Events & Annual Gala

Jeffrey Horowitz began his career in theatre as an actor and appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in regional theatre. In 1979, he founded Theatre for a New Audience. Horowitz has served on the Panel of the New York State Council on the Arts, on the Board of Directors of Theatre Communications Group, the Advisory Board of the Shakespeare Society and Artistic Directorate of London’s Globe Theatre.

Awards: 2003 John Houseman Award – The Acting Company; 2004 Gaudium Award – Breukelein Institute; 2014 Alfred Drake Award – Brooklyn College; 2019 Obie Lifetime Achievement Award; 2020 Samuel H. Scripps Award.

On September 4, 2024, Jeffrey, TFANA’s Founding Artistic Director and President, announced that he would be ending his 45-year tenure leading the Theatre and retiring on August 31, 2025. On the occasion of Jeffrey’s final season at TFANA, this Gala celebrates his 45 years of visionary leadership at TFANA and his extraordinary accomplishments in American Theatre.

Few Arts professionals have had a greater global impact on the arts than Michael M. Kaiser.

In addition to founding the DeVos Institute in 2001, Michael served from 2001-14 as President of the Kennedy Center. Michael has served as the Executive Director of the Royal Opera House, American Ballet Theatre, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Foundation.

The DeVos Institute has provided advanced arts administration training and consulting for thousands of individuals, organizations, governments, and foundations throughout the United States and more than 80 countries. Michael has been an arts management consultant to Yale, Oxford, Theatre for a New Audience, Tenement Museum, The Cooper Union, National September 11 Memorial & Museum, Public Art Fund, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Martha Graham Dance Company, and many others.

Michael has served as a research economist for Nobel Prize-winning economist Wassily Leontief, and is the author of eight books, most notably The Art of the Turnaround (2008) and The Cycle (2013). He has taught Arts Administration at New York University, the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and is currently a Professor at the University of Maryland.

His awards and honors include: the Capezio Award, the St. Petersburg 300 Medal, a U.S. Department of State Citation, the Blacks in Dance Award, and he was the first American to receive China’s “Award for Cultural Exchange”. He holds honorary doctorates from Georgetown and The University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Photo by John T. Consoli.

Theatre for a New Audience’s Life in Art Award honors the achievements of individuals whose support for theatre has set the standard for leadership and generosity, and whose example has inspired others to ensure that theatre remains a vibrant part of our cultural life.  The award, a signed giclée print by Milton Glaser, is named for the autobiography by the great theatre artist Constantin Stanislavski, My Life in Art.