Amy Hill And Raul Clayton Staggs To Receive Lee Meville Award

Playwrights' Arena, the only theater created and dedicated to producing bold new works for the stage written exclusively by Los Angeles playwrights, will be celebrating its 26th Anniversary with their annual fundraising gala, HOT NIGHT IN THE CITY. The event will be held at Barnsdall Gallery Theater, 4800 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, starting at 7:30 PM (with a VIP reception beginning at 6 PM). For tickets go to www.playwrightsarena.org or call 800-838-3006.

This year, they will be honoring LA-based actor Amy Hill and casting director Raul Clayton Staggs with the lee Melville Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Los Angeles Theater Community. Also, at the event they will be honoring New Designs Charter School with the Community Partner Award.

The lee Melville Award was named after the pioneering late critic lee Melville who was editor in chief of Drama-Logue for 12 years and the founding editor of LA Stage Times. He was a huge advocate of the entire theater community. He received the Playwrights' Arena award in 2005 which was later changed to the Lee Meville Award in 2011. He passed away in 2013.

Past recipients of the lee Melville Award include: Luis Alfaro, Theresa Chavez, Kay Cole, Tim Dang, Ben Guillory, Velina Hasu Houston, Tom Jacobson, Nancy Keystone, Jessica Kubzansky, Emily Kuroda, Reggie Lee, Steven Leign Morris, Councilman Mitch O'Farrell, Rose Portillo, Bill Pullman, Randy Reinholz & Jean Bruce Scott, Jeanne Sakata, Michael A. Sheppard, and many more.

Playwrights' Arena artistic director, Jon Lawrence Rivera, said that "the board of directors unanimously voted on Amy and Raul after their long and exemplary work in the theater community." Mr. Rivera added "their tireless work in the theater reflects the diversity on and off our stages."

Board Chair, Brett Battles, praised New Designs Charter School for their "long involvement with Playwrights' Arena's ACT for STUDENTS Program - which exemplifies the spirit of the Community Partner Award."

Amy Hill is a character actor and voice actor with a wide range of roles varying from over the top comedy to quiet drama and has over 168 credits listed on IMDB. Hill's first major role was as Yung-Hee "Grandma" Kim on All-American Girl where her character became the breakout character of the short lived television series. She has been a mainstay on American television and most notably: Mrs. DePaulo on That's So Raven, Mama Tohru on Jackie Chan Adventures, Mrs. Hasagawa in Lilo & Stitch: The Series (reprising the same character she played in Lilo & Stitch), Ah-Mah Jasmine Lee in The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Judy Harvey in Enlightened, Mah Mah Ling in American Dad!, Beverly Tarantino in Mom, and Ms. Mannering in Preacher. Hill is currently a series regular on the Amazon Video Web television show Just Add Magic as Mama P along with recurring in UnReal as Dr. Wagerstein on the basic cable network Lifetime and The CW romantic comedy musical Crazy Ex-Girlfriend as Lourdes Chan. In film, she is perhaps best known for her roles as Mrs. Kwan in The Cat in the Hat, Sue in 50 First Dates, and Mrs. Ho-Kim in Next Friday.

She became an acclaimed actress working with the famed Asian American Theater Company in San Francisco and continued as a teacher, director and artistic committee member there in addition to being a part of SF's improv and sketch comedy scene. Hill is also known in the theatre world as a respected performance artist, having written and performed a number of one-woman shows, including the trilogy of Tokyo Bound, Reunion, and Beside Myself.

She's worked with regional theaters such as The Mark Taper Forum, Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, Actors Theater of Louisville, The Public Theater in NYC and appeared on Broadway in Lincoln Center's Twelfth Night that also aired on PBS' Live from Lincoln Center. She is proud to consider East West Players as her LA Theater "home" where she has also performed, directed and taught. She's a huge fan of Playwrights Arena as an audience and having done "flash" performances and looks forward to working with them again in the future.

Raul Clayton Staggs has been working in Los Angeles theater since 1983, first as an actor and later as a freelance casting director. He moved to Los Angeles in 1980 to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts-West. After graduating from AADA, Raul went on to appear in productions at theaters all over LA such as The Odyssey Theatre, Bootleg Theatre, The Theatre @ Boston Court, Pacific Resident Theatre and many others. He received a DramaLogue Award for his performance in the West Coast Premiere of PERSONALS at Actors Alley, and has been featured in many productions written, choreographed and directed by Ken Roht, including five of his acclaimed "99 Cent Only Store" holiday shows. His TV/Film credits include ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, MELROSE PLACE, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, and C.I.A. CODE NAME: ALEXIS, starring O.J. Simpson. In 1992, Raul began an internship with the Audrey Skirball-Kenis (A.S.K.) Theatre Projects, a privately funded non-profit Playwright and Theatre Service organization. The internship led to full time employment, and Raul was eventually named a Project Coordinator. His duties included overseeing the Nautilus Music Theatre Composer-Librettist Studio, producing and curating Stage One table readings of new plays, and serving on a variety of funding and arts panels. Raul was A.S.K.'s designated Ovation Voter for 5 years. Raul worked at A.S.K. for eleven years until it's demise in 2003. Shortly after, Raul was invited to work with Playwrights' Arena and has been its in-house casting director ever since. Raul co-produced 8 of P.A.'s Hot Night in the City events, and now serves on its Board of Directors. As a casting director, Raul has worked with The Skylight, The Theatre @ Boston Court, LATC, Theatre Planners, LA Philharmonic, Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble, Circle X, Echo Theatre Company, Theatre Movement Bazaar, The Gay & Lesbian Center, Greenway Court, About Productions, and many other companies across LA. Raul has also cast several award-winning short films, and the full length independent features BETTER HALF (VOD now available on iTunes and Amazon), LONGHORNS (TLA Releasing), and the upcoming CHASING CLOUDS.

New Designs Charter School was founded by Dr Yaw Adutwum in 2003 with the goal of producing students from urban communities, who are college-bound and career ready. Since it opened its doors in September 2004, New Designs Charter School has kept its promise to the Southern Los Angeles community by combining a rigorous curriculum that exceeds the entrance requirements of the UC/CSU system with a hands-on career focused program. Every high school student belongs to one of five career academies namely Medical Academy, Law and Diplomacy Academy, Finance Academy, Information Technology Academy and Engineering Academy. This provides students with a real world learning experience and truly prepares them for the 21st century workforce. The Early College Program partners with Los Angeles Trade and Technical College as well as Los Angeles City College and provides college classes to our students and this gives them both the needed college credits and experience to succeed in college. The organization has seen tremendous growth from 2014 to today. It started with 100 students and one school and today it has 1,350 students in two schools. Both schools are fully accredited by the Western Association for Schools and Colleges (WASC). New Designs has been participating in the Andrea Cockrum Theater for Students (ACTS) program for the past 3 years and students are very grateful for the opportunity under the direction of the Playwrights' Arena.

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