Debra Messing & More to be Honored by Trinity Rep

At the 19th annual Pell Awards, Trinity Rep will award Debra Messing with the Pell Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Arts. John Chan, jazz promoter and owner of Chan's Fine Oriental Dining in Woonsocket will be honored with a Rhode Island Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts. Dancer and choreographer Julie Strandberg will receive the Charles Sullivan Award for Distinguished Service in the Arts and Trinity Rep's former executive director, Michael Gennaro, will be awarded with the Pell Award for Outstanding Leadership in the Arts. The ceremony will be held Monday, June 15, 2015 at Trinity Rep with a reception to follow at the Providence Public Library.

"For 19 years, we have honored Senator Claiborne Pell's extraordinary commitment to the arts and humanities by recognizing remarkable arts leaders across the nation and in Rhode Island," said Curt Columbus, Artistic Director of Trinity Repertory Company. "Debra, John, Julie and Michael have made an enormous impact on their respective fields, the results of which can be felt in every corner of the arts world. It is a privilege to be able to honor them today."

The theater's annual gala event will be co-chaired by Jon and Julie Duffy and Mark and Catherine Gim. All five of Senator Claiborne Pell's grandchildren will serve as honorary chairs for the event, including Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Neal; Clay Pell and Michelle Kwan; Nicholas and Annie Pell; Dr. Tripler Pell and Tawfik Hammoud; and Eames Yates, Jr. Together with business, political and social leaders, guests at the gala will mingle and enjoy delicious food and desserts provided by Russell Morin Fine Catering.

Individual tickets to the full event are $500; a limited number of individual tickets to the ceremony and post-show reception are $250. Corporate sponsorships and event program ads are also available. To buy online, visit www.trinityrep.com. Proceeds from the event benefit Trinity Rep's artistic programs. For more information call (401) 453-9237.

The Pell Awards honor Senator Claiborne Pell and recognize artistic excellence in Rhode Island and the New England region as well as on the national level. Throughout his life, Senator Pell worked to support the arts and provide new opportunities for artists. He sponsored the landmark legislation that established the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities in 1965, and chaired the Senate Education and Arts subcommittee.

The Pell Awards honor Senator Claiborne Pell and recognize artistic excellence in Rhode Island and the New England region as well as on the national level. Throughout his life, Senator Pell worked to support the arts and provide new opportunities for artists. He sponsored the landmark legislation that established the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities in 1965, and chaired the Senate Education and Arts subcommittee.

Debra Messing is best known for her role on NBC's Emmy Award-winning comedy series "Will & Grace." For her work on the popular sitcom, Messing won the 2003 Emmy Award, has earned a total of seven Golden Globe nominations, seven Screen Actors Guild nominations, winning the ensemble award in 2001, five additional Emmy nominations, two American Comedy Award nominations and two People's Choice Award nominations. She also collected TV Guide's Actress of the Year in a Comedy Series honor in 2001.

Messing supports charities such as PSI, The Gay Men's Health Crisis, AmFAR, HRC (Human Rights Campaign), and GLAAD, for which she has been honored several times the social awareness and tolerance that her participation in "Will & Grace" helped to establish. In 2004, Messing was honored by The Trevor Project at its Annual "Cracked Xmas 7" Charity Event. Messing along with Megan Mullally, were honored with The Trevor Life Award for their example of acceptance and support of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community. Most recently, Messing narrated the PSI TV & Online documentary special titled "ViewChange: HIV Prevention - Looking Back and Moving Forward." In 2009, Messing traveled with PSI to Zimbabwe where she visited their programs in HIV/AIDS prevention and education, safe water and malaria. While there, she met with many high-ranking officials including the US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Charles A. Ray; the Zimbabwe Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr. Henry Madzorera; and officials from several donor agencies including USAID, UNAIDS and DFID. In addition, Messing was the guest of honor and delivered a speech at the USAID annual Auxillia Chimuroso Awards celebrating community leadership and action on HIV/AIDS. She also launched a BBC and UKAID film on PSI's Hair Salon network that promotes the correct and consistent use of care female condoms through a network of hair stylists and male barbers trained as peer educators. Messing's trip shed a positive light on the area and highlighted the work being done by the Zimbabwean government and donor community. In March of 2010 Messing traveled to Washington DC to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, where she highlighted successes from US investments in HIV/AIDS while urging members to consider more funding for HIV prevention and treatment in developing countries. Later that year in July of 2010, Messing taped the welcome speech for the XVIII International AIDS Conference which took place in Vienna.

Raised in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, Messing devoted much of her childhood to musical theatre, performing in numerous productions at both school and camp, which ignited her interest in the stage. She received her liberal arts education at Brandeis University, where she majored in Theatre Arts. Upon graduating Summa Cum Laude from Brandeis University, she was accepted into NYU's elite Graduate Acting Program and received her M.F.A. three years later.

Currently Debra stars on the new NBC series "The Mysteries of Laura" as the character Laura Diamond, opposite Josh Lucas and Laz Alonso. Debra appears in the independent drama, Like Sunday, Like Rain, written and directed by Frank Whaley. The film, starring Leighton Meester and Billie Joe Armstrong, screened at select film festivals including the 2014 Bahamas International Film Festival on December 5, 2014, at which Messing was honored with the festival's special Shining Star Tribute.

In 2014, Messing made her Broadway debut in the Manhattan Theater Club's winter production of "Outside Mullingar" opposite Brian F. O'Byrne. "Outside Mullingar" was nominated for a 2014 Tony Award in the category of "Best Play," a 2014 Outer Critics Circle Award in the category of "Outstanding New Broadway Play," and a 2014 Drama Desk Award in the category of "Outstanding Play." Messing also co-starred onstage with Maria Tucci in the two-woman, highly acclaimed Off-Broadway production of Donald Margulies' "Collected Stories," which premiered at The Manhattan Theatre Club and was chosen as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

In 2012 and 2013, Messing was seen for two seasons on NBC's "Smash." The drama is executive produced by Steven Spielberg with Michael Mayer directing and co-starring Katharine McPhee and Anjelica Huston.

After "Will & Grace" ended its lengthy run, Messing starred in USA Network's six-hour television event, "The Starter Wife," with Joe Mantegna, Miranda Otto and Judy Davis. It picked up 10 Emmy nominations, including Messing's for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie. She also earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television. Debra received a nomination for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy for her work on the series.

Messing's film work also includes two romantic comedies, The Wedding Date, opposite Dermot Mulroney, and the box office hit Along Came Polly, with Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston. In 2002, Messing co-starred in Woody Allen's comedy, Hollywood Ending, opposite Allen and Tea Leoni, and The Mothman Prophecies, opposite Richard Gere and Laura Linney.

John Chan has valued the arts since his earliest childhood memories of his grandfather, Joe Moy, teaching classic Chinese painting in Hong Kong. Since, Chan has not only pursued a personal study of photography and painting, but runs the Woonsocket institution Chan's Fine Oriental Dining - a long time staple of the jazz and blues club scene.

In his personal artistic pursuits, John counts Providence College professor Richard Elkington and RISD professor Aaron Siskind as his mentors in his exploration of photography. Chan has fond memories of lunch visits spent paging through Siskind's portfolios - bags of Chinese food and four-year old son Jonathan in tow. Since, Chan says he never travels without a camera. Chan has also spent the last 15 years developing his own impressionistic watercolor aesthetic under the mentorship of Edvald "Al" Albrektson. Chan's paintings can be seen on the walls of the legendary Four Seasons Jazz and Blues Club. With the tagline "Eggroll, Jazz, and Blues," - what sounds like an unlikely combination has turned out to be a match made in music heaven.

Chan started adding music to the menu of Chan's Oriental Fine Dining back in 1977. Since, the endeavor has grown to include a laundry list of memorable performances and musical guest appearances. In 1988, jazz great Dizzy Gillespie visited. Leon Redbone has made an annual appearance at Chan's every year for the last 30 years. Other Chan's favorites have included Dave McKenna, Scott Hamilton and Duke Robillard, Tab Benoit, Hubert Sumlin and Odetta, Mike Renzi, Mose Allison, Ana Popovic, Popa Chubby, Joe Bonamassa and John Hammond. Chan's has been the site of numerous live album recordings since Rebecca Parris' first in 1985, and John has a personal video archive of over 3,000 performances.

John Chan has been a pillar of the Rhode Island arts community for years - he is a long-time member of the Providence Art Club; he was a winner of the 1998 William Blackstone Award from the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council; served as Grand Marshall of the 1999 Woonsocket Autumnfest Parade; received the 2005 Arts and Business Council's Rhode Island Small Business Award; the 2012 Providence Rotary Jazz Fest's Lifetime Achievement Award; was the very first winner of the Beacon Charter School's Vanguard of the Arts award in 2014; and he has served on the President's Council at Providence College, and recently the Jeffrey Osborne Celebrity Charity Advisory Committee. In 2011, The Blues Foundation in Memphis, Tennessee bestowed Chan's with the Keeping Blues Alive Award in recognition of its dedication to preserving the legacy of American jazz and blues music history.

Julie Adams Strandberg, advocate for the importance of dance to American culture, has worked throughout her career to integrate dance as a subject of rigorous study throughout the education system. She founded the dance program at Brown University in 1969 (where she still teaches) and from 1971-78 was artistic director of Rhode Island Dance Repertory Company, reconvened in 1999 as Arabella Project to explore what mature dancers have to offer. She has directed and choreographed for Brown University, Trinity Repertory Company, Barrington Players, Rhode Island College, Festival Ballet, and Rhode Island School of Design, and as first Dancer-In-Residence for the State Council on the Arts, brought dance to schools throughout Rhode Island.

In 1973, she co-founded The Harlem Dance Foundation to "nurture an endangered art form in an endangered community." Since 1989, she and her sister, Carolyn Adams, have co-directed the New York State Summer School of the Arts School of Dance, a pre-professional intensive for young dancers. She is artistic director of American Dance Legacy Initiative (which she co-founded in 1993), dedicated to transforming how people think about and experience American dance. In 2012, she co-founded Artists and Scientists as Partners, which develops programs that recognize the value of the arts within a holistic healing approach.

Julie has served on national boards and panels, is the author of multiple articles, has received numerous awards, and has been featured in national publications. Since 1965, she has been married to Josiah Strandberg. They have two daughters, a son-in-law, and two grandsons.

Michael Gennaro is currently Executive Director of Goodspeed Musicals in East Haddam, Connecticut. He arrived at Goodspeed recently from Providence, RI, where he served as Executive Director at Trinity Repertory Company for seven years. Prior to Trinity, he served as Managing Director at Ford's Theatre in Washington, Executive Director at Pennsylvania Ballet in Philadelphia, Producing Director at Paper Mill Playhouse in NJ, and for eight years as Executive Director at the prestigious Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. During his tenure at Trinity Rep, Michael was instrumental in leading a coalition of nine Rhode Island performing arts organizations to secure a $35 million bond referendum providing state funding to private organizations, the first of its kind in the State. While at Steppenwolf, the theatre received the National Medal of Arts from President Clinton and transferred numerous productions to London's Barbican Centre, the Dublin and Galway Arts Festivals, and Broadway, where One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest won the award for Best Play Revival. Michael has served on grant panels for the National Endowment on the Arts, Theatre Communications Group, the Duke Foundation, and the Rhode Island Foundation. Michael is a licensed attorney in New York, where he practiced for several years as a litigator and entertainment attorney, and has appeared as an actor at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Off-Broadway, and in the Broadway production of Godspell. He is a proud graduate of the University of Notre Dame and received a JD from Fordham University. Michael's wife, Donna Lee, is a special events coordinator, and his son, Brendan, lives in Chicago.

The State Theater of Rhode Island, Trinity Repertory Company is now in its 51st season. Since its founding in 1963, Trinity Repertory Company has been one of the most respected regional theaters in the country. Featuring the last permanent resident acting company in America, Trinity Rep presents a balance of world premiere, contemporary, and classic works for an estimated annual audience of approximately 145,000. Since 1963, the theater has produced 63 world premieres, mounted national and international tours, and, through its MFA program, trained hundreds of new actors and directors.

This season marks the 48th year of Project Discovery, Trinity Rep's pioneering educational outreach program. Last season, Trinity Rep's educational programs reached over 16,000 Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut students through matinees as well as in-school residencies and workshops. Brown University/Trinity Rep offers professional training for actors and directors in a three-year MFA program. Tickets are available for the remainder of Trinity Rep's 2014-2015 Season, which includes A Flea in Her Ear by Georges Feydeau and the East Coast premiere of Melancholy Play: a chamber musical by Sarah Ruhl and Todd Almond. For more information, call the box office at (401) 351-4242 or visit Trinity Rep's website at www.trinityrep.com.

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