The New Group to Honor Ed Harris, Amy Madigan & Ellen Roth at Annual Gala

Off-Broadway's The New Group will honor Ed Harris & Amy Madigan and Ellen Roth at the company's Annual Gala on Monday, March 7 at Tribeca Rooftop (2 Desbrosses Street between Hudson & Greenwich). Hosted by Mario Cantone, the event will feature performances by Jerry Dixon and Nat and Alex Wolff, and an appearance by playwright Beth Henley, author of Crimes of the Heart and The Jacksonian. Music Director is Sinai Tabak. The evening, 6:00-10:00pm, includes cocktails, dinner, and silent and live auctions.

For tickets and further information about The New Group 2016 Gala, please visit www.thenewgroup.org. An online auction, filled with an array of exciting items and one-of-a-kind experiences, is currently available at https://www.charitybuzz.com/support/NewGroup. All proceeds of the Gala will benefit The New Group in its mission to take bold artistic risks and champion challenging work on the MainStage, and its commitment to developing new voices and creative expression through the New Group/New Works play and musical development program and innovative theater education programs. The New Group is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) cultural arts organization.

Ed Harris made his directorial debut on the feature film Pollock, receiving an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor for his performance in the title role. His co-star, Marcia Gay Harden, won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar under his direction. Harris directed, starred in and co-wrote the screenplay for Appaloosa. He has been lauded for his performances in A History of Violence (Natl. Society of Film Critics Award), The Hours (Oscar, Golden Globe, SAG and BAFTA nominations), The Truman Show (Oscar nomination, Golden Globe Award) and Apollo 13 (Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, SAG Award). Most recently, Harris completed filming on Dean Devlin's thriller, Geostorm, James Franco's film adaptation of Steinbeck's In Dubious Battle, and starred opposite Franco in The Adderall Diaries. Some of his many film credits include Run All Night, Bong Joon Ho's Snowpiercer, Frontera, The Face of Love, Gone Baby Gone, The Way Back, Copying Beethoven, The Right Stuff, The Abyss, The Rock, The Human Stain, A Beautiful Mind, Stepmom, A Flash of Green, Places in the Heart, Alamo Bay, Sweet Dreams, Jacknife, State of Grace, The Third Miracle and Touching Home. On television, Harris will star in J.J. Abrams' and Jonathan Nolan's Westworld for HBO. When last on HBO, Harris won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, along with Emmy and SAG nominations, for his portrayal of John McCain in the Jay Roach-directed Game Change. He starred with Paul Newman in the HBO miniseries Empire Falls, for which he received Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Best Actor nominations. Other television credits include The Last Innocent Man, Running Mates, Paris Trout and Riders of the Purple Sage, for which he and his wife Amy Madigan, as co-producers and co-stars, were presented with the Western Heritage Wrangler Award for "Outstanding Television Feature Film." Harris starred in the world premiere of playwright Beth Henley's The Jacksonian at LA's Geffen Playhouse, and reprised his role the following year Off-Broadway for The New Group. Harris received an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination ("Outstanding Solo Performance") and a Lucille Lortel Award nomination ("Outstanding Solo Show") for Wrecks at The Public Theater. He originated the role, with writer/director Neil LaBute, for the play's world premiere at the Everyman Palace Theatre in Cork, Ireland and won the 2010 LA Drama Critics Circle Award for "Best Solo Performance" for Wrecks at the Geffen Playhouse. His theatre credits include: Ronald Harwood's Taking Sides, Sam Shepard's Fool for Love (Obie), and Simpatico (Lucille Lortel Award "Outstanding Actor"), George Furth's Precious Sons (Drama Desk Award), Prairie Avenue, Scar, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Grapes of Wrath, and Sweet Bird of Youth.

Amy Madigan, a critically-acclaimed actress of film, television and stage, received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the feature film Twice In A Lifetime. She also starred as art patroness Peggy Guggenheim in Pollock. Additional feature film credits include Sweetwater; The Lifeguard; Gone Baby Gone; Winter Passing; Loved; Female Perversions; The Dark Half; Uncle Buck; Field of Dreams; Nowhere to Hide; Streets Of Fire; Love Letters and Alamo Bay. Most recently, Madigan starred in Frontera. She stars next in the independent film STUCK. On television, Madigan most recently starred in Neil LaBute's "Ten x Ten" for DirecTV. She recurred on J.J. Abrams' "Fringe" and ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" as Seattle Grace's resident psychiatrist. In addition to starring on the HBO series "Carnivàle," Madigan received a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy nomination for her performance in the telefilm "Roe vs. Wade." She also starred in Lifetime's telefilm "Living Proof." Additional telefilm credits include Lifetime's "And Then There Was One," "Shot in the Heart," HBO's "The Laramie Project," "Riders of the Purple Sage," Robert Altman's "The Laundromat," "Victims," "In The Name of the People," "Having Our Say," "A Bright Shining Lie," "Lucky Day," "The Revolt of Mother" and "The Day After." On stage, Madigan starred in the critically-acclaimed productions of Beth Henley's The Jacksonian at The New Group (NY) and the Geffen Playhouse (LA). Other theater credits include Broadway's A Streetcar Name Desire, Mark Taper Forum's A Lie of the Mind, Manhattan Theatre Club's The Lucky Spot, Los Angeles Theatre Center's Stevie Wants To Play The Blues, LA's Prairie Avenue and Strasberg Theatre's production of In The Boom Boom Room. Most recently, Madigan directed the West Coast premiere of Off the King's Road at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles.

Ellen Roth joined The New Group Board in 2006 after falling in love with Avenue Q. A lifelong lover of theater, with a special interest in Off-Broadway and new and exciting playwrights, Ellen brings her enthusiasm, sense of humor, and insight into the human psyche to The New Group. She is a psychotherapist who has worked in various clinical settings as well as in private practice. Ellen attended the University of Vermont, majoring in English. She went on to study Community and Public Health at Hunter College where she received a MPH, and subsequently received her MSW from Fordham University. Deciding she was fascinated with how people think, Ellen completed a graduate program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis at the Post Graduate Center for Mental Health, receiving certification in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis and Supervision of the Therapeutic Process. She continued her work at PGCMH as a staff therapist and teacher and supervisor of other clinicians. Ellen served on the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services and also on the Board of the Mental Health Association of New York and Bronx Counties. Ellen's husband of 52 years, Paul, is a founding partner of Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP and a leading authority on hedge funds and corporate law. As longtime residents of Manhattan, they have always made theater a part of their lives. Ellen and Paul have two daughters who are practicing lawyers and who live with their families in Manhattan where the Roth family love of theater has continued to the next generation.

The New Group (Scott Elliott, Artistic Director; Adam Bernstein, Executive Director) is an award-winning, artist-driven company with a commitment to developing and producing powerful, contemporary theater. While constantly evolving, the company strives to maintain an ensemble approach to all its work and an articulated style of emotional immediacy in its productions. In this way, The New Group seeks a theater that is adventurous, stimulating and most importantly "now," a true forum for the present culture. The New Group celebrated its 20th Anniversary during the 2014-2015 Season, which began with David Rabe's Sticks and Bones, directed by Scott Elliott and featuring Richard Chamberlain, Nadia Gan, Holly Hunter, Morocco Omari, Bill Pullman, Ben Schnetzer and Raviv Ullman, followed by Joel Drake Johnson's Rasheeda Speaking, featuring Patricia Conolly, Darren Goldstein, Tonya Pinkins and Dianne Wiest, helmed by Cynthia Nixon, and the world premiere of Jesse Eisenberg's The Spoils, directed by Scott Elliott and featuring Erin Darke, Jesse Eisenberg, Kunal Nayyar, Annapurna Sriram and Michael Zegen.

The company's 2013-2014 season included the New York premiere of Beth Henley's The Jacksonian, directed by Robert Falls, featuring Ed Harris, Glenne Headly, Amy Madigan, Bill Pullman and Juliet Brett; the world premiere of Thomas Bradshaw's Intimacy, directed by Scott Elliott; and the New York premiere of Sharr White's Annapurna, directed by Bart DeLorenzo, starring Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman. Other notable productions include Ecstasy, This is Our Youth, Aunt Dan and Lemon, Hurlyburly, Abigail's Party, Rafta, Rafta..., The Starry Messenger, A Lie of the Mind, Blood From a Stone, Marie and Bruce, and many more. The company has received nearly 100 awards and nominations for excellence. The New Group is a recipient of the 2004 Tony® Award for Best Musical (Avenue Q). In 2011, The Kid received five Drama Desk nominations and the Outer Critics Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical. That year, The New Group and Scott Elliott were honored with a Drama Desk Special Award "for presenting contemporary new voices, and for uncompromisingly raw and powerful productions."

The New Group opened its 2015-2016 Season with the Off-Broadway premiere of Philip Ridley's Mercury Fur, directed by Scott Elliott, a Critics' Pick in The New York Times. The company's season continued with the world premiere of Mark Gerrard's Steve, directed by Cynthia Nixon, featuring Ashlie Atkinson, Mario Cantone, Jerry Dixon, Francisco Pryor Garat, Malcolm Gets and Matt McGrath, which enjoyed an extended run. The New Group is currently represented Off-Broadway by Sam Shepard's Buried Child, twice extended, now through April 3 at The Pershing Square Signature Center (The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre, 480 West 42nd Street). Directed by Scott Elliott, this hit production features Taissa Farmiga, Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, Larry Pine, Rich Sommer, Paul Sparks and Nat Wolff. Buried Child is presented by The New Group in association with Lisa Matlin. For more, please visit www.thenewgroup.org.

Photo Credit: Anita & Steve Shevett

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