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Photos by JK Clarke

 

Monday night, February 22nd,  Theater for the New City held its 13th annual gala. This year’s event, held at the esteemed National Arts Club on Gramercy Park was called, “Love N’ Courage: A Valentine Benefit for Theater for the New city’s Emerging Playwrights Program” and featured both musical and theatrical performances.

The program’s special honorees this year were painter, writer  and philanthropist (and Executive Director Emeritus of the Peg Santvoord Foundation) Donn Russell—Theater for the New City Lifetime Achievement Award—who told a beautiful story about the original location of Theater for the New City when it was near the (then elevated) West Side Highway on the outer edges of the West Village. And Caroline Gerry accepted a plaque honoring the late Betsy Von Furstenberg.

There were numerous delightful performances, including music by David Amram, Phoebe Legere (on both piano and accordian), David Lewis, Eric Yves Garcia and Arthur Abrams. In addition, excerpts from plays were performed: Rooftop Joy (written by Adrea Fulton performed by Allen Craig Harris and Chauncie L. Chapman); Coming In (written by Peter Zachari and performed by Peter Zachari, Lori Funk and Joey Mirabile), plus performances by the Yip Harburg Foundation Rainbow Troupe and TNC Street Theater.

Theater Pizzazz’s JK Clarke was on hand to take it all in and capture it in photos, which you can see just below the jump . . .

Photos by JK Clarke