Princess Grace Foundation-USA Announces 2011 Award Winners

The Board of Trustees of the Princess Grace Foundation-USA (PGF-USA) and its Chairman, Hon. John F. Lehman, announced today the winners of the 2011 Princess Grace Awards. The Awards for theater, dance and choreography, and film continue the legacy of Princess Grace (Kelly) of Monaco, who anonymously helped emerging artists pursue their artistic goals during Her lifetime. This year's 21 Awards winners will travel to New York City as guests of the Princess Grace Foundation-USA, where they will receive their Awards at the annual black-tie Princess Grace Awards Gala, on November 1, 2011 at Cipriani 42nd Street. This year's Awards Gala will be highlighted by the unveiling of a unique tribute to Princess Grace by Montblanc.

The Princess Grace Foundation-USA, a public charity, was formed after the death of Princess Grace in 1982. They present scholarships, apprenticeships, and fellowships to assist artists at the start of their careers. The Foundation has cultivated a diverse group of nearly 600 artists to date who continue to advance the spectrum of performing arts with innovative, cutting-edge, and vibrant theater, dance, choreography, film, playwriting and design. Since the Foundation's inception, more than 700 Awards have been given to recipients, totaling more than $8.5 million.

At the Gala, The Montblanc Collection Princesse Grace de Monaco will be premiered in the U.S.- a spectacular, new tribute collection to one of the most remarkable individuals of all time, celebrated for Her iconic, timeless style; Her artistic talent as an Oscar©-winning actress and Her unrelenting commitment to helping others. The Montblanc Collection Princesse Grace de Monaco is a continuation of the privileged relationship the brand has enjoyed with the Principality of Monaco in recent years. Consisting of fine jewelry pieces, timepieces and writing instruments, the Montblanc Collection is true to Princess Grace's enduring style and sophistication. Feminine and elegant, the pieces from this collection are some of the most exquisite ever crafted in Montblanc's Ateliers, rich in details and inspired by this icon's spirit and attention to style.

For the third year in a row, celebrated artist Alex Soldier, known for his mastery of precious miniatures, has created an objet d'art to symbolize the Princess Grace Awards. The Award symbolically combines the three art forms lauded by the Foundation: theater, dance, and film by using precious metals and Swarovski crystal accents. The sculpture is made for each recipient to wear as a pin, a special reminder of their Award for the world to see.

PRINCESS GRACE STATUE AWARD

Past winners of the Awards who distinguish themselves in their artistic disciplines since receiving their initial Princess Grace Awards are eligible to win the coveted Princess Grace Statue Award. It includes a $25,000 unrestricted cash gift and a special Bronze Statue of Princess Grace created by Dutch artist Kees Verkade. This year's Statue Award winner is Jon M. Chu.

Jon M. Chu won his original Princess Grace Award, a Film Scholarship at University of Southern California, in 2001. He is the director of Step Up 2 The Streets (2008), and Step Up 3D (2010). Combined, these two films have grossed over 300 million dollars theatrically. In 2011, his third film, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, garnered rave reviews and claimed the title as the highest grossing concert-themed film of all time in the U.S. and the third highest grossing documentary of all time. Jon M. Chu is the creator, writer and director of The League of Extraordinary Dancers (The LXD), which is the number one original program for Hulu. He is currently in production on the next film in the G.I. Joe franchise, to be released next summer.

PRINCESS GRACE AWARDS

Each year, the Foundation presents the Princess Grace Awards to artists who show excellence and promise in the areas of theater, dance, and film. Students are eligible for scholarships; emerging artists working in companies qualify for apprenticeships and fellowships. A playwriting fellowship is available for individual artists through a residency at New Dramatists in New York City, which includes the opportunity to have the winning play be licensed and published by Samuel French, Inc. In addition to these, the Foundation also gives honorable mention grants to applicants through Honoraria.

The 2011 Princess Grace Awards winners (listed below) represent 20 colleges, universities, and not-for-profit theater and dance companies throughout the United States. The Awards winners exemplify both classical and experimental artistic disciplines and, while still considered emerging talent, already show exceptional promise in their areas of expertise. The Foundation's support assists their theater and dance studies, helps pay their artistic fees at non-profit theater and dance companies and helps support their thesis film projects. In addition to the Awards, the Princess Grace Foundation-USA extends general operating monies to companies hosting an Awards winner. This year's Princess Grace Awards winners are:

THEATER AND PLAYWRITNG

CarlosAlexis Cruz
Theater Fellowship, Grace Le Vine Award
Miracle Theatre Group

Miriam A. Hyman
Theater Scholarship, George C. Wolfe Award
Yale School of Drama

Matt Jones
Theater Apprenticeship, Robert & Gloria Hausman Award
Alternative Theater Ensemble

Hana Sooyeon Kim
Theater Scholarship, Fabergé Award
University of California, Los Angeles

Sarah Rasmussen
Theater Apprenticeship, Pierre Cardin Award
Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Sadieh Rifai
Theater Fellowship, Gant Gaither Award
American Theater Company

Johnna Adams
Playwriting Fellowship
New Dramatists, Inc.

DANCE AND CHOREOGRAPHY

Alisa Alba
Dance Fellowship
The National Institute of Flamenco

Joseph Gorak
Dance Fellowship
American Ballet Theatre

Margaret Mullin
Dance Fellowship
Pacific Northwest Ballet

Jeffrey Van Sciver
Dance Scholarship, Chris Hellman Award
Dominican University/LINES Ballet

Casia Vengoechea
Dance Scholarship
The Julliard School-Dance Division

Frederick "Pete" Leo Walker
Dance Fellowship
North Carolina Dance Theatre

Zoe Scofield
Choreography Fellowship
DiverseWorks ArtSpace

Olivier Wevers
Choreography Fellowship
Spectrum Dance Theater

FILM

Valerie Bischoff
Film Graduate Scholarship
Columbia University

Emily Hyde
Film Undergraduate Scholarship
Pacific Northwest College of Art

Gina Marie Napolitan
Film Graduate Scholarship
California Institute of the Arts

Raul Paz Pastrana
Film Graduate Scholarship, Cary Grant Award
School of Visual Arts

Temra Pavlovic
Film Undergraduate Scholarship, John H. Johnson Award
California Institute of the Arts

Iva Radivojevic
Film Graduate Scholarship
CUNY Hunter College

HONORARIA

R. Davis McCallum
Theater Honorarium
The Public Theater

Jacqueline Burnett
Dance Honorarium
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

Nigel Campbell
Dance Honorarium
Luna Negra Dance Theater

Chanel DaSilva
Dance Honorarium
Trey McIntyre Project

Shreyasi Das
Film Honorarium
Rochester Institute of Technology

Nick Twemlow
Film Honorarium
University of Iowa

SPECIAL PROJECT and WORKS IN PROGRESS AWARDS

Special Project Awards and Works in Progress Residencies at the Baryshnikov Arts Center are grants available to past Princess Grace Awards winners and Honoraria recipients for uniquely significant projects that advance their artistic development. This year's Special Project Awards and Works in Progress Residencies are:

SPECIAL PROJECT AWARDS

Rose Bond
Regina Garcia
Alex Ketley
Rashaun Mitchell
Jimmy Orrante
Alice Reagan
Amie Siegel
Karolina Sobecka

WORKS IN PROGRESS RESIDENCIES

Charlotte Brathwaite
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
David Neumann

ABOUT THE PRINCESS GRACE FOUNDATION - USA

The Princess Grace Foundation-USA is a not-for-profit, publicly-supported foundation, headquartered in New York City and founded more than 25 years ago by Prince Rainier III of Monaco in honor of his wife, Princess Grace [Kelly]. The Foundation's mission, that mirrors Princess Grace's in Her lifetime, is to support emerging artists in theater, dance and film through the awarding of scholarships, apprenticeships and fellowships. Since the Foundation's inception, more than 700 Awards have been given to recipients, totaling more than $8.5 million. Some notable Princess Grace Awards recipients in Theater include: 2008 Tony® Award winner for Best Direction of a Play, Anna D. Shapiro; Pulitzer and Tony® Award winning playwright Tony Kushner; and Academy Award® winner Eric Simonson. Film recipients include: Stephen Hillenburg, creator of SpongeBob SquarePants; Greg Mottola, director of Paul, Adventureland and Superbad; and Cary Joji Fukunaga, writer and director of Sin Nombre and Jane Eyre. Dance/Choreography Awards recipients include: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Artistic Director Robert Battle; American Ballet Theatre's Gillian Murphy, Ethan Stiefel and Sarah Lane; as well as choreographers Andrea Miller and Dominic Walsh.

For more information, please visit www.pgfusa.org.