=East West Players Honors Tzi Ma, Lily Mariye, Dwight Stuart Youth Fund At 52nd Anniversary Visionary Awards

East West Players (EWP), the nation's longest-running professional theater of color and the largest producing organization of Asian Pacific American artistic work, celebrates THE COMPANY WE KEEP, its 52nd Anniversary season with the Annual Visionary Awards Dinner & Silent Auction. Recognizing the achievements of individuals who have raised the visibility of the Asian Pacific American (APA) community through their craft, the gala fundraiser takes place on Monday, April 30, 2018 at the Hilton Universal City. Proceeds benefit East West Players' educational and artistic programs.

The three honorees are:

Tzi Ma, actor and director. Having started his acting career in theatre in New York City in 1973, Ma has an impressive number of theatre credits and has worked with some of America's most gifted playwrights. He has had numerous works written specifically for him, such as The Dance and the Railroad by David Henry Hwang, for which Ma won a CINE Golden Eagle Award, a Dramalogue Award for Best Director, and a Dramalogue Award for Best Choreographer (at EWP); and In Perpetuity Throughout the Universe by Eric Overmyer. Ma also collaborated with Mr. Hwang on FOB, Flower Drum Song (Garland Award nomination for Best Actor and Los Angeles City Council Citation), Yellow Face, and the film Golden Gate. His most recent films include Arrival, Sky Scraper, Mediation Park (Best Actor nomination from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television), and Pali Road (Jury Award on outstanding contribution to diversity in film).

Lily Mariye, actor and director, is a 2018 Outstanding Directorial Achievement nominee for the 70th Annual DGA Awards for her episode of Amazon's "Just Add Magic." She is a television and film director, best known for CBS' "Criminal Minds" and "NCIS: Los Angeles," NBC's "Chicago PD," Freeform's "The Fosters," and CMT's "Nashville." Model Minority (modelminoritymovie.com) is Mariye's feature writing and directorial debut and has won 11 Film Festival Awards around the world, including Best Film, Best Director, Best New Actress and Best Cinematography. As an actor, Mariye is best known for her role as nurse Lily Jarvik on the award-winning TV series "ER" for 15 seasons, for which she won the SAG Award for Best Ensemble in a Drama Series four times.

Dwight Stuart Youth Fund. Originally established as an independent foundation in 2001, the Dwight Stuart Youth Fund (DSYF) was endowed by Dwight L. Stuart, Sr. (1924-1998) to benefit and serve the needs of children and youth in Los Angeles County. Since 2010, DSYF has been a grantmaking arm of the San Francisco-based Stuart Foundation. The Foundation is a programmatic funder of public and private institutions and organizations, whose goal is the improvement of life outcomes for young people in the K-12 education systems in California and Washington State. Mr. Stuart was raised in the Pacific Northwest and lived for many years in Los Angeles. He was president of the Carnation Company from 1973-1983 and was the grandson of its founder, E.A. Stuart. A life-long supporter of youth mentoring and sports programs, he was also a board member of the Stuart Foundation.

"East West Players is thrilled to recognize the incredible work of Tzi, Lily, and the Dwight Stuart Youth Fund," says EWP Producing Artistic Director Snehal Desai. "The accomplishments of Tzi and Lily as actors and directors have been pivotal in raising the visibility of Asian Americans on stage-including the EWP stage-as well as in television and film. They are both fearless and outspoken advocates for Asian Americans in Hollywood. The? ?Dwight? ?Stuart Youth? ?Fund is ?a? ?groundbreaking? ?supporter? ?of? ?underserved? ?children? ?and youth, whose? ?work? ?has? ?left? ?an? ?indelible? ?mark? ?in? ?our community ?and? ?whose support has enabled EWP's ?Theater? ?For? ?Youth? ?program ?to? ?empower our? ?youth? ?through? ?storytelling. We are honored to be recognizing them and their efforts. ?"

Current major sponsors (as of February 12, 2018) of the gala include: TITANIUM: Dwight Stuart Youth Fund. GOLD: Aratani Foundation. BRONZE: Randall & Mari Tamura, Lynn Waggoner. COPPER CIRCLE: Snehal Desai, Pia Palomo & Jerry A. Gonzales II; Asian Pacific American Friends of the Theatre. More honorees and additional information will be released shortly.

Gala Committee Members include: Co-Chair Daniel Mayeda, Co-Chair Peter Shimamoto, Ed Lew, Jay Kim, Judy Sasaki, David Lee and Carrie, Ken Katsumoto, Al Aubin, Sally Pai Unruh, Reggie Lee, Jason M. Blackwell, Jeff Yang, Kin Cheng, Nora DeVeau-Rosen, Snehal Desai, and Carolina San Juan.

East West Players' 52nd Anniversary Visionary Awards Dinner & Silent Auction will be held on Monday, April 30, 2018 at the Hilton Universal City, 555 Universal Hollywood Drive, Universal City, CA 91608. VIP Reception for Premium Table Circle sponsors, silent auction, and no-host cocktails starts at 5:30pm. The dinner and awards show begins at 7pm.

Individual tickets are $200- $1,500. Full table sponsorship packages are also available. For more information please contact East West Players at (213) 625-7000 or galaguests@eastwestplayers.org. For more information about East West Players, please visit www.eastwestplayers.org.

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