Alysia Reiner Will Host the 2019 Collaboration Awards Gala at SVA Theater

The Women in the Arts & Media Coalition will present the 2019 Collaboration Awards. which recognize women who successfully collaborate to create new and influential work, at the SVA Theater (333 West 23rd St, New York, NY 10011) on Saturday, March 30 at 6:30pm. The 2019 Collaboration Awards Gala, which is being held on International SWAN Day (Support Women Artists Now), will be hosted by SAG Award-winning actor and producer Alysia Reiner (Fig on Orange is the New Black on Netflix).
Awarded biennially, the Collaboration Awards encourage professional women in the arts and media from different disciplines to work collaboratively on the creation of new work. The award recognizes the best of these collaborations and goes to a winning project and its two creators. 2019 marks the sixth time the Collaboration Awards have been presented.

The 2019 Collaboration Awards will honor Alysia Reiner and her collaborative team on the film Egg with the first Acclaimed Collaboration Award for a project with greater renown and visibility. The 6th Biennial Collaboration Award winners are playwright Deborah Yarchun and director Jess Chayes for their play Preservation. The Coalition will also be awarding the first ever Student Collaboration Award to the documentary Bread Machine by Shelby Hougui and Julia De Santis, about the power of childhood memory, friendship, and communication. Ms. Hougul and Ms. De Santis are students from SVA's Film and Animation Department, the first Academic Affiliate of the Women in the Arts & Media Coalition.

Additional honorees include Melissa Bell and Tannis Kowalchuk for Courage, a reimagining of Brecht's Mother Courage into a physical theatre piece that addresses current social issues. Katherine M. Carter and Jacqueline Goldfinger for Click, a fast, bright, darkly humorous play which follows a group of college students involved in a frat rape that goes viral. Vanessa Stalling and Brenda Barrie for United Flight 232, the story of a hot July day in 1989 when a United airline crashed onto a cornfield-lined runway at Sioux City Airport. Ophira Eisenberg (WNYC's Ask Me Another) and Maggie Cino for Scars, Ophira's harrowing and hilarious story of acquiring, surviving and living with the dozens of scars that cover her body. Charissa Bertels and Ayumi Okada for The Uncivil Ones, a musical about three extraordinary women in US history.

A special reading of an excerpt from the Collaboration Award winning play Preservation will feature David Alan Basche (Todd Beamer in United 93; Stuart Gardner on The Exes, TV Land), Lynn Cohen (Mags in Hunger Games 2: Catching Fire; Magda on Sex and the City, HBO), and Alysia Reiner (Kiki Rains on The Deuce, HBO; Fig on Orange is the New Black, Netflix).

Preservation is a dark, comedic thriller that explores what happens when protecting the dead comes at the cost of the living. (In a small town, in an archival library, there's a vault. Inside the vault, there's a box. Stella, Lydia's dying grandmother, has convinced her that inside the box is a buried family secret that could alter their lives. But the founder of the library funded it under the stipulation that the box never be opened. Lydia and Stella need vindication. Stan, the library's archivist, needs to protect the library and the founder's integrity at all costs. Lydia isn't going away. And Stan isn't backing down.

A limited number of tickets to the Awards Gala are available to the public. Ticket prices are: $15 for members of any of the Coalition's member organizations / $20 for non-members (early bird rate) / $25 after March 15 and at the door. There will also be a very limited number of Premium Seats (which includes reserved seating and a champagne toast with the honorees) for $100 each. Tickets can be purchased online at www.womenartsmediacoalition.org.

Women in the Arts & Media Coalition (Yvonne Curry and Avis Boone, Co-Presidents, Shellen Lubin, Past President and 1st Vice President) is a non-profit organization, which represents more than 200,000 women in the performing arts and media through its member organizations and affiliates. The Coalition focuses the power of its member organizations and their memberships together and uses the combined strength to address issues of concern through advocacy, networking and educational events. Member organizations are: Actors' Equity Association, Associated Musicians of New York Local 802 AFM, Dramatists Guild, League of Professional Theatre Women, New York Women in Communications, New York Women in Film & Television, SAG-AFTRA New York Local, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and the Writers Guild of America, East. Affiliates are: BOLD, Drama Desk, International Center for Women Playwrights, The Lambs, Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative, National Theatre Conference, Professional Women Singers Association, 365 Women a Year: A Playwriting Project, Theater Resources Unlimited, Women in Music, The Women's Media Center, Women Make Movies, and WomenArts. For more information on Women in the Arts & Media Coalition, visit www.womenartsmediacoalition.org.

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