Photo Flash: Inside 2019 ASTEP Color Ball Honoring Laura Benanti At Feinstein's/54 Below

The 2019 ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty) Color Ball honored Laura Benanti and Lutheran Social Services for their work with ASTEP in providing arts education for students who have arrived in the United States as unaccompanied minors - and Laura's work in the creation of Singing You Home: Children's Songs for Family Reunification, in conjunction with Mary-Mitchell Campbell, Broadway music director and Founder Co-Executive Director of ASTEP.

The glittering evening included performances by Shereen Ahmed (My Fair Lady), Todd Almond (The Odyssey, The Winter's Tale), Kerstin Anderson (My Fair Lady, Sound of Music), Hunter Bell ([title of show]), Linda Benanti (The Story Goes On), Michael Di Liberto (Wicked, Cuts), Alison Cimmet (Gary, Amelie), Gavin Lee (SpongeBob SquarePants, Mary Poppins), Bonnie Milligan (Head Over Heels, Gigantic), Marissa Rosen (My Big Gay Italian Wedding, Jawbreaker), Robbie Rozelle (Melissa Errico: Sondheim Sublime, Kate Baldwin: How did you get this Number?), Alexandra Silber (Fiddler on the Roof, Master Class), Lauren Sprague (Cinderella, The Wizard of Oz), Jessica Vosk (Wicked, Fiddler on the Roof), Danielle Wade (Mean Girls, The Wizard of Oz) and featured award presentation and personal stories from Chita Rivera, and ASTEP Staff.

ASTEP was conceived by Broadway musical director Mary-Mitchell Campbell and Juilliard students to transform the lives of youth using the most powerful tool they had - their art. With programs as local as New York City and as global as India and South Africa, ASTEP Volunteer Teaching Artists deliver after-school workshops and summer camps in schools and community organizations that serve youth affected by immigration status, homelessness, gun-violence, incarceration, the justice system, HIV/AIDS, systemic poverty, and the caste system.

Photo Credit: Allison Stock