Urban Stages Honors Founder/Artistic Director Frances Hill

Urban Stages' and Board of Trustees (Board President, Mary Churchill), Celebrating 25 Years, will honor the founder and artistic director of Urban Stages, Frances Hill with a benefit luncheon on Tuesday, February 10 at the Yale Club (50 Vanderbilt Avenue). Ms. Hill is being honored by the board as well as with a Mayoral Proclamation because of her inspiring leadership in the arts and her unwavering commitment to the understanding of diverse cultures. The event co-chairs are Marjorie Federbush and Ted Terry. Tickets are tax-deductible and range from $125 - $1500 (table) and can be purchased by calling 212 421 1380.

Frances Hill began her theatrical career in California as an actress. Since 1983, Ms. Hill has overseen more than 600 staged readings/workshops and 75 productions of new work for the stage. She has directed over 30 workshops and productions. Her favorite directing credits include: Gino DiIorio's Apostasy, Roma Greth's Our Summer Days, Jim Lehrer's Chili Queen, (directed at Urban Stages and Kennedy Center), John Picardi's Seven Rabbits on a Pole and The Sweepers (directed at Urban Stages and Capital Rep); and Comfort Women by Chungmi Kim (Urban Stages 2004). Two of her plays have been produced, Our Bench and Life Lines. Under the guidance of Ms. Hill, Playwrights' Preview Productions/URBAN STAGES has moved two plays into commercial Off-Broadway successes. Minor Demons opened the new Century Center Theater and Men on the Verge of His-Panic Breakdown won an Outer Critic's Circle Award while playing to capacity audiences at the 47th Street Theater. Urban Stages' African American Poets as Playwrights won eight Audelco Nominations and Coyote On a Fence received two Drama Desk nominations and a Pilgrim's Project Award.

URBAN STAGES (producer) is an award-winning, not-for-profit Off-Broadway Theatre Company founded in 1983 by current Artistic Director Frances Hill. Over the past 25 years, Urban Stages has produced over 70 productions (mostly world premieres) including Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Eisa Davis' Bulrusher (2007), two Drama Desk nominations, an Outer Critic's Circle Award, an Obie nomination, and eight Audelco nominations. Our productions of Men On The Verge Of A Hispanic Breakdown, by Guillermo Reyes, and Minor Demons, by Bruce Graham subsequently moved to commercial theatres. Chili Queen, a play by newscaster Jim Lehrer, transferred to the KennedyCenter in Washington, D.C. (1989). Chungmi Kim's Comfort Women moved to Seoul,Korea and is being translated into Chinese to be produced in Asian communities in Vancouver and Toronto, Canada. The majority of works developed at Urban Stages have had further productions commercially, regionally, and abroad. Numerous projects developed at Urban Stages have been adapted into film and television projects, including Scar, by Murray Mednick, Conversations with the Goddesses, by Agapi Stassinopoulos, and Cotton Mary, by Alexandra Viets. Urban Stages has a consistent history of discovering new writers and introducing their plays into theatrical repertory. Urban Stages' mission is to discover, nurture and produce exceptional new works by artists of diverse cultural backgrounds. Striving to give authors a venue to address the multi-faceted issues facing our contemporary world. From our open submission policy to our open casting policies, Urban Stages is committed to discovering and developing new professional theatre and theatre artists representing the whole of our society.