71st Anniversary Spring Luncheon Honoring Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori

Photo credits (L to R): Angela Brown, Rodolfo Martinez

This spring, in celebration of our 71st Anniversary, New Dramatists will honor the Tony® Award-winners and playwright/composer team of TONY KUSHNER and JEANINE TESORI.

Reflecting the vital importance of collaboration among generative artists, we applaud Tony and Jeanine, recognizing their stellar careers and their multitude of game-changing contributions to the theatre. Represented on Broadway this season with their inspired musical Caroline, or Change, their commitment to their art and craft, groundbreaking storytelling, and fruitful collaborations with other brilliant theatre artists have had a transformative effect on the American theatre—and all of us who have been fortunate to sit in their audience are grateful.

And we invite you to join us on May 21st!

ABOUT THE HONOREES:

Tony Kushner’s plays include Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia On National Themes; Homebody/Kabul; and The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide To Capitalism And Socialism With A Key To The Scriptures. His first play, A Bright Room Called Day, returned to the Public Theater fall 2019, and his adaptation of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Visit is currently playing at the National Theater in London. He wrote the screenplay for Mike Nichols’s film version of Angels In America, and the screenplays for Steven Spielberg’s films Munich, Lincoln and West Side Story, opening late 2020. Among other honors, in 2012 he was awarded a National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama. He lives in Manhattan with his husband, Mark Harris.

Jeanine Tesori has written a diverse catalog for Broadway, Opera, film and television. Along with Missy Mazzoli, Ms. Tesori is one of the first female composers commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. Her musicals include: Fun Home (Tony Award, Pulitzer finalist); Caroline, or Change (Olivier Award); Violet; Shrek; Thoroughly Modern Millie; Twelfth Night; A Free Man of Color; Mother Courage (starring Meryl Streep); Soft Power. Her Operas include: Blue (Libretto, Tazewell Thompson); A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck (Tony Kushner); The Lion, The Unicorn and Me (J.D. McClatchy); as well as the upcoming Grounded (George Brant). She is the founding artistic director of New York City Center’s Encores! Off-Center Series. After producing four seasons of Off-Center concerts, she took one of those concerts, Sunday in the Park with George (starring Jake Gyllenhaal), to Broadway where she produced the 2017 revival, with ATG and Riva Marker. Sunday in the Park with George will open on the West End in the spring of 2020. Film: Supervising Vocal Producer for Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. In addition to her work as a composer, she is the founding creative director of A BroaderWay, an arts empowerment program for young women,and lectures at universities around the country. Her daughter, Siena, is a senior at Brown University.

All proceeds from the Luncheon directly support New Dramatists’ resident playwrights and their work.