Quincy Tyler Bernstine & Anne Washburn to be Honored at The Civilians 2024 Gala

The Civilians' 23/24 Gala will celebrate A NOVEL REALITY — theater that awakens new thinking and perceptions. The event will be held on Monday May 13, 2024, at 6:30PM at City Winery NYC.
 
Actor Quincy Tyler Bernstine and playwright Anne Washburn will each be honored as “Civilian of the Year.” Both artists been associated with The Civilians’ creative community since its early days and are now at the top of their respective careers — Quincy as a uniquely authentic creator of roles and Anne as a brilliantly visionary creator of worlds. Both are major contributors to theater on the leading edge, including in their collaboration on Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, which will have a 10th Anniversary Reading this spring once again featuring Bernstine.
 
“Quincy Tyler Bernstine and Anne Washburn have had an outsize impact on the American theatre,” said The Civilians Artistic Director Steve Cosson. “Each of them is a singular artist, and each has a special relationship with The Civilians, which collided in our beloved production of Mr. Burns. I am honored and thrilled to celebrate them both at this year’s gala.”
 
The evening will pay tribute to these two artists in true Civilians fashion, crafting an original song for each with lyrics pulled from verbatim interviews with their collaborators, including Jackie Sibblies Drury, Lucas Hnath, Will Arbery, Matt Maher, Gibson Frazier, April Matthis, Lynn Nottage, and Jenny Dundas. These original compositions will be created by Julian Hornik, Martha Redbone and Aaron Whitby. The evening’s entertainment will also include songs from Mr. Burns, a brand-new song “written” on the spot by chatGPT performed by the cast of The Civilians’ recent hit show Artificial Flavors, a selection from the upcoming Sex Variants of 1941, and more! Join The Civilians as they look back on the some of the novel works they’ve created, and build resources for the novel works still to come. 
 
A NOVEL REALITY will feature performances and appearances by Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Colleen Werthmann, Gibson Frazier, Jennifer Morris, Sam Breslin Wright, Nedra Marie Taylor, Vaibu Mahon, Eric Parker, Mike Cefalo, Paul Speiser, Nina Hellman, Maria Striar, Alison Weller, Heath Saunders, Michael Castillejos, Robert Johanson, Brittany K. Allen, and David Greenspan. The evening will also include appearances by Lynn Nottage, Anne Kauffman, and Michael Cyril Creighton. Performers and appearances are subject to change.
 

Quincy Tyler Bernstine

With The Civilians: Make Me Feel Mighty Real (2023); Michael Friedman Recording Project (2023); Mr. Burns, a post-electric play (2011); (I Am) Nobody's Lunch (2006); The Ladies (2004). Theater credits include Doubt: A Parable; Evanston Salt Costs Climbing; Marys Seacole (Lucille Lortel Award); Our Lady of 121st Street; The Amateurs; In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play); Small Mouth Sounds; Peer Gynt; Grand Concourse; 10 out of 12; Mr. Burns; Neva; and Ruined (OBIE, Audelco, Clarence Derwent Awards).  Film credits include The Tender Bar, White Noise, and Manchester By The Sea. Television work includes “Julia,” “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies,” “Power,” “Power Book II: Ghost,” “Ray Donovan,” “Modern Love,” “High Maintenance,” and “Chappelle’s Show.”  She is a graduate of Brown University (BA), UCSD (MFA) and the recipient of the 2019 OBIE for Sustained Excellence in Performance.
 

Anne Washburn

With The Civilians: The Burning Cauldron Of Fiery Fire (in development, 2024); Mr. Burns, a post-electric play (2011); The Ladies (2004); Canard, Canard, Goose (2002). Washburn is from the West and Northwest and as a result prefers her foliage and landscapes a little on the drastic side. Her plays include The Internationalist, Apparition, The Communist Dracula Pageant, The Ladies, I Have Loved Strangers, Little Bunny Foo Foo, and a transadaptation of Euripides' Orestes. Her work has been produced by 13P, American Repertory Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Clubbed Thumb, The Civilians, Dixon Place, Ensemble Studio Theatre, London’s Gate Theatre, NYC’s Soho Rep, DC’s Studio Theater, and NYC’s Vineyard Theatre, among others. Her plays have been published by American Theatre, Theatre Magazine, and by Playscripts, and are included in the anthologies New Downtown Now, New York Theater Review 2007, and The Civilians: An Anthology of Six Plays. Support includes a Bug ‘n’ Bub Award, residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo, and a Guggenheim. She has been commissioned by The Civilians, Soho Rep, the Williamstown Theater Festival, and Yale, is a member of 13P and The Civilians, and a New Georges affiliated artist.
 
Individual tickets to A NOVEL REALITY start at $500 with tables available starting at $5000. Tickets can be purchased online at thecivilians.org, by calling 718-230-3330 or by emailing margaret@thecivilians.org. For tickets and more information, visit thecivilians.org/gala.
 
On June 1 and 2, 2024, the full original cast of the New York premiere production of Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play will reunite for a benefit concert reading, directed by the original director, Civilians Artistic Director Steve Cosson. Originally commissioned by The Civilians, and featuring music by the late Michael Friedman, Washburn’s imaginative dark comedy traces the resilience of Bart Simpson through the ages—from beloved TV character to epic hero of a pandemic-desolated world. The readings will take place on the Mainstage at Playwrights Horizons, where the New York premiere production was first presented.

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