Above left: F. Murray Abraham and Chairman Ted Rogers.
Above right: Trevor Nunn, Cicely Berry, Board Member Bill Lloyd, and Founding Artistic Director Jeffrey Horowitz
Two months after performing in Stratford-upon-Avon at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Complete Works Festival, Theatre for a New Audience celebrated Shakespeare’s 443rd birthday at our 2007 Gala. We are the only American theatre company to be honored by a second invitation to perform Shakespeare at the RSC. The highlight of the evening was the presentation of the Samuel H. Scripps Award for Extraordinary Commitment to Promoting the Power of Language in Classical and Contemporary Theatre. This year, the presentation had extra significance. Sadly, the person for whom the award was named and Theatre for a New Audience Board member, Sam Scripps, passed away this year. Given that we had just returned from the RSC, it was fitting that the Scripps Award would be presented to the voice coach of The Merchant of Venice and so many of our other Shakespeare productions: Cicely Berry, OBE Hon.D.Lit, Voice Director of the RSC. Trevor Nunn, former director of both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre, sang her praises to a captivated audience at the Powerhouse of the American Museum of Natural History before presenting her with the Award.
The Master of Ceremonies for the evening was the novelist and humorist Calvin Trillin. Coming off of the heels of a successful season, we are particularly proud that this was our most successful Gala to date. Funds raised broke the half million dollar mark!
The evening was rounded out by the music of the Jazz Museum in Harlem All-stars, a silent auction featuring Brooklyn designers and our annual live auction led by George McNeely, a Senior Vice President of Christie’s.
Above left: Founding Artistic Director Jeffrey Horowitz
Above right: Cicely Berry with Trevor Nunn and Calvin Trillin