 at Tribeca Rooftop.

The evening will be directed by Doug Wright and feature performances by Steve Kazee, Tony Kushner, Cristin Milioti, Denis O'Hare, Lisa Peterson, Kyles Riabko, Ivo van Hove, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Fredi Walker-Browne, and Mary Louise Wilson.

Tony Award winning producer, Kevin McCollum (currently represented on Broadway with the hit musical Motown) will chair the event with the Board of Trustees of New York Theatre Workshop. The event committee includes Mary Buck, C.C. Dyer, Jodi Edmonds, Michael Greif, Janet Harckham, Doug Hughes, Wayne Kabak & Marsha Berkowitz, Joyce Ketay, Al Larson, Julie Larson, Steve & Joan Rosenfeld, Jordan Roth, Signature Bank (Thomas H. Kasulka & Barbara von Borstel), Robert & Gretchen Wetzel, ElizaBeth Williams & Joseph Forte.

The artist committee includes JoAnne Akalaitis, Anne Bogart, Kathleen Chalfant, Caryl Churchill, Martha Clarke, John Collins, Sam Gold, John Guare, Amy Herzog, Moisés Kaufman, Lisa Kron, Elizabeth Marvel, Will Power, Claudia Shear, John Tiffany, and Alex Timbers.

James C. Nicola has been Artistic Director of New York Theatre Workshop since 1988. Under his guidance, NYTW has remained steadfast to its founding commitment of nurturing both established and emerging theatre artists, promoting collaboration and bold experimentation with theatrical forms. Mr. Nicola initiated an extensive series of workshop opportunities including summer residencies and minority theatre artist fellowships, and has forged a unique community of theatre artists, the Usual Suspects, a group of writers, directors, designers and actors, who form the core of NYTW's artist development activities. As Artistic Director, Mr. Nicola has been instrumental in the development of many of NYTW world premieres, including Once; Peter and the Starcatcher; Jonathan Larson'sRent; Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's Aftermath; Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life andDirty Blonde; Will Power's The Seven; Ivo van Hove's productions of The Little Foxes, Hedda Gabler, and A Streetcar Named Desire; the American premieres of Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, and A Number; and Doug Wright's Quills and Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabul. Mr. Nicola has mentored Elevator Repair Service (ERS) and Noor Theater as Companies-in-Residence, inviting these smaller theater companies to receive support and resources from NYTW in order to further their growth and development. Before joining NYTW, Mr. Nicola spent nine years at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., first as a National Endowment for the Arts Directing Fellow and later as a Producing Associate where he directed productions including Marsha Norman's 'night Mother, Christopher Durang's The Marriage of Bette and Boo and Emily Mann's Still Life. From 1975 to 1980, Mr. Nicola was a Casting Coordinator for the New York Shakespeare Festival where he developed his continuing, passionate commitment to new voices in the theatre. Mr. Nicola's other directing credits include Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti and Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial by Jury at the WPA Theatre; John Guare's Landscape of the Body at the Studio Theatre; and Ernest Joselovitz's Flesh Eaters and Jessie's Land at the New Playwrights Theatre. Mr. Nicola fueled his love of theatre during the early 1970s when he was an Assistant Director at The Young Vic/National Theatre of Great Britain and an Assistant Stage Manager at London's Royal Court Theatre, where he worked on Athol Fugard's Boesman and Lena, the first time Fugard had been allowed out of South Africa. Mr. Nicola is a graduate of Tufts University.

New York Theatre Workshop, now celebrating its 30th Season, is a leading voice in the world of Off-Broadway and within the theatre community in New York and around the world. NYTW has emerged as a premiere incubator of important new theatre, honoring its mission to explore perspectives on our collective history and respond to the events and institutions that shape our lives. In addition, NYTW is known for its innovative adaptations of classic repertory. Each season, from its home in New York's East Village neighborhood, NYTW presents three to five new productions, over 80 readings, and numerous workshop productions, for over 45,000 audience members. Over the past 28 years, NYTW has developed and produced over 100 new, fully staged works, including Jonathan Larson's Rent, Tony Kushner's Slavs! and Homebody/Kabul, Doug Wright's Quills, Claudia Shear'sBlown Sideways Through Life and Dirty Blonde, Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Toldand Valhalla, Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, and A Number, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's Aftermath, and Rick Elice's Peter and the Starcatcher. The 2002 remounting of Martha Clarke's seminal work, Vienna: Lusthaus and subsequent American tour was one of the longest-running productions in NYTW's history. NYTW's acclaimed production of Once is currently enjoying a Broadway run, and Peter and the Starcatcher, which made its New York Premiere at NYTW, has returned to off-Broadway following a successful Broadway run. NYTW supports artists in all stages of their careers by maintaining a series of workshop programs including work-in-progress readings, summer residencies, and minority artist fellowships. In 1991, NYTW received an OBIE Award for Sustained Achievement and in 2000 was designated to be part of the Leading National Theatres Program by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The NYTW 2012/13 Season is dedicated to the memory of Joan Stein.

For ticket information, phone 212 780 9037 or visit www.nytw.org.