THE AMERICAN THEATRE WING ANNOUNCES NEW APPOINTMENTS TO ITS BOARD OF TRUSTEES & ADVISORY COMMITTEE
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
THE AMERICAN THEATRE WING
ANNOUNCES NEW APPOINTMENTS TO ITS
BOARD OF TRUSTEES & ADVISORY COMMITTEE
ANNA DEAVERE SMITH, CLINT RAMOS, JANE CHU, DR. LUZ TOWNS-MIRANDA, AND HOWARD WOLFSON
JOIN THE RANKS
HOWARD STRINGER AND PIA LINDSTRÖM
APPOINTED TO EMERITUS STATUS
New York, NY (July 22, 2019) – The American Theatre Wing (Heather Hitchens, President & CEO) is pleased to announce new appointments to its Board of Trustees and Advisory Committee:
Joining the Board of Trustees are Dr. Luz Towns-Miranda, Ph.D and Howard Wolfson.
In honor and in recognition of their stalwart and long commitment to the American Theatre Wing, two long-time Trustees, Howard Stringer and Pia Lindström, have been appointed to Emeritus status.
A complete list of the American Theatre Wing’s Board of Trustees can be found here:
https://americantheatrewing.org/about/#board-of-trustees
The American Theatre Wing Board of Trustees is the governing body responsible for oversight of all of the Wing’s activities and its overall well-being.
Joining the Advisory Committee are Jane Chu, Clint Ramos, and Anna Deavere Smith.
A complete list of the American Theatre Wing’s Advisory Committee can be found here:
https://americantheatrewing.org/about/#advisory-committee
The American Theatre Wing Advisory Committee provides support and guidance to the Board and staff of the Wing as they implement the Organization’s goals and objectives.
“I am thrilled that these remarkable individuals care so passionately about the American Theatre that they are joining the Wing’s ranks, devoting their time, energy, and resources to help ensure excellence in our field,” remarked David Henry Hwang, Chairman of the Board of Trustees.
“I am incredibly honored to be working with the extraordinary people who serve on the Wing’s Board and Advisory Committee,” said Heather Hitchens, President & CEO. “These latest appointments are outstanding additions – each new member is tremendously accomplished and dedicated. I look forward to working with all of them in the months and years ahead.”
BIOGRAPHIES
Jane Chu (Advisory Committee) served as the eleventh chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts, having completed her term in June 2018. With a background in arts administration and philanthropy, Chu is also an artist, and currently serves as an arts advisor for PBS. During Chu’s four-year tenure at the National Endowment for the Arts, Chu traveled to all 50 states, 200 communities, and made more than 400 site visits to visit visual artists, musicians, dancers, actors, writers, arts educators, and arts administrators. The agency awarded $430 million over the four years to support the arts in 16,000 communities covering all 50 states, U.S. territories, and in every Congressional District. She led the agency through increases in the arts endowment budget for three consecutive fiscal years (2016, 2017, 2018). The NEA’s Creative Forces military healing arts initiative expanded from two sites to 12 across the nation, to connect arts therapy with service members and veterans with brain recovery conditions. She launched another new program – Creativity Connects – to connect $2 million in grants for art programs that linked with science, technology, health, agriculture, aging, and other non-arts sectors, and she cultivated two international performing arts exchange programs with Cuba and China. Chu partnered with the American Theatre Wing to launch a national Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge for high school students to identify the next generation of songwriters from across the nation, and provide these students with opportunities to be mentored by Broadway artists. The NEA was also the recipient of a 2016 Special Tony Award and a 2018 Drama League Award for its support of theater and musical theater, as well as two Emmy nominations for the creation of a storybank of personal arts stories from the general public across the nation. The NEA was ranked number one in 2016 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government, in the small agency category. Prior to coming to the National Endowment for the Arts, Chu served as the president and CEO of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, overseeing a $413 million campaign to construct and open the performing arts center in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Jane Chu was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and raised in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, the daughter of Chinese immigrants. She studied music growing up, receiving bachelor’s degrees in piano performance and music education from Ouachita Baptist University, as well as a master’s degree in piano pedagogy from Southern Methodist University. Additionally, Chu holds an MBA from Rockhurst University, a Ph.D. in philanthropic studies from Indiana University, as well as five honorary doctorate degrees.
Pia Lindström (Board of Trustees, Emeritus) has been a Tony Award voter for more than 22 years, as a theatre reviewer for NBC-TV and as a voting member of the American Theatre Wing. Presently, she is on the Tony Nominating Committee. Pia worked in television journalism for three decades in California and in New York. She received two Emmy Awards and the New York Associated Press Broadcasters Award for news reporting. She is a Trustee of the Theatre Development Fund, the largest arts service organization in the country and a Regional Parks and Historic Development Commissioner for the state of New York. Now, she can be heard on SiriusXM Book Radio on “Pia Lindström Presents,” an hour-long interview program with writers and publishers broadcast three times a week. The daughter of actress, Ingrid Bergman and neurosurgeon, Dr. Petter Lindström, she was born in Stockholm, Sweden and educated at Mills College in California. She has two sons, Justin and Nicholas Daly and is married to attorney Jack Carley.
Clint Ramos (Advisory Committee) is a scenic and costume designer. He is the recipient of a Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Play (the first person of color to win in his category) and is also a three time Tony nominee, 2 Obie Awards including one for Sustained Excellence in Design, 3 Lucille Lortel Awards and 6 nominations, 2 American Theater Wing Henry Hewes Awards and 8 nominations, TDF Irene Sharraf Young Master Award, Helen Hayes Award, Craig Noel Award, and 3 Drama Desk nominations, among other awards. He is also the recipient of the Ani ng Dangal Presidential Medal for dramatic arts from the President of the Philippines-he received this honor twice. He has designed sets and/or costumes for over a hundred theater, opera and dance productions. Selected credits include the Broadway productions of Burn This with Adam Driver and Keri Russel, Torch Song, Once On This Island, Six Degrees of Separation with Allison Janney, Sunday in the Park With George with Jake Gyllenhaal, In Transit, Eclipsed with Lupita Nyong’o, Violet with Sutton Foster, and The Elephant Man with Bradley Cooper (also West End). New York highlights also include Slave Play, White Noise, Wild Goose Dreams, Bella, Kid Victory, Sweet Charity, Bootycandy, Barbecue, Here Lies Love (NY, Seattle and at the National Theatre, London), Dry Powder with Claire Danes and John Krazinski, The Good Person of Szechuan, Appropriate, Angels in America, Wild With Happy, and many more. He is the principal costume designer for City Center Encores! Off-Center having designed all 7 seasons since its inception under Jeanine Tesori’s leadership. In New York, his designs have been seen at the Public Theater where he has designed over 20 shows, New York Theater Workshop, Roundabout Theatre Company, Lincoln Center Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, Signature Theater, Classic Stage Company, Ma-Yi, NAATCO, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, Women’s Project, Soho Playhouse, Mint Theater, Red Bull Theater, The Asia Society, and many others. Regional and opera credits include designs for Alliance Theater, Asolo Repertory Company, Arena Stage, Alley Theater, American Repertory Theater, Baltimore Centerstage, Barrington Stage, Berkeley Rep., California Shakespeare Theater, Chautauqua Theater Co., Cleveland Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse, Commonwealth Shakespeare Co., Dallas Theater Center, Denver Center Theater, Folger Theater, Geva Theater, Geffen Playhouse, Guthrie Theater, Huntington Theater Company, Kansas Repertory Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Long Wharf Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Roundhouse Theater, Shakespeare Theater, Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey, Steppenwolf, Signature, Williamstown Theater Festival, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Opera Boston, Prince Opera Theater and many others. International credits include designs for The National Theatre, West End and the Barbican (London), O’Reilly (Dublin), Kanon (St. Petersburg), Rijksteatern (Stockholm), Thalia (Bucharest), and Tanghalang Pilipino (Manila). Mr. Ramos is a Professor of Design and Head of Design and Production at Fordham University. He was professor of scenic design at SUNY Purchase and has been a visiting professor/artist at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and Georgetown University. In addition to his work in the theater, he sits on the board of SLAM NYC–working towards creating NYC’s first ever recovery high school and most recently sat on the board of FIERCE NY, an organization that is devoted to building the leadership and power of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth of color. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of the Philippines and a Master of Fine Arts from New York University where he attended on the Gary Kalkin Memorial Scholarship. He was born and raised in Cebu, the Philippines.
Anna Deavere Smith (Advisory Committee) is an actress, playwright, teacher, and author. She is credited with having created a new form of theater. Smith’s work combines the journalistic technique of interviewing her subjects with the art of interpreting their words through performance. Smith has created over fifteen one-person shows based on hundreds of interviews. Her most recent play, Notes from the Field, looks at the vulnerability of youth, inequality, the criminal justice system, and contemporary activism. The New York Times named it among The Best Theater of 2016 and Time magazine named it one of the Top 10 Plays of that year. In 2018, HBO premiered the film version of Notes from the Field. Smith’s play Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 was recently named one of the best plays of the last twenty-five years by The New York Times. Smith has appeared on television programs including Shonda Rhimes’s “For the People,” “Black-ish,” “Nurse Jackie,” and “The West Wing.” Her film work includes roles in The American President, Philadelphia, RENT, and Rachel Getting Married. President Obama awarded Smith the National Humanities Medal in 2013. Additional honors include the prestigious MacArthur Award and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for achievement in the arts. She has been honored with the George Polk Career Award in Journalism, a Ridenhour Courage Prize, and the Dean’s Medal from the Stanford University School of Medicine. Her work has received two Tony nominations and she was runner up for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Her honorary degrees include those from Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Juilliard, Dartmouth, Spelman, and Swarthmore. She is a University Professor at Tisch School of the Arts and the founding director of the NYU Institute in the Arts and Civic Dialogue.
Howard Stringer (Board of Trustees, Emeritus) served as the Chairman and President & CEO of Sony Corporation. He retired as Chairman in 2013 after leaving the CEO role in 2012. Stringer held these roles beginning in 2005, and he joined the company in 1997. Prior to joining Sony, Sir Howard had a distinguished 30-year career as a journalist, producer and executive at CBS Inc. As President of CBS from 1988 to 1995, he was responsible for all the broadcast activities of the company including entertainment, news, sports, radio and television stations. Sir Howard held numerous positions at CBS News including President, Executive Producer of the “CBS Evening News” with Dan Rather, and Executive Producer of the “CBS Reports” documentary unit, which won virtually every major honor in broadcasting. He earned nine individual Emmys as a writer, director and producer from 1974 to 1976. Sir Howard served as Chairman of the American Film Institute Board of Trustees. He was also active on numerous other Boards including the Paley Center for Media, The New York/Presbyterian Hospital and The American Theatre Wing. He is the recipient of numerous media and philanthropic awards. A native of Cardiff, Wales, Sir Howard received the title of Knight Bachelor in the New Year Honours list of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1999. He holds a B.A. and an M.A. in modern history from Oxford University. He has honorary Fellowships from Merton College, Oxford, and the Welsh College of Music and Drama. He has also received Honorary Doctorates from the University of Glamorgan in Wales and the London Institute.
Dr. Luz Towns-Miranda, Ph.D (Board of Trustees) received her doctorate in clinical psychology from NYU and was licensed in 1985. She received a postdoctoral certificate from NYU’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy in 1998. Her career has focused on the assessment and treatment of foster care children, running a therapeutic nursery and teaching family practice residents at Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center and Montefiore Medical Center. Dr. Towns-Miranda has served on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Social and Family Medicine at Albert Einstein’s College of Medicine. She has consulted with The Community Association of Progressive Dominicans since 1989, where she has been instrumental in the development of its mental health programs. She also serves as a consultant for The Acacia Network, a provider of mental health and substance abuse recovery services in the Bronx. Dr. Towns-Miranda has been on the 18B panel in all five boroughs for over 25 years, conducting custody evaluations for the Family and Supreme courts. She has served on the New York State Psychology Board since 2005. Dr. Towns-Miranda is a member of Planned Parenthood Action Fund Board. She and her husband, Luis A. Miranda, Jr., have been married for 40 years and have two adult children, Luz Miranda-Crespo and Lin-Manuel Miranda. They reside in the Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights/Inwood.
Howard Wolfson (Board of Trustees). Senior Advisor to Mike Bloomberg (2014-present); Education Lead at Bloomberg Philanthropies (2014 – present); New York City Deputy Mayor for Government Affairs and Communications (2010-2013); Communications Director of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign; Prominent Political Strategist. Howard Wolfson is instrumental in the policy and political universe of Mike Bloomberg. He directs Bloomberg Philanthropies’ education program, which focuses on strengthening educational leadership and advancing education reform policies in communities across the United States. In this capacity he oversees several initiatives, including the foundation’s college access initiative, which aims to increase the number of high-achieving, low-to-moderate income students who apply and enroll in the top U.S. colleges and universities, and an initiative to protect and advance education reform in targeted geographies. Additionally, as Bloomberg’s senior political advisor, Wolfson runs the former New York City Mayor’s Independence USA SuperPAC and advises him on politics and communication. Through the PAC, Wolfson led a successful $110M effort to help flip control of the U.S. House of Representatives for Democrats in the 2018 midterms – electing 21 of the 24 candidates supported by Independence USA. From 2010-2013, Wolfson was the New York City Deputy Mayor for Government Affairs and Communications. He oversaw local, state and federal government relations, in addition to helping craft the Bloomberg Administration’s overall communications strategy. Known as the “architect of Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate victory,” Wolfson was the communications director for her history-making run for the presidency in 2008. He has worked in and out of government, serving as Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Nita Lowey, now the senior-most Democrat on the US House of Representatives’ powerful Appropriations Committee, and as the Executive Director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Wolfson has worked on campaigns at every level of government, advising Charles Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Andrew Cuomo, among others. Wolfson, a New York native, graduated from the University of Chicago and received a Master’s in history from Duke University. In addition to the American Theatre Wing, Wolfson also serves on the Board of Directors for the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.
ABOUT THE AMERICAN THEATRE WING
One hundred years ago, on the eve of America’s entry into World War I, seven suffragists—all women of the theatre—came together to form The Stage Women’s War Relief. A century later, the spirit and vision behind the founding of American Theatre Wing remains a touchstone for all we do. The Wing continues to champion bravery, with a focus on developing the next generation of brave artists. The Wing advances the future of American Theatre by celebrating excellence and nurturing the next generation: on stage, behind the scenes, and in the audience. We envision an American Theatre that is as vital, multi-faceted, and diverse as the American people.
The Wing’s programs span the nation to invest in the growth and evolution of American Theatre. We provide theatre education opportunities for underserved students through the Andrew Lloyd Webber Initiative, develop the next generation of theatre professionals through the SpringboardNYC and Theatre Intern Network programs, incubate innovative theatre across the country through the National Theatre Company Grants, foster the song of American Theatre through the Jonathan Larson® Grants, and illuminate the creative process through the Emmy-nominated “Working in the Theatre” documentary series. In addition to founding the Tony Awards® which are co-presented with The Broadway League, the American Theatre Wing co-presents the Obie Awards®, Off Broadway’s Highest Honor, with The Village Voice.
Visitors to AmericanTheatreWing.org can gain inspiration and insight into the artistic process through the Wing’s extensive media collection, and learn more about its programming for students, aspiring and working professionals, and audiences. Follow the Wing on Twitter and Instagram @TheWing, and on Facebook.com/TheAmericanTheatreWing.
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