Bay Street’s Artistic Director Scott Schwartz, Executive Director Tracy Mitchell and André De Shields. Photo by Lia Chang
Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts held Curtain Up!, the 6th Annual Honors Benefit at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater in New York on May 15th.
Scott Schwartz. Photo by Lia Chang
Hosted by Bay Street’s Artistic Director Scott Schwartz, the evening previewed the 2017 summer MainStage Season lineup:
The Man in the Ceiling, Book by Jules Feiffer, Music and Lyrics by Andrew Lippa, with direction by Jeffrey Seller. 5/30-6/25
“His imagination is just what his family needs… Jimmy Jibbett is a boy cartoonist. A hopeless aptitude if you listen to his father, who wants Jimmy to play ball like a real boy. You’d think his mother would stick up for him, but she’s too busy, running here, there, everywhere. Besides she’s got her brother Lester to worry about.”
Intimate Apparel by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, which Schwartz will direct. 7/4-7/30
“It’s a delicate line between love and desire… Esther Mills is a skilled African American seamstress and has her own successful business in 1905 making lingerie for both society ladies and “ladies of the night.” But she is lonely. As she searches for something more in her life, she unearths truths long hidden in the deepest recesses of her heart.”
A reworked production of As You Like It, set in the Jazz Age with additional music by Stephen Schwartz. A co-production with New York City’s Classic Stage Company, As You Like It will be helmed by John Doyle and feature two-time Tony nominee André De Shields as Touchstone. 8/8-9/3
André De Shields. Photo by Lia Chang
Guest artist Gabrielle Stravelli kicked off the evening with the world premiere of two songs from As You Like It, composed by Academy Award winner Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin, Godspell)- “Lover and His Lass” (with Steven Eng and Kelvin Moon Loh from CSC’s Pacific Overtures) and “Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind”.
The show also featured performances by André De Shields (As You Like It), “Grey’s Anatomy” star Kelly McCreary, Julia Motyka and Edward O’Blenis (Intimate Apparel); and Jonah Broscow and Andrew Lippa (The Man in the Ceiling).
At the Gala, 2017 Arts Visionaries Honoree awards were presented to actor Richard Kind and playwright Jules Feiffer by Robert M. Rubin and Roger Rosenblatt.
Jonah Broscow and Andrew Lippa, who play Jimmy Jibbett and Uncle Lester respectively in The Man in the Ceiling, previewed two numbers – Jonah sang “Will He Like Me?” and Andrew sang “I Do What I Do”.
Director Jeffrey Seller and composer/actor Andrew Lippa joined Jules Feiffer onstage and shared the process of bringing The Man in the Ceiling to Bay Street.
Jeffrey Seller, Andre Lippa and Jules Feiffer. Photo by Lia Chang
The 6th Annual Honors Benefit: Curtain Up! is sponsored by Hamptons Magazine.
For more information or to purchase a 2017 Mainstage Season subscription, log on to www.baystreet.org or call the Box Office at 631-725-9500 Tues.-Sat. 11 am-5 pm.
Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts is a year-round, not-for-profit professional theater and community cultural center which endeavors to innovate, educate, and entertain a diverse community through the practice of the performing arts. We serve as a social and cultural gathering place, an educational resource, and a home for a community of artists.
Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
Kelvin Moon Loh, Lia Chang, Steven Eng. Photo by Barry Gordon
Lia Chang is an actor, a multi-media content producer and co-founder of Bev’s Girl Films, making films that foster inclusion and diversity on both sides of the camera. Bev’s Girl Films’ debut short film, Hide and Seek was a top ten film in the Asian American Film Lab’s 2015 72 Hour Shootout Filmmaking Competition, and she received a Best Actress nomination. BGF collaborates with and produces multi-media content for artists, actors, designers, theatrical productions, composers, musicians and corporations. Lia is also an internationally published and exhibited photographer, a multi-platform journalist, and a publicist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon, Taxman and Hide and Seek. She is profiled in Jade Magazine and Playbill.com.
Lia Chang Photography 