Skylight Theatre's 2013 SALUTE to Honor Playwright Terrence McNally, 9/26-29

The Skylight Theatre Company is honoring multi-award winning playwright Terrence McNally in a four-day, star-studded event.

Celebrity guests will include Mary McDonnell (Major Crimes), Jason Alexander (Seinfeld),Johnny Galecki (Big Bang Theory), Sharon Lawrence (Rizzoli & Isles), Richard Kind (Broadway: Big Knife), Ed Asner (Lou Grant), Shoshana Bean (Broadway: Wicked), Tyne Daly (Broadway: Master Class), Barrett Foa (NCIS Los Angeles), Jorge Garcia (Lost), John Benjamin Hickey (The Big C), Stacy Keach (Frost/Nixon), Justin Kirk (Broadway:Other Desert Cities), Doris Roberts (Everybody Loves Raymond), Kate Walsh (Private Practice), Steven Weber (Studio 60), Cheyenne Jackson (30 Rock), Peter Jason (Arrested Development), Leslie Odom Jr. (Smash, Broadway: Leap of Faith), James Wolk (Mad Men), and many more...

As the first of an annual series honoring America's great playwrights, the 2013 Skylight Salute begins on Sept. 26th with a VIP dinner at 7pm with Terrence McNally at a private residence.

On Sept. 27th at 8pm, Terrence McNally will be featured on an industry panel spotlighting his work and career. The event will be held at UCLA's James Bridges Theatre and moderated by Dan Bucatinsky (Executive Producer of Web Therapy).

On Sept. 28th at 3pm and 8pm, audiences can attend a star-studded Premiere reading of Terrence's updated comedy classic, It's Only A Play, at the Skylight Theatre.

On Sunday morning Sept. 29th, Terrence will teach a master class on writing, and later that night he will be honored at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills with an All-Star celebration directed by Tony Award nominee Sheryl Kaller and featuring celebrities from stage, television, and screen. Performances will include excerpts from Terrence's wide body of work, including the musicals Ragtime, The Full Monty, and Kiss of the Spider Woman as well as his Tony Award winning playsMaster Class, Love! Valor! Compassion! and others. The evening is being produced by Andrew Carlberg, Suzi Dietz and Gary Grossman.

"The Skylight Salute is a perfect opportunity to bring the Los Angeles theater community together and to pay tribute to the men and women who create the plays that resonate with audiences for generations," says Suzi Dietz, Skylight Theatre Company Board President

Terrence McNally has won four Tony Awards for his plays Love! Valour! Compassion! (New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play), Master Class, and for his musical books for Kiss of the Spiderwoman, andRagtime. Additionally, Terrence has won four Drama Desk Awards (Lips Together, Teeth Apart, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Master Class, and Ragtime); two Obie Awards (Bad Habits, LVC); two Lucille Lortel Awards (1992 for his body of work and for Lips Together, Teeth Apart); three Hull Warriner Awards (more than any other playwright, for Bad Habits, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune and The Lisbon Traviata). Recent Broadway credits include his play Deuce, which marked the return of Angela Lansbury to the American stage; the musical Catch Me If You Can; and the revivals of his plays The Ritz and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. His other plays include A Perfect Ganesh(Pulitzer Prize finalist), Corpus Christi, Dedication or The Stuff of Dreams (Drama Desk nomination, Best Play), The Stendhal Syndrome, Lips Together, Teeth Apart, Some Men (Drama Desk nomination, Best Play) and It's Only a Play. Earlier stage works include And Things That Go Bump In The Night, Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone?, and Next. He wrote the books for the musicals The Full Monty (Tony Nomination, Best Book of a Musical), The Rink, and A Man Of No Importance (Outer Critics Circle Award, Best Musical). The San Francisco Opera presented Dead Man Walking with McNally's libretto and music by Jake Heggie. Terrence McNally has written a number of TV scripts, including Andre's Mother for which he won an Emmy Award. He has received two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1992 he was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame. In 1998 Terrence McNally was awarded a Doctor of Letters from Julliard, where in 1993 he co-created the Playwriting program along with John Guare and Michael Kahn. With the opening of Golden Age, McNally became the first playwright in history to have new works open on and off-Broadway in each of six decades. In 2010 The Kennedy Centerproduced a festival of his works under the title Terrence McNally's Nights At The Opera: Master Class, The Lisbon Traviata, and the world premiere of Golden Age.

Upcoming projects include Great Scott (a World Premiere opera written with Jake Heggie for Joyce DiDonato), the musicalAnastasia with Ahrens and Flaherty, And Away We Go for the Pearl Theatre Company, Mothers and Sons with Tyne Daly, and The Visit (a musical written with Kander and Ebb) starring Chita Rivera.

THE SKYLIGHT THEATRE COMPANY is a vibrant expanding family of artists committed to developing and producing new works that resonate with the richly diverse population of Los Angeles. STC's focus on educating and nurturing artists through its various INKubator development programs offers playwrights a home to test and refine their work in front of an audience. The 2011 and 2012 INKubator programs reflected the work of more than 100 local writers and 30 musicians through 45 staged readings, 18 extended workshop productions, and eight musical events. Nine INKubator projects were featured during both of those seasons, with four more world premiere productions scheduled for 2013. The world premieres of Influence (Los Angeles Drama Critic's Circle nomination for Best Actor and two LA Weekly nominations for Best Play and Best Production), Hermetically Sealed (2011 Los Angeles Drama Critic's Circle nomination for Best Actress, an LA Weekly nomination for Best Ensemble and the LA Times List of top ten productions for 2011) and Mad Woman (2011 Los Angeles Drama Critic's Circle nomination and an LA Weekly Award Winner for Best Solo Performance) reflect the level of excellence in the work that this company continues to produce.

CALENDAR:

Thursday, Sept 26th - VIP DINNER WITH Terrence McNally: 7pm Drinks, 8pm Dinner at Private Residence (location provided with ticket purchase). Tickets $500.

Friday, Sept 27th - "Does it Take One to Know One" 8pm, Terrence McNally will join a panel of writers focusing on writing gay themes and characters. Other panelists will include Emmy Award winner Max Muchnick (Creator/Executive Producer Will and Grace), Emmy Nominee Dan Bucatinsky (Scandals and Executive Produver of Web Therapy), Dan Roos (Writer/Director The Opposite Sex), Tony Award Nominee Geoffrey Nauffts (Next Fall and writer on Brothers and Sisters), Peter Paige (actor Queer as Folk and creator of The Fosters), and multi-award nominee writer/actor Tony Abatemarco. UCLA/James Bridges Theatre (located at 235 Charles E. Young Drive, Los Angeles, Ca 90035-just off Sunset at Hilgard, with convenient parking). Ticket $35 - $50

Saturday, Sept 28th -"It's Only A Play," at 3pm & 8pm. A Star studded Premiere reading of McNally''s updated comedy classic It's Only A Play (A hilarious send-up of show business and its often bizarre practitioners, set in the sumptuous penthouse apartment of a theatrical producer on the opening night of her first Broadway production). At the Skylight Theatre (located at 1816 1/2 N. Vermont, LA, 90027). Tickets $35 - $60

Sunday, Sept 29th: ALL-STAR CELEBRATION at 8pm will be held at the Saban Theatre (located at 8440 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, Ca 90211) with a VIP After-Party to follow. Tickets $50 - $350.

For more information, call (702) 582-8587 or visit www.skylightsalute.com.

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