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Black Tie International:
Castillo Theatre Gala
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(left to right) seated Luca Costanzo, Daphne Rubin-Vega,
Gabrielle L. Kurlander, Carmen de Lavallade, Judith Malina
(back row l.to r.) John Rankin, III, Alvaader Frazier, Emily
Mann, Fulton Hodges, Sylenia Lewis, Cathy Rose Salit,
Keldrick Crowder, Ava Jenkins, Woodie King, Jr. Amadea
Edwards, George Bartenieff,
Dan Friedman, Diane Stiles. |
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Four Influential Women
of the Contemporary Theatre
Honored at the Castillo
Theatre Gala
On November 7th more than
150 theatre artists and patrons attended the 2011 Castillo
Theatre Gala Benefit at the All Stars Project’s performing
arts and development center, 543 West 42nd
Street. The gala, which raised a record $77,000 for
Castillo and its youth theatre training program, Youth
Onstage!, paid tribute to four influential women of the
theatre: Carmen de Lavallade, Gabrielle L.
Kurlander, Judith Malina and Daphne Rubin-Vega.
Presenting the women with the awards
was a team of distinguished theatre colleagues. Emily
Mann, artistic director of the McCarter Theatre in
Princeton, presented to Rubin-Vega, whom Mann is directing
in A Street Car Named Desire, opening next season on
Broadway. Obie Award winner George Bartenieff,
co-founder of both Theatre for the New City and Theatre
Three Collaborative, presented the award to Judith Malina,
the co-founder and artistic director of the Living Theatre;
Amadea Edwards, the executive director of Complexions
Contemporary Ballet, awarded Carmen de Lavallade, whose
career in dance, theatre and film spans six decades.
Gabrielle L. Kurlander, the president and CEO of the All
Stars Project, Inc. who has appeared frequently on
Castillo’s stage and who is a member of the theatre’s
directing team, was honored by the AUDELCO Award-winning
cast of her most recent Castillo production, Playing with
Heiner Müller. Desmond Richardson, co-artistic
director of Complexions Contemporary Ballet, who could not
attend, sent a video message to Kurlander, with whom he has
collaborated on a number of Castillo productions,
congratulating her and the other awardees.
Also on hand for the festivities were
Malcolm Purkey, artistic director of the Market
Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa; Peter Nsubuga,
the founder of Hope for Youth Uganda; David Mandelbaum,
artistic director of the New Yiddish Repertory Theatre; and
Romanian/Israeli director Moshe Yassur. Woodie
King, Jr., the producing director of the New Federal
Theatre, spoke in praise of Youth Onstage!
Castillo’s artistic director Dan
Friedman and managing director Diane Stiles began
the evening by reading some notes of condolence received
from the theatre community on the occasion of the passing of
Fred Newman this past July. Newman served as Castillo’s
artistic director and playwright-in-residence for 16 years,
and was instrumental in preserving and developing political
theatre over the last three decades. Notes were read from
Richard Schechner, Robert Wilson and Bill
T. Jones.
The Castillo Gala was hosted by
Cathy Rose Salit, CEO of Performance of a Lifetime, a
theatre-based executive training firm and long-time Castillo
company member, and Alvaader Frazier, poet, attorney,
activist and long-time Castillo supporter.
The Castillo Theatre, a project of the
All Stars Project, has been built upon the principles of
culture as a tool for growth and change, innovation and
independence, an investment in the creative process and
community-building. For three decades the Castillo Theatre
has produced experimental, socially-engaged theatre, and
like the honorees is dedicated not only to making great
theatre, but building a better world. Since 1983, Castillo
has staged well over 100 productions — from multicultural
and avant-garde plays, to musicals and improvisational
shows.
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