2018 Shakespeare Theatre Company Gala

Performers at this year’s Gala include Broadway actress and singer Laura Benanti, who won a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for her role in Gypsy and earned rave reviews for recent Broadway productions of She Loves Me and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

Step Afrika! will captivate audiences with their unique dance style that blends percussive dance styles, African traditional dance and influences from a variety of other art forms.

Additional performers and further special guests for the 2018 Shakespeare Theatre Company Gala at the Harman Center for the Arts will be announced later this fall.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AWARD FOR CLASSICAL THEATRE

The Will Award will be presented to Phylicia Rashad for contributions to classical theatre in America. Ms. Rashad received both the Drama Desk and the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance as Lena Younger in the Broadway revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. On Broadway, Ms. Rashad has performed as Big Mama in Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (a role that she reprised on the London stage), Aunt Ester in August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean (Tony Award nomination), Queen Britannia in Cymbeline at Lincoln Center and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Public Theater. Ms. Rashad has appeared in numerous television shows and motion pictures including Fox’s Empire and Ryan Coogler’s Creed. Ms. Rashad has also received the BET Honors Theatrical Arts Award and Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s Spirit of Shakespeare Award, in addition to being named the first recipient of the Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre at Fordham University.

SIDNEY HARMAN AWARD FOR PHILANTHROPY IN THE ARTS

The Sidney Harman Award for Philanthropy in the Arts will be presented this year to Jacqueline Badger Mars. Jacqueline is a lifelong champion of the arts and arts education in the D.C. community and has been a generous supporter of the Shakespeare Theatre Company for over a decade. Mrs. Mars was instrumental in creating the Mars Urban Arts Initiative—a creative platform for Washington Performing Arts and the D.C. community that showcases and empowers local artists through performances and unique educational programs. As Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Washington National Opera, her support has been instrumental in promoting opera throughout the community via the annual M&M’s Opera in the Outfield series, now in its 10^th year and available free to the public.

Past Will Award Honorees

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For more information, please contact STCGala@ShakespeareTheatre.org or call 202.547.3230 ext. 2330.

Since its inception in 2006, the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s annual event has been hailed by Washington Life Magazine as the “most buzzed-about gala” and provides indispensable funds for the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s education and outreach programs, including the annual Free For All. Thanks to the generosity of our gala attendees, the Free For All brings two weeks of free Shakespeare to D.C.-area residents each year. Since Michael Kahn founded the event in 1991, more than 660,000 people—many of whom might not otherwise possess the means to see a full-scale theatrical production—have enjoyed some of STC’s most acclaimed productions completely free of charge through the Free For All.