Second Stage Theater to Honor Lynn Nottage and Debra Martin Chase at 2021 Gala

Second Stage Theater's 2021 Fall Gala will honor Producer DEBRA MARTIN CHASE and Playwright Lynn Nottage at a one-night-only celebration on Monday, November 15, 2021 at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers. Ms. Chase and Ms. Nottage are both members of Second Stage Theater's Board of Directors.

The gala event, conceived by Charles Randolph-Wright, directed by Patricia McGregor, with music direction by Macy Schmidt and live music from The Broadway Sinfonietta, will feature performances by Brandy, Ayana George, Lady A's Hillary Scott, and Jordin Sparks.

The evening's Honorary Chairs are Viola Davis and Julius Tennon, Queen Latifah, Condola Rashad, Shonda Rhimes, and Darren Walker and the Co-Chairs are Carol Sutton Lewis and William M. Lewis, Jr., Stephen and Kitty Sherrill, and Lia Vollack.

DEBRA MARTIN CHASE is an executive producer on the #1 new network TV series CBS/UTV's The Equalizer. Her numerous television credits include Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella and Disney Channel's Lemonade Mouth. Her film credits include Harriet, The Princess Diaries, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Cheetah Girls franchise, Sparkle, Just Wright, Courage Under Fire, and The Preacher's Wife. Chase graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude from Mount Holyoke College and Harvard Law School. She serves on the boards of B&G Foods, Inc., Bridge Investment Group, Inc., New York City Ballet, and Second Stage Theater. She is a member of The Motion Picture Academy and The Television Academy.

Lynn Nottage's relationship with Second Stage Theater began in 1995 with the 2ST-commissioned production of her play, Crumbs From the Table of Joy, followed by the world premiere production of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark in 2011. Nottage's recent credits include The Watering Hole, co-created with Miranda Haymon (Signature Theater), and The Secret Life of Bees (Atlantic). Upcoming: MJ (Broadway) and the opera adaptation of her play Intimate Apparel (LCT). Plays include Mlima's Tale; Sweat (Pulitzer Prize, Obie, Evening Standard Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); Ruined (Pulitzer Prize, Obie, Lortel, NY Drama Critics' Circle, AUDELCO, Drama Desk and OCC awards); Intimate Apparel (American Theatre Critics and NYDCC awards). TV: Writer/producer: She's Gotta Have It (Netflix). PEN/Laura Pels Master Dramatist Award, Doris Duke Artist Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship, a Guggenheim Grant, Lucille Lortel Fellowship, Associate Professor at Columbia. Her latest play, Clyde's, is currently playing at Second Stage's Hayes Theater and officially opens on November 23.

Tables for this one-night-only gala start at $15,000; tickets start at $1,500; after-party only tickets start at $150. For more information, call the Second Stage events office (212) 787-8302, ext.119.