Photos: See Reed Birney, AJ Shively & More at Urban Stages' 38th Annual Benefit

Urban Stages 38th Annual Gala took place on Monday, May 23rd, 2022 at the Central Park Boathouse. This year's honorees have all starred on the Urban Stages stage during their careers and includes Tony Award winner Reed Birney will be presented with Urban Stages' Luminary Award and Terence Archie, Nikki M. James, and AJ Shively received mid-career award.

Check out photos below!

Cocktails, gondola rides on the lake and live music from two decorated Ukrainian musicians, dorma player Kateryna Aiman and bandura player Lesya Verba, will start off the evening. Nicholas Lowry from Swann Galleries will head up the live auction.

REED BIRNEY starred in Urban Stages' commercial move of Minor Demons by Bruce Graham in 1997. Birney first moved to New York in 1974 and within three years, he took his first bow on Broadway in Albert Innaurato's Gemini. Birney has established himself as a ubiquitous actor, performing in more than 30 off-Broadway and original productions. He received the 2006 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Performance, and in 2011, the Drama Desk Career Award honored his career. In 2012 Birney returned to Broadway in Picnic. In 2014 he was nominated for a Tony for his performance Casa Valentina, a role which also won him the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor. He earned a Tony for The Humans. With a reputation as an "actor's actor," he has a rich film career, with TV roles on "House of Cards," "The Blacklist," "The Handmaid's Tale," and "Succession," among others. Recent film roles include Mass, The Forty Year Old Version, and The Hunt. He is part of an all-actor family with wife Constance Shulman, daughter Gus and son Ephraim.

TERENCE ARCHIE created and starred in the Urban Stages' touring play, The Peanut Prince, about George Washington Carver for several seasons through Urban Stages' Outreach Program. He went on to originate the role of Apollo Creed on Broadway in Rocky The Musical as well as the German-translated production in Hamburg, Germany. He currently stars on Broadway in Company (2021) and his other Broadway credits include Ragtime (2009) and Kiss Me, Kate (2019) along with numerous theater, TV and film roles.

NIKKI M. JAMES starred in The Silverfish by Meghan Loughran in Urban Stage's 2020 virtual reading series aimed at giving audiences access to free theater while Urban Stages was shuttered due to the onset of the pandemic. James won a Tony Award for the Book of Mormon (2011) for the role of Nabalungi which she originated. She first made her Broadway debut in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (2001) and later took on the role of Éponine in the Broadway revival of Les Misérables (2014). Recently, along with multiple film and TV projections, she starred in Tony Kushner's A Bright Room Called Day (2019) and is currently starring as Ida B. Wells in the new sold-out musical, SUFFS by Shaina Taub (Book, lyrics, music)

A.J. SHIVELY appeared early in his career at Urban Stages in Joe Iconis' Rewrite (2009). He began his professional career at the age of 12 in the national tour of Big and trained at the University of Michigan and RADA. In 2010, he made his Broadway debut in La Cage aux Folles (2010) playing Jean-Michel opposite Kelsey Grammer. He created the role of Billy Cane in Steve Martin's and Edie Brickell's Bright Star (2014) on Broadway for which he received a Drama Desk Nomination. Currently, A.J. is starring as Owen Duignan in the new Broadway musical Paradise Square. He has been seen as Jerry McConnell on CBS's "Bull" and will be seen as Chef André Soltner in HBO Max's Julia, premiering on March 31st.

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