Tony Award-winning Playwright Terrence McNally to be feted at Westport Country Playhouse Annual Gala, September 24, 2012

Terrence McNally (Photo by Lia Chang)

Tony Award winner Terrence McNally will be honored at The Full McNally: A Celebration of the Writing and Works of Terrence McNally, presented by Westport Country Playhouse at the theater’s annual fundraising gala on Monday, September 24, 2012. Actors Tyne Daly and Richard Thomas, who have appeared in McNally plays; Daly in Master Class and Thomas in Unusual Acts of Devotion and The Stendhal Syndrome, will co-host the evening’s festivities which kick off at 5:45 pm with cocktails, followed at 7 p.m. by performances by Broadway friends of The Playhouse. Dinner with the evening’s stars will be at 8:30 p.m. A silent auction will be on-going throughout the evening. Attire is festive; black tie optional. Proceeds will benefit Westport Country Playhouse – its work on stage, with schools, and throughout the community.

“Terrence is the only truly great American playwright who has written successfully for the dramatic as well as the musical stage,” said Mark Lamos, Playhouse artistic director. “It’s such an honor for us to be able to do this for him, especially since the co-hosts of the gala are two stars who have been influential in bringing Terrence’s work to the stage in mesmerizing performances.”

Lamos added, “Terrence has worked with some of the finest musical theater talents as well as some of our greatest actors. What other writer can you say that about? Our revival last season of his Lips Together, Teeth Apart made us all the more eager to honor him with a line-up of fantastic Broadway talent.”

Directing the 2012 gala production is Josh Rhodes (the film version of Company, Broadway Bares, Sondheim: The Birthday Concert); and music director is Mary-Mitchell Campbell (Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations for Company; The Addams Family; Sweeney Todd; Next to Normal).

Terrence McNally was awarded the Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. He is the winner of Tony Awards for his plays Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class, and his books for the musicals Ragtime and Kiss of the Spiderwoman. His other plays include Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; Lips Together, Teeth Apart (produced at Westport Country Playhouse in 2011); Corpus Christi; A Perfect Ganesh; The Ritz; It’s Only a Play; Some Men; Golden Age; Deuce; The Lisbon Traviata; Bad Habits; The Stendhal Syndrome; Dedication or The Stuff of Dreams; Next; Unusual Acts of Devotion; Sweet Eros; Witness; Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone?; and his first play, And Things that Go Bump in the Night. McNally has written the books for the musicals The Full Monty, A Man of No Importance, The Visit, and The Rink. He won an Emmy Award for Best Drama with his teleplay “Andre’s Mother,” and he wrote the screenplays for Frankie and Johnny, Love! Valour! Compassion!, and The Ritz. Among his many awards are a Citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best New Play, four Drama Desk Awards, three Hull-Warriner Best Play Awards from the Dramatists Guild, two Obies, two Lortel Awards, and two Guggenheim Fellowships.

Tyne Daly © Tyne Daly

Tyne Daly recently starred in Master Class on Broadway and in London, reprising the role of Maria Callas which she played at The Kennedy Center. A renowned stage, screen, and television actress, Ms. Daly’s stage work has won her numerous awards, including a Tony Award for her performance as Rose in the highly successful 1989 revival of Gypsy and a Tony nomination for Rabbit Hole. Her television appearances are too numerous to list, but she is best known for her work on “Cagney & Lacey” (four Emmy Awards), “Judging Amy” (Emmy Award) and “Christy” (Emmy Award), in addition to appearances on “Burn Notice” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” and in several TV films. She has received 16 Emmy nominations. Film work includes Georgia, with Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons. Ms. Daly was trained at the American Shakespeare Festival, Brandeis University, and the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.

Richard Thomas. Photo by Lia Chang

Richard Thomas appeared in the Westport Country Playhouse productions of Critic’s Choice and Whose Life Is It Anyway? Last season, he was in a Script in Hand reading of The Golden Age and a presentation of A Distant Country Called Youth. Thomas starred in the Emmy Award-winning series, “The Waltons.” He has continued to star in series, films, plays, and over 50 movies for television. On stage, he has been called “one of the leading classical actors of his generation” – Newsday. His career began on Broadway at age seven with 1958’s Sunrise at Campobello, and has continued with such shows as Fifth of July, The Seagull, The Front Page, Tiny Alice, Peer Gynt, Richard II, Richard III, Hamlet, and The Stendhal Syndrome. Recent appearances include Broadway’s Democracy and Race, The Public Theater’s Timon of Athens, and the national tour of the acclaimed Broadway revival of 12 Angry Men. Thomas can be seen in “The Music Teacher,” A Hallmark Channel Original Movie World Premiere, which airs on August 11, and on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in Manhattan Theatre Club’s An Enemy of the People this Fall.

The Gala Committee includes Katia and John Friend and Carlyn and Robert Stonehill, co-chairs; Karen Parrella, auction chair; Marjorie Barnes; Emily Boothroyd; Ania Czekaj-Farber; Michele Flaster; Angela Graham; Kim Harizman; Joanna Heimbold; Irma Hilton; Beth Hayes; Carole Hochman; Jennifer Huisking; Darlene Krenz; Mary Ellen Marpe; Mark Osgood; Judy Phares; Marjorie Treisman; and Judy Wetzel.

Gala tickets range from $2,500 to $250. Benefactor level, at $2,500 per person, includes a cocktail party, highest priority seating at performance, post-performance dinner with the evening’s stars, and an invitation to a Benefactor Preview Party at a private home in early September; Patron level, at $1,000 per person, includes a cocktail party, priority seating at performance, and post-performance dinner with the evening’s stars; and Supporter level, at $250 per person, includes a 6:30 p.m. champagne toast followed by the performance. A limited number of Supporter tickets are available. Purchase gala tickets online at www.westportplayhouse.org/gala.

Other Articles by Lia Chang
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Richard Thomas and Boyd Gaines to star in An Enemy of the People at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre during Manhattan Theatre Club’s 2012-2013 Season
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Photos: Highlights of Shinsai: Theaters for Japan (8pm) with Oskar Eustis, Patti LuPone, Lisa Emery, Ann Harada, Paolo Montalban, Thom Sesma, Sab Shimono, Henry Stram, Richard Thomas, John Weidman and more
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Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.

Lia Chang. Photo by Brianne Michelle Photography

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2012 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

Lia Chang: A night out with Gordana Rashovich, Flora Goforth in The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore

Gordana Rashovich Photo by Lia Chang

“I love Tennessee Williams’ women, because they are giants with tremendous appetites for life,” shared Obie-award winning actress Gordana Rashovich, as she dined on a dish of fried calamari and sipped a glass of Lillet at Un Deux Trois with cast mates, after her Wednesday night performance as Flora Goforth, in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, by Tennessee Williams, at the Laura Pels Theatre, at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre.

Delighted to be working with director Michael Wilson again, who directed her as Lady Torrance in Orpheus Descending at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Ms. Rashovich can be seen as Flora on Wednesday, March 9th, March 16th, March 23rd and March 30th at 7:30pm.

Williams’ haunting drama takes place in Flora’s picturesque Italian mountaintop home, where the wealthy American widow, in denial over her impending demise, has sequestered herself from the world in order to write her memoirs. When Christopher Flanders (Darren Pettie), a handsome and mysterious young poet arrives without warning to keep Flora company in her final hours, this dreamlike play blossoms into a fascinating meditation on life and death.

Gordana Rashovich Photo by Lia Chang

Ms. Rashovich appeared in the Broadway productions of Old Acquaintance, Cymbeline and Conversations with my Father. She received a Drama Desk nomination and Obie Award for playing Luisa, a Holocaust survivor in A Shayna Maidel (Westside Arts Theatre), a role she also played to acclaim in Los Angeles, where she garnered the L.A. Drama Critics Award and the Drama Logue/LA Weekly Award. Her New York stage debut in Fefu and Her Friends (American Place Theater), resulted in a Theatre World Award. Other Off-Broadway credits include: The Crucible (Roundabout Theatre Company), Not I (EST), Mr. Melancholy (NY Stage and Film) and The Persians (National Actors Theatre/The Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University). Her regional credits include: Maria Callas in Master Class (Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Denver Center Theatre Company DCTC, Arizona Theatre Co.); Madame Ljubov Ranevsky in The Cherry Orchard and Miss Van Huysen in The Matchmaker (Drama Logue) (ACT), Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest , Lady Torrance in Orpheus Descending (Alley Theatre); Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire (Players Theatre of Columbus); Queen Elizabeth in Richard III, Emilia in Othello, Marie in WOYZECK, Irene Livingston in Light Up The Sky, Morocco (Hartford Stage); Olivia in Twelfth Night (Guthrie Theatre); Mrs. Meany in A Prayer for Owen Meaney; Regina in The Little Foxes, Esme in Amy’s View, Kate in Cripple of Inishmann, Gertrude in Hamlet, Yelena in Uncle Vanya (Denver Center Theatre Company DCTC); and Miss Holroyd in Bell, Book & Candle, Dr. Wu/Sir. Lionel in Shanghai Moon, Sally Cato/Agnes Gooch in Auntie Mame, both opposite Charles Busch (Bay Street Theatre).

Co-starring in “Shanghai Moon” are, from left, Thom Sesma, the playwright Charles Busch, Gordana Rashovich and Jodi Lin. Photo by Lia Chang

Television audiences will be familiar with Ms. Rashovich from her recurring roles as Dr. Greta Gutman on “Mad Men,” Jadwiga on “Whoopi,” The Madame on “The Wire”, Judge Lillian Alverio on “Law & Order Trial by Jury, ” and for her guest starring appearances on “Law & Order: SVU,” “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill,”, “Gracie and Glorie,” “Law and Order,” and “Third Watch.” Her film credits include Doug Bollinger's Waltzing Anna, Adrienne Shelly’s Sudden Manhattan, Kenneth Brannagh’s Dead Again and Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate. Ms. Rashovich is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, a recipient of the Derek Ware Prize, for stage swordplay w/Shakespeare text and a Vanbrugh Theatre Award.
http://www.gordanarashovich.com.

TICKET INFORMATION:
Catch Gordana Rashovich as Flora Goforth in The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore at the Laura Pels Theatre, at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, on Wednesday, March 9, March 16, March 23 and March 30 at 7:30pm. Tickets are available by calling Roundabout Ticket Services at (212)719-1300, online at www.roundabouttheatre.org or at the Laura Pels Box Office (111 West 46th St.). $22 rush tickets are available on the day of performance.

Other Articles by Lia Chang
Photos: Yellow Fever Playwright Rick Shiomi Explores New Territory with An All-Female Cast
Photos: Working Theater’s Production of Rob Ackerman’s CALL ME WALDO at Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex through March 11, 2012
Photos: Larry Bryggman, Denise Burse, Peter Jay Fernandez, Tim Hopper, Arliss Howard, Kobi Libii, Mary McCann, Neil Pepe, David Pittu, Steve Rosen, Sheila Tapia, Debra Winger at Atlantic Theatre’s Opening Night of Gabe McKinley’s CQ/CX
Athol Fugard’s Blood Knot, starring Colman Domingo & Scott Shepherd in The Alice Griffith Jewel Box at The Pershing Square Signature Center through March 11, 2012
Linsanity: Sport Illustrated Cover Guy New York Knicks Starting Point Guard Jeremy Lin
Broadwayworld.com Photo Flash: Library of Congress’ IN REHEARSAL Exhibit
Up Close and Personal with Darren Pettie, Star of The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore
Jarlath Conroy Leads Cast of Pinter’s The Homecoming at CENTERSTAGE in Baltimore
Jarlath Conroy in The SEAGULL
Juicy Buns at Ollie’s
The Dish on Susur Lee and Shang
Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.

Lia Chang. Photo by Brianne Michelle Photography

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist.

All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2011 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at lia@backstagepasswithliachang.com.