Len Cabral & Charlene Carpenzano to Receive 2016 Pell Awards
By: Tyler Peterson Mar. 02, 2016
"For 20 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, which was a tradition started by Oskar Eustis during his tenure at Trinity Rep," said Curt Columbus, Artistic Director of Trinity Repertory Company. "Len and Charlene both epitomize what it means to be a resident artist enhancing their community. It is thrilling to celebrate the work of these Rhode Island artists in tandem with the local and national impact Oskar, Laurie and Liz have made in our field."
Ochre Court
The large château-esque mansion, commissioned by Ogden Goelet, is the second largest mansion in Newport after nearby The Breakers. It was designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt, who also designed the facade and great hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, as well as Newport's The Breakers, Belcourt Castle, and Marble House. The design of the house centers on the great hall, whose ceiling reaches to the top of the house. The mansion also features a beautifully detailed Rococo style ballroom. It was donated by Goelet's son to Salve Regina in 1945.
The evening will begin at 6:00pm with a VIP reception, followed by the awards ceremony at 7:00pm. Guests will enjoy a seated dinner catered by Russel Fine Morin Catering and live musical entertainment provided by 2000 RI Pell Award winner Rose Weaver.
Sponsorships
Corporate sponsorships and event program ads are available and individual tickets are now available. All proceeds from the annual Pell Awards Gala benefit Trinity Rep's artistic and educational programs. For more information, please call (401) 453-9237 or visit the Pell Awards page of the Trinity Rep website at www.trinityrep.com.
The chairs for this year's event are Arnold B. Chace, Johnnie Chace, Malcolm G. Chace, Jr., Geoff & Lisa Davis, Eugene & Brooke Lee and Laura Love Rose and William Hall. Honorary co-chairs include Senator & Mrs. Pell's five grandchildren and their spouses: Mr. & Mrs. Christopher Neal, Clay Pell and Michelle Kwan, Nicholas and Annie Pell, Dr. Tripler Pell & Tawfik Hammoud, and Eames Yates, Jr..
Honorary Committee made up of past Pell Awards co-chairs: Mark & Cathy Gim, Jocelin Hamblett, Richard & ShaRon Jenkins, Ira & Suzanne Magaziner, Joseph & Michele Madden, Terrence & Patricia Moran, Thomas & Kibbe Reilly, Larry & Barbara Schoenfeld, Merrill Sherman and William & Alison Vareika.
Event Planning Committee: Howard Ben Tre & Wendy MacGaw, Paul Brooks, Dan Butterworth, John Chan, Joseph A. Chazan, MD, Ann Marie Clarkson, Nancy Compton & Mike Majoras, Ruth Dealy, Joseph L. & Sarah T. Dowling, Angela Fischer, John & Yvette Harpootian, Barry & Kathleen Hittner, Heidi Keller Moon, Timothy Philbrick, Myrna K. & Harris N. Rosen, Gretchen Dow Simpson & James Baird, Mary Sloane & AnDrew Wallerstein, Sally Strachan and Judith Lynn Stillman.
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 full list of past Pell Awards recipients includes Pell Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts honorees Jane Alexander, Kate Burton, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, Viola Davis, Olympia Dukakis, Adrian Hall, Richard and ShaRon Jenkins, Arthur Miller, Liza Minnelli, Toni Morrison, Robert Redford, Chita Rivera, Jason Robards, Maurice Sendak, Beverly Sills, Stephen Sondheim and Kevin Spacey; New England Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts honorees Brian Dennehy, Julie Harris, Jeffrey Osborne, Lloyd Richards, Gunther Schuller and John Updike; Pell Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Arts honorees John Krasinski, Debra Messing, Amy Morton, and Trinity Rep Resident Acting Company; Pell Award/Charles Sullivan Award for Distinguished Service in/to the Arts honorees Mayor Vincent A. Cianci, Jr., Martha Douglas-Osmundson, Adrian Hall, Mary Paula Hunter, P. William Hutchinson, Virginia Lynch, Lowry Marshall, Elaine Foster Perry and Julie Adams Strandberg; Pell Award for Outstanding Leadership in Arts Education honoree Ruth J. Simmons; Pell Award for Outstanding Leadership in the Arts honorees Joseph A. Chazan M.D., Mihailo "Misha" Djuric, Michael Gennaro, Roger Mandle, Senator Claiborne Pell, J.L. "Lynn" Singleton and George Wein.
Past Rhode Island Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts include John Benson, Howard BenTré, Dan Butterworth, John Chan, Bob Colonna, Robert Coover, Umberto "Bert" Crenca, Richard Cumming, Ruth Frisch Dealy, Tony Estrella, Richard Fleischner, Peter Geisser, Malcolm Grear, Michael Harper, Bunny Harvey, Dorothy Jungels , George Kent, Eugene Lee, David Macaulay, Salvatore Mancini, Dave McKenna, Barbara Meek, Denny Moers, Timothy Philbrick, Duke Robillard, Thomas Sgouros, Sr., Consuelo Sherba, Gretchen Dow Simpson, Maria Spacagna, Judith Lynn Stillman, Chris Van Allsburg, Paula Vogel, Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop, William Warner, Rose Weaver, Steven Weinberg, Toots Zynsky & the Everett Dance Theatre.
Len Cabral is an internationally acclaimed storyteller and author who has been engaging audiences with his storytelling performances at schools, libraries, museums and festivals to audiences of all ages for more than forty years. Len has traveled extensively throughout the United States and abroad building bridges across cultural boundaries through the art of storytelling. In addition to his performance art, Len provides keynote addresses and creates workshops for educators, students and caregivers.
As a great grandson of a Cape Verdean whaler whose grandparents immigrated to America from the islands off the coast of West Africa, Len?s strong Cape Verdean ancestry comes alive in his exuberant retelling of Cape Verdean, African and Caribbean folk tales as well as original stories and tales from around the world. Len is a popular storyteller at festivals and theaters around the country including the National Storytelling Festival in Tennessee, the Smithsonian?s Discovery Theater and Folklife Festivals and the Kennedy Center, to name a few. For the past ten years, Len has enjoyed sharing the international stage at festivals throughout Europe and Asia.
The author of a children's book for young readers and contributing to several folk tale collections, Len also has five CDs featuring a wide range of his favorite stories, several receiving NAPPA and Parents? Choice awards. For teachers, librarians, caregivers and aspiring storytellers, "Len Cabral?s Storytelling Book," published by Neal-Schuman, NY is a "how to" book for those interested in the art of storytelling or using storytelling in the classroom as a teaching tool.
In addition to his storytelling career, since 1971, Len has been a founding member, volunteer and the face of Providence Inner City Arts. As one of the oldest non-profit, multi-cultural community arts organizations in the state, PICA has celebrated the rich diversity of RI through events and festivals such as the Florentine Faire, the Jazz City Series, two exhilarating years at the Roots Cultural Center in downtown Providence and currently "50 Years of Art in RI," a collaboration with the RI Historical Society.
In 2001, Len was honored with the Circle of Excellence Award in storytelling by the National Storytelling Network. Len is also the recipient of several humanitarian awards including the Jefferson Award, the City of Providence Outstanding Citizen Award and the Humanitarian Service Award from the Heifer Project International.
Charlene Carpenzano's earliest memories of shaping earth into art involve the making of mud pies, which she would sling at her brothers. From here, her relationship with clay began.
Charlene received her BA, Cum Laude, in art education and psychology from Rhode Island College. Later, as a student in RISD's Continuing Education Program, she fell in with a group of like-minded artists with whom she founded Domus Luti, a pottery co-op in Pawtucket, RI. To this day, they continue to pursue their clay obsession together.
As a member of the Newport Art Museum's faculty since 2004, Charlene shares with her students the joy and creativity that others have instilled in her. Her career is multi-faceted: as an artist, her work ranges from the sculptural to the functional. As an educator, she works with a diverse group of students ranging in age from 4 to 90 and who come from myriad backgrounds. As the Museum's outreach teacher, Charlene works with psychiatric and behavioral needs students from the Bradley Schools.
Charlene's inspiration draws on the ancient art of Raku, a Japanese technique that incorporates fire and smoke in the firing process. Her work has been widely exhibited in museum and gallery exhibitions across Rhode Island, including the Newport Art Museum, Hera Gallery in Wakefield, and the Rhode Island State House. Charlene is a beloved artist and teacher who brings joy and encouragement to all who are lucky enough to know her.
Charlene is a native Rhode Islander, and lives on Aquidneck Island with her husband and children.
OSKAR AND Laurie Eustis have been leaders of the artistic community in New York and across the country for more than 25 years. Oskar spent 11 years as Artistic Director at Trinity Rep, during which time he founded the Brown/Trinity Consortium for Professional training and served as its first Chair. He won several Eliot Norton Awards and spent the happiest decade of his life in Rhode Island.
Oskar has served as the Artistic Director of The Public Theater since 2005. During his tenure at The Public, he has produced such acclaimed pieces of theater as the revival of Hair; Twelfth Night with Anne Hathaway; The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino; Tony Kushner's The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide To Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures; Stew and Heidi Rodewald's Passing Strange; The Apple Family Plays by Richard Nelson; Fun Home by Lisa Kron and Jeannie Tesori; Here Lies Love by David Byrne and Alex Timbers; Father Comes Home From The Wars by Suzan-Lori Parks; Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton; and created new community-based initiatives designed to engage audiences like Public Lab, Public Studio, Public Forum, Public Works and a revival of the Mobile Shakespeare Unit. He has won two Tony Awards, for Hair and Fun Home and has Honorary Doctorates from Brown, Rhode Island College, and Middlebury.
Laurie Eustis worked at the Goodman Theatre under Artistic Director Gregory Mosher after graduating from Northwestern University. In a decade in Los Angeles, she worked at Rogers and Cowan Public Relations and as a casting director at Embassy Television. She also served as a producer at Mark Taper Forum with Gordon Davidson, where she championed their annual New Play Festival, among other projects. She has most recently been working with artists and literary icons at the acclaimed Lapham's Quarterly and The Paris Review.
ELIZABETH Z. CHACE (Honoree) has successfully led two careers for most of her life: one in Real Estate and the other working with foundations and non-profit organizations. The interaction between these two disciplines has made Liz extremely effective as both a businesswoman and philanthropist.
In 1981, Liz co-founded a full-service real estate marketing corporation with six brokers and a single office. Today, Residential Properties employs more than 150 brokers and sales personnel and has offices in Providence, Barrington, Cumberland, East Greenwich and Newport, plus a comprehensive relocation department. Her related professional associations have included memberships on the Greater Providence Board of Realtors, the National and Rhode Island Associations of Realtors, the Rhode Island Real Estate Commission, the DownCity District Design Review Committee and the Workforce 2000 council. Liz was the first chair of the $10 million DownCity Providence initiative that breathed life into the city's once vibrant market area.
In what Liz refers to as her second career, she devotes incredible time and talent to several non-profits and community organizations. She served as a member of the Trinity Rep Board of Trustees from 1996 - 2006, during which time she co-chaired the successful $10 million dollar comprehensive campaign for Trinity Rep, which included major building development and renovation projects that enabled economic revitalization in the downtown Providence area. In 2006, Trinity Rep named Liz an Emeritus Trustee and she most recently served as honorary Chair of their $18 million comprehensive Theater for Every Generation Campaign, which exceed its goal in 2014. She has also served on the Planning Committee for numerous Pell Award Galas since its inception in 1997.
Trinity Rep is not the only non-profit organization to benefit from Liz's involvement. In 2000, Liz began a ten year directorship at the Rhode Island Foundation where her efforts were instrumental in setting up the "Women's Fund," which is devoted to agencies advocating for women's rights. Through her intense commitment to community, Liz has long advocated for women and children. She was for many years a long time board member of the John Hope Settlement House, an agency devoted to serving women, children and families, and also actively supports Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island. She has also been actively involved in Community Music Works, an organization whose musicians have performed onstage at Trinity Rep during recent productions of The Melancholy Play, a chamber musical and Julius Caesar.
Liz received her honorary bachelor's degree from Brown University in 1996. She served on the Brown Corporation as an alumni trustee from 1995 to 1999 and on the Board of Fellows from 1999 to 2010, and has dedicated herself to Brown's women student-athletes through the Sports Foundation. Beginning in 2004, she co-chaired the $1.6 billion dollar campaign for Academic Excellence, which reached its goal in 2011. Liz was also instrumental in the creation oF Brown/Trinity MFA program in 2002.
She has received numerous commendations for both her career and philanthropic accomplishments. Some were conferred on her and her late husband, Malcolm "Kim" G. Chace in honor of the couple's dual commitment. Together, Liz and Kim share seven children.
The State Theater of Rhode Island, Trinity Repertory Company is in its 52nd 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 110,000. In its 52-year history, the theater has produced 64 world premieres, mounted national and international tours, and, through its MFA program, trained hundreds of new actors and directors. This season marks the 49th 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. Trinity Rep's spring 2016 season includes To Kill a Mockingbird adapted from Harper Lee's novel by Christopher Sergel, Blues for Mister Charlie by James Baldwin, the world premiere of Arnie Louis and Bob by Katie Pearl and Oklahoma! by Richard Rodgers & Oskar Hammerstein II. 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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