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Photo Credit: Isaiah Tanenbaum



TERESA: Hello and good evening, everyone! I’m Teresa Eyring, the executive director and CEO of TCG

ADRIAN: And I’m Adrian Budhu, the deputy director and COO, and on behalf of the board and staff at TCG, we are thrilled to welcome you to our 2019 Gala! For those who don't know us, TCG exists to strengthen and promote the theatre field nationally. We do this through publishing, advocacy in Washington, convenings, leadership development, and much more.

TERESA: Now, when we decided to name this Gala Our Stories, we did so for two reasons. First, we wanted to celebrate our theatre origin stories, those moments where we became theatre people. My story begins when my parents brought me to New York for the first time. We drove up from Baltimore in an old Ford Ltd and saw a few Broadway shows. I was smitten. We also ate lunch at the Forum of the 12 Caesars where the price for an entree was $5.75. I was totally embarrassed when my father got up with his menu, strode across the room and introduced himself to another diner. “Hi I’m Dr. Eyring from Baltimore”  When he came back to our table, he showed us the autograph he’d just gotten. It was Orson Welles.

ADRIAN:  My theatre origin story is a little different, because I never considered myself a theatre kid. But some of my earliest memories do involve some version of theatre. I engaged my sister (pro-bono!) to assist me with the costumes, sets, and special lighting in our living room. Then I charged my parents $5 each for the privilege of watching me sing and dance to show tunes and various movies scenes. The COO in me wonders if I shouldn’t have charged them more.

TERESA: The second reason we called this evening Our Stories is because in our collaborative art form, so many of our best stories are shared. One notable example: our honoree Tony Kushner used to work at TCG many, many years ago, and when he left, he told TCG’s Publisher Terry Nemeth that he had a new script TCG Books might be interested in. Can you guess the name of that play? Some 25 years later, Angels in America has changed TCG, and the field, and our world.

ADRIAN: One of the reasons we love this Gala is because it brings together people from the nonprofit world and commercial world, individual artists, producers, theatre owners, trustees and funders to celebrate.

TERESA: Our field is so interconnected, and that’s revealed by our performances tonight. I remember when producer Mara Isaacs described her new company Octopus Theatricals as we travelled to Cuba with a TCG delegation four years ago, and now we’ll see the fruit of that dream when Hadestown performs tonight. When Ali Stroker delights with an excerpt of Oklahoma, I’ll remember watching the first performance of Daniel Fish’s groundbreaking staging with Susan Feldman, who brought the production to St Ann’s Warehouse this year. And when we hear Beth Malone sing...well, I could tell you, but that’d be a spoiler for a special moment. Your being here tonight supports our interconnected community. We are so grateful for your presence, your generosity, and your belief in TCG’s vision of a better world for theatre and a better world because of theatre.

ADRIAN: We want to thank our co-chairs and ask them to stand as they’re able and be recognized: Jordan Roth and Richie Jackson, Thomas Schumacher and Matthew White, and Jacob Padron. We also send our love to co-chair Liesl Tommy who can’t be here tonight.

TERESA: And thank you to our incredible honorees, as well as our Board and theatres trustees from across the country that constitute our National Council.

ADRIAN: We also offer our respect to the land on which we gather, and to honor the traditional stewards of that land. We acknowledge that we meet in Manahatta, the name given these lands by the Algonkan peoples we know as Lenape, who have stewarded it for generations. We also acknowledge that these lands are unceded and occupied after being taken and kept by force.

TERESA: Now it’s our pleasure to introduce our first performance. One of our honorees Rick Miramontez’s shows this spring is the new musical HADESTOWN, which intertwines two mythic love stories and takes you on a hell-raising journey to the underworld and back. In the show, Hades, lord of the underworld, is now the ultimate charmer who uses his seductive words and unmatchable style to entice people to do his bidding. It’ll come as no surprise to anyone to learn Rick is currently in negotiations to play the role on the national tour. Anyway, next up we’re thrilled to welcome two stars from HADESTOWN: Patrick Page and Eva Noblezada singing “Hey Little Songbird.”