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THE EVENING’S PROGRAM

5:30 - 6:30 pm

Glitz & Grit Gala Cocktail Reception at Amélie
Join 2021 Honorees, Season Curators, Visionary Supporters, and Special Guests,
for light - COVID-compliant - refreshments and a chance to engage in lively conversation.

7:00 - 8:30 pm

Glitz & Grit Gala Program
Honoring Ted Berger and Tina Packer with the inaugural Community Builder Award
Master of Ceremonies, Debra Ann Byrd

Performances by

Tiny Trip
”A New Book of Common Prayer”
Created by the Company Members of Tiny Trip
With performances by
Emily Climer, Beth Liebowitz, Shannon Nash, Calvin Tsang
Music composed and recorded by
Alice Tolan Mee in collaboration with Ale Roubini
Jude Schimer

- and -

Hamlet Isn’t Dead
Performing the balcony scene from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
featuring members of their resident acting company
Diego Arcienega and Chloe Bell
Directed by HID Executive Director James Rightmyer, Jr.

About the honorees

THEODORE S. BERGER
Executive Director Emeritus, New York Foundation for the Arts

Veteran arts advocate and activist, Ted Berger, has dedicated his professional career—and an equally busy retirement—in support of diverse working artists and artist-centered organizations at both the local and national levels. During his 35-year tenure at the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) where he also served as Executive Director, Ted championed the creative lives and livelihoods of artists through direct funding, professional development opportunities, and technical support and advocacy.

In addition to his generous service to The Center at West Park as a founding member of the Board of Directors, and its current Treasurer, Ted has continued to share his expertise with a diverse array of boards and committees in the arts and culture ecosystem, including over the years: the Joan Mitchell Foundation, ArtsConnection, the Asian American Arts Alliance, the Association of Hispanic Arts, the CUE Art Foundation, the Design Trust for Public Space, HB Studio and Playwright’s Foundation, the International Studio and Curatorial Program, and New Yorkers for Culture and the Arts. He has been appointed recently to the Think Tank for “Creatives Rebuild New York”, a new multi-year initiative of the Andrew Mellon Foundation.

TINA PACKER
Founding Artistic Director, Shakespeare & Company

Tina Packer is the Founding Artistic Director of Shakespeare & Company, the critically acclaimed, award-winning theater and theater education group in Lennox, MA. Launched in 1978, the organization attracts over 40,000 patrons annually and is home to an internationally renowned Center for Actor Training and award-winning Education Program. Tina has directed all of Shakespeare’s plays, acted in eight of them, and taught the entire canon at over thirty colleges, including Harvard, M.I.T., and NYU.

At Columbia University, she taught in the M.B.A. program for four years, resulting in the publication of Power Plays: Shakespeare’s Lessons in Leadership and Management. Tina’s Tales from Shakespeare, a retelling of ten of Shakespeare’s most powerful and enduring plays received the Parent’s Gold Medal Award. Tina’s 2015 book, Women of Will, is the culmination of a lifelong exploration into Shakespeare’s famed yet misunderstood heroines and is based on her five-part performance piece of the same name. She’s the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, including the Commonwealth Award.

About the FEATURED ARTISTS

DEbra ann byrd
master of ceremony & former resident artist

Debra Ann Byrd is the Founding Artistic Director of the Harlem Shakespeare Festival, as well as, an award winning classically trained actress, scholar and producer who was recently named Writer-in-Residence at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Artist-in-Residence Fellow at the Folger Institute, an A'Lelia Bundles Community Scholar Arts Fellow at Columbia University, a Virtual Artist-in-Residence at The Center at West Park, and Artist-in-Residence at Southwest Shakespeare Company, where she recently reprised the role of Othello, winning her the 2019 Broadway World Phoenix Award for Best Lead Actress. In addition, Byrd is an emerging playwright who recently completed her new critically acclaimed solo show BECOMING OTHELLO: A Black Girl’s Journey.

TINY TRIP
FORMER resident artist

Tiny Trip is a collective of performers, creating work from their shared language of song and dance. Our goal is to undermine societal patterns of violence by building forms of common expression and eliciting empathic responses from one another, and our onlookers - which we see as a radical act. Tiny Trip’s development has been generously supported by a year-long residency at Access Theater, two-week-long residencies at Mount Tremper Arts, and a space grant from The Living Gallery. Find us on Instagram @tinytrippresents.

HAMLET ISN’T DEAD
FORMER resident artist

At Hamlet Isn’t Dead, we know that shared emotional and intellectual experiences are vital to all people. As Shakespeare did, we provide an authentic sense of joy to every audience member, regardless of race, creed, religion, or financial situation. Our mission is to present the best theatrical experience possible, allowing you to witness and become part of the sublime.

2021 GALA SUPPORTERS

VISIONARY SUPPORTERS

Beryl Abrams, Ted & Asya Berger, Maura J. Clark, Martin Duus, Paul Gottsegen, Nancy W. Greenblatt & Jack Richard, Michael Herz, Diane Jacobs, Justin & Mary Klein, Corina Larkin, Ina Lea Meibach, Calvin M. Mew, Pat O'Connell, Jennifer Rogers Carlock, Mitch & Lorna Schamroth, Susan E. Sullivan & Ron Wilcox, Eugenie M. Sullivan, Mim Warden, Beth Siegel & Scott Weiner, R. Caitlin Wilcox.

Patron Supporters

Richard Abrams, Aileen Atkins, Sandra Baron, Miranda R. Barry, Dan & Lynn Beller, Jonathan Berger, Sheryl L. Fengel & Stuart Bondell, Mig Boyle, Rev. Robert L. Brashear, Marilyn Cohen, Penelope Dannenberg, Mark & Fiona Donovan, Gail Edwin, Rosalind Fink, Andrea Finkelstein & Robert C. Greenberg, Irving & Ilene Fish, Linda Golding, Ruth Abrams Gonzalez, Vanessa Howe-Jones & Samuel Johnson, Paul & Cynthia Scrudato, Ellen Kessler, Harriet Klein, Idith Meshulam Korman, Katherine Kurs & John Hudson, Donny Lee, Susan Viuker Lieberman, Sara Lind, Anne Louise Oates, Judith F. Love, Rev. Derrick McQueen, Carman Moore, Tessa Namuth & Peter Papademitriou, Steven Neiman, Lilach Orenstein, Mary Frances Sears & Bob Sann, Goldie Alfasi-Siffert & John Siffert, Lance Silverman, Dian Smith, Jack & Judy Stern, Tom & Lani Tyrrell, Michael K. Unthank, Geneva Overholser & David Westphal, Rob Whitman, Marilyn & Michael Wiener.

about the center at west park

The Center at West Park is a community performing arts center based in the historic West Park Presbyterian Church, a New York City landmark. We present engaging and boundary-pushing early-career and established artists through our artist residency programs, provide affordable rental space for artists to develop their work, and steward the restoration of our historic home’s landmark exterior. The Center is a secular, 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization.

STAFF

Natasha Katerinopoulos, Managing Director
Zachary Tomlinson, Artistic Director
Dane Jerabek, Marketing Associate
Kate Sann, Development Consultant
Daniel Hess, Videographer
Tarela Kelvin Ebiotu, Videographer
David Shocket, Consulting Technical Director
Gary Eisenkraft, CPA, Accountant
Mercedes Marrero-Alvarado, Porter
Dion Thompson, Porter

FALL 2021 GUEST CURATORS

Debra Ann Byrd
Melanie Greene
Elliot Reed

OBJECT MOVEMENT CURATORS

Maiko Kikuchi
Rowan Magee
Marcella Murray
Justin Perkins

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Marian M. Warden, President
Marsha Flowers, Vice President
Theodore S. Berger, Treasurer
Beryl Abrams, Secretary
Robert L. Brashear
Jennifer Rogers Carlock
Don Frantz
Derrick McQueen
Mitchell Schamroth
Susan E. Sullivan