Des McAnuff & Michael David to be Honored at NYTW's 2014 Spring Gala, 5/12

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) has announced that its 2014 Spring Gala will honor Tony Award-winning director Des McAnuff and President of The Dodgers Michael David. Both are founding partners of Dodger Properties, which is responsible for over 150 productions of some of the most successful theatre on Broadway (56 Tony Awards), Off-Broadway and internationally. The gala will take place on Monday, May 12 at The Grand Ballroom of The Plaza Hotel, beginning at 6:30pm.

The evening's program, titled A Tale of Two Dodgers: A Musical Celebration, will be directed by Hannah Ryan and features performances by Sebastian Arcelus, Roger Bart, Victoria Clark, Nick Cosgrove, Nikki M. James and members of the Broadway casts of Matlida and Jersey Boys, as well as other surprise guests from stage and screen!

Tony Award-winning producer Jordan Roth (currently represented on Broadway with Bullets Over Broadway) will chair the event with the Board of Trustees of New York Theatre Workshop. The Event Committee includes Elizabeth Furze and Scott Moore of AKANYC; Boneau/Bryan-Brown; Paul & Caroline Cronson; Mary Sharp Cronson; Darren P. DeVerna head of the Production Resource Group, John Gore, CEO of Key Brand Entertainment; If/Then Director, Michael Greif; Carole Shorenstein Hays & Wally Shorenstein Hays; Rocco Landesman, former Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts and his wife Debby; David Lazar of the Ambassador Theatre Group; Mark Lee, CEO of Barneys & partner Ed Filipowski; President of the leading fashion P.R. firm KCDWorldwide; Seth Gelblum and the law firm of Loeb & Loeb; LLP; Award-winning composer, Alan Menken; Music Executive, Tommy Mottola & his wife Thalia; Serino/Coyne; Thomas H. Kasulka & Barbara von Borstel of Signature Bank; Deborah Taylor; Jonathan & Lizzie Tisch; Sergio Trujillo; Anita Waxman & Harlan Kleiman of the Self Health Network; and Elizabeth Williams & Joseph Forte.

The Artist Committee includes: Marshall Brickman, Wayne Cilento, Billy & Janice Crystal, Melissa Errico & Patrick McEnroe, Rick Elice & Roger Rees, Bob Gaudio, Kathryn Grody & Mandy Patinkin, Andy Karl, James Lapine, Kenneth Lonergan, William Ivey Long, Jefferson Mays, Kelli O'Hara, Bernadette Peters, Oliver Platt, Christopher & Elaine Plummer, Will Power, Paul & Cathy Shaffer, Martin Short, Aaron Sorkin, Julie Taymor, Pete Townshend, Frankie Valli, Vanessa Williams, George C. Wolfe, Maury Yeston, Jerry Zaks and Alan Zweibel.

Michael David and Des McAnuff have been "partners in crime" for more than 35 years. Together they founded Dodger Properties (the "Dodgers"), a New York theatrical producing partnership at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1978 along with Doug Johnson, Rocco Landesman, Edward Strong and Sherman Warner. The Dodgers evolved, migrated to Joe Papp and the NY Shakespeare Festival, then to off- and on Broadway, where they are one of commercial theatre's most prolific producers.

All the original Dodgers are still around to "tell the tale;" but the company is now led by Michael David, still playing often with Des McAnuff and Edward Strong. The Dodgers are responsible for over 150 productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in North America, London, Europe and Australia. They are the original producers of the Tony Award-winning Jersey Boys, as well as Into the Woods, Titanic, Urinetown, Tommy, Big River and Guys and Dolls, to name a few. Most recently, the Dodgers joined with the Royal Shakespeare Company to produce the new musical Matilda. Their productions have received a host of awards, including 56 Tonys. A true denizen of the theatre, Mr. David, a Yale School of Drama graduate, began his career as the Executive Director of New York's celebrated Chelsea Theater Center in 1969. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Broadway League, is a board member of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and the Tony Administration Committee.

Des McAnuff is a two-time Tony Award-winning director (Big River and Tommy). He is currently represented on Broadway by the 2006 Tony Award-winning Best Musical, Jersey Boys. A dual citizen of Canada and the United States, he has written, composed and directed for theatre and film companies around the world. As Artistic Director at La Jolla Playhouse from 1983-1994 and 2001-2007, Des directed 34 plays and musicals and produced 124 shows. In 2001 he created La Jolla's "Page to Stage" Program, which nurtured such plays as: Doug Wright's Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, Aaron Sorkin's The Farnsworth Invention and Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays. In 2007, Des returned to Canada as Artistic Director for the Stratford Festival, home of the largest classical repertory theatre in North America. He has won practically every theatre award given out in the U.S. and Canada, including the Drama League's Julie Hansen Award, and in June 2012, Mr. McAnuff was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada and awarded the Governor General's Performing Arts Award. In Fall 2013, New York Theatre Workshop was thrilled to begin its artistic relationship with Des with his production of Will Power's play Fetch Clay, Make Man.

New York Theatre Workshop, now in its 31st season of incubating important new works of theatre, continues to honor its mission to explore perspectives on our collective history and respond to the events and institutions that shape all our lives. Each season, from its home in New York's East Village, NYTW presents four new productions, over 80 readings and numerous workshop productions for over 45,000 audience members. NYTW supports artists in all stages of their careers by maintaining a series of workshop programs, including work-in-progress readings, summer residencies and artist fellowships. Over the last three decades, NYTW has developed and produced over 100 new, fully staged works, including Jonathan Larson's Rent, Tony Kushner's Slavs! and Homebody/Kabul, Doug Wright's Quills, Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life and Dirty Blonde, Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Valhalla, Martha Clarke's Vienna: Lusthaus, Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, and A Number, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's Aftermath, and Rick Elice's Peter and the Starcatcher. This season, the Workshop received critical acclaim for Caryl Churchill's newest play, Love and Information, as well as What's It All About? Bacharach Reimagined, which garnered Drama Desk, Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations, and NYTW's Tony-winning musical, Once, continues its Broadway run. NYTW's productions have received a Pulitzer Prize, seventeen Tony Awards and assorted Obie, Drama Desk, and Lucille Lortel Awards.

The final production of NYTW's critically acclaimed 2013/14 season is Red-Eye to Havre de Grace, created by Thaddeus Phillips, Jeremy Wilhelm, Geoff Sobelle, David Wilhelm and Sophie Bortolussi with Ean Sheehy for Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental and directed by Thaddeus Phillips. Red-Eye, which is a New York Times Critics' Pick and was given FOUR STARS and called "Stylish and Imaginative" by Time Out New York, runs through June 1.

For ticket information, phone 212 780 9037 or visit www.nytw.org.

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