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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

TONY AWARD^®-WINNING
WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL
ANNOUNCES
ADDITIONAL PARTICIPANTS FOR THE 2021 GALA
TAKING PLACE VIRTUALLY WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7

OLIVIER AWARD NOMINEE^® & BLACK THEATRE UNITED CO-FOUNDER
WENDELL PIERCE

EMMY AWARD^® WINNER & NBC’S “TODAY” CO-ANCHOR
AL ROKER

JOIN JESSE TYLER FERGUSON, RENÉE FLEMING,
MICHAEL R. JACKSON, JILL KARGMAN, JOHN LITHGOW, EPATHA MERKERSON, STEVEN PASQUALE, AMANDA SEYFRIED, PHILLIPA SOO, AND MARISA TOMEI  

THE COMPANY OF THE WORLD PREMIERE MUSICAL
ROW
WILL PERFORM THE SHOW’S OPENING NUMBER
AHEAD OF ITS RELEASE AS PART OF THE WTF SEASON ON AUDIBLE 

A PORTION OF THE PROCEEDS FROM THE GALA
TO BENEFIT
WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL’S REMARKABLE
SCENIC DESIGNERS, COSTUME DESIGNERS,
LIGHTING DESIGNERS, AND STAGE MANAGERS

New York, NY (March 16, 2021) – Today, Williamstown Theatre Festival (Mandy Greenfield, Artistic Director) announced additional participants for the 2021 WTF Gala taking place virtually on Wednesday, April 7.

Joining the festivities will be Olivier Award^® nominee Wendell Pierce (Death of a Salesman) who is a co-founder of Black Theatre United, a partner in WTF’s new Early Career BIPOC Theatre-Makers Program, and Emmy Award^® winner Al Roker (NBC’s “Today”).

In addition, the company of the WTF Season on Audible production of Row will perform the opening number from the world premiere musical. The cast featured in the number includes Kerstin Anderson, John Ellison Conlee, Nehal Joshi, Tamika Lawrence, John McGinty, Grace McLean, Kathryn O’Rourke, Lance Roberts, Sean Stack, and Sally Wilfert.

Row, which features a book by Daniel Goldstein and music and lyrics by Dawn Landes, will be released the day after the gala, Thursday, April 8, as part of the WTF summer season produced on Audible, the leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling.

As previously announced, the Gala will start at 7:30 PM ET, preceded by an interactive VIP pre-show for event sponsors and virtual table buyers, and will feature musical performances and special appearances from beloved friends of the Festival.

Other artists scheduled to appear include Emmy Award nominee Jesse Tyler Ferguson (WTF’s Grand Horizons, “Modern Family”), Tony Award^® nominee and Grammy Award^® winner Renée Fleming (WTF’s Living on Love, Carousel), Pulitzer Prize winner Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop, 2020 WTF Artist-in-Residence), best-selling author and actress Jill Kargman (Momzillas: A Novel, “Odd Mom Out”), Tony Award and Emmy Award winner John Lithgow (“The Crown,” Hillary and Clinton), Tony Award nominee and Emmy Award winner S. Epatha Merkerson (WTF’s A Raisin in the Sun, “Chicago Med”), Drama Desk Award^® nominee Steven Pasquale (WTF’s The Bridges of Madison County, “The Comey Rule”), 2021 Academy Award ^® and Golden Globe Award^® nominee Amanda Seyfried (Mank, Les Miserables), Tony Award nominee Phillipa Soo (Hamilton; Natasha, Pierre, and The Great Comet of 1812), and Academy Award^® winner Marisa Tomei (WTF’s The Rose Tattoo, The Big Short).

A portion of the proceeds from the 2021 WTF Gala will be distributed to the scenic designers, costume designers, lighting designers, and stage managers whose invaluable artistic contributions to the development and creation of productions for the 2020 season – converted to an all-audio format in response to the global health pandemic – must be recognized and cherished. WTF deeply values all of the artists, technicians, administrators, and staff members who make the Festival possible and is working hard to sustain community through this challenging time for the broader theatre industry.

The 2021 WTF Gala is made possible with the generous support of Event Sponsors James & Virginia Giddens.

The 2021 Williamstown Theatre Festival Gala Committee includes the following passionate advocates of the Festival: Alicia Adams, Kerstin Anderson, Ivory Aquino, Michael Arden, Jayne Atkinson & Michel Gill, Becky Ann & Dylan Baker, Kate Bornstein, Julia Bowen & Brad Svrluga, Nadia Bowers & Corey Stoll, Madeline Brewer, Matthew Broderick & Sarah Jessica Parker, Liz Lark Brown, Charlotte Byers & Dennis Dunne, Bobby Cannavale, Anna Chlumsky, John Ellison Conlee, David Packard Corenswet, David Cromer, Susie Essman, Edie Falco, Samy Figaredo, Joe & Tracy Finnegan, Shana Fisher & Jonathan Glick, Meg Fofonoff, Tom Fontana, Ana Gasteyer, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Daniel Goldstein, Matt Gould, Carla Gugino, Joshua Harmon, Jason Butler Harner, Jessica & Matt Harris, Jessica Hecht & Adam Bernstein, Joan & Jim Hunter, Kristen Johanson & Tom Green, Jeff Johnson & Hy Conrad, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Sullivan Jones, Jane Kaczmarek, Sylvia Khoury, Aja Naomi King, Carson Kreitzer, Stephen Kunken, Dawn Landes, Tamika Lawrence, Bianca Leigh, Telly Leung, Dana Aliya Levinson, John Lithgow, Kristolyn Lloyd, Martyna Majok, Aasif Mandvi, Rhon & James Manigault-Bryant, Cathy & Elliott Masie, Audra McDonald & Will Swenson, John McGinty, Grace McLean, Omar Metwally, Carol Miller & Rich Levy, Pooya Mohseni, Anne & Josh Morris, Jane Musky & Tony Goldwyn, Melanie Najarian & Scott Pezza, Shakina Nayfack, Marjan Neshat,

Cynthia Nixon, Robert O’Hara, Mary-Louise Parker, Jim & Xtina Parks, Katherine & Bo Peabody, Annie & Nick Pell, Lily Rabe & Hamish Linklater, Tyne Rafaeli, Clint Ramos, Adam Rapp, Harrison David Rivers, Lance Roberts, Ben Rosenfield, Sarah Ruhl, Olivia Howard Sabine & Greg Griffith, Thomas Sadoski, Benjamin Scheuer,

Caren Pasquale Seckler & Mike Seckler, Kyra Sedgwick & Kevin Bacon, Ita Segev, Ariel Shafir, Keith Randolph Smith, Margaret & David Stewart, Susan Stroman, Jason Tam, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Lucy Thurber & Jenna Worsham, Jacqueline & Albert Togut, Sanaz Toossi, James Anthony Tyler, Blair Underwood, Gaye Taylor Upchurch, Alex Volckhausen, Whitney White, Sally Wilfert, Fadia Fayad Williamson, Bess Wohl, and Anna Ziegler.

The 2021 WTF Gala music team will feature Meg Zervoulis (music director), Michael Croiter (music producer), Brian Holtz (bass), and Jared Schonig (drums).

To learn more about the 2021 WTF Gala, please call 212 395 9090 x 110 or visit gala.wtfestival.org. Additional information about the 2021 WTF Gala will be announced at a later date and made available at gala.wtfestival.org.

ABOUT WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL

Few institutions have as profound an impact on the American theatrical landscape as the Tony Award-winning Williamstown Theatre Festival. For over six decades, Williamstown Theatre Festival has brought emerging and professional theatre artists together in the Berkshires to create a thrilling summer festival of diverse, world premiere plays and musicals, bold new revivals, and a rich array of accompanying cultural events.

In response to the unprecedented challenges of 2020, Williamstown Theatre Festival continued its long history of artistic innovation, collaborating with Audible, the leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling. The Festival’s initiative ensured the voices of artists could be heard loudly and clearly around the globe during an extraordinary moment when theatre’s power to inspire, move, and heal was most needed. The result – the WTF Season on Audible – is a complete collection of new and reimagined works defined by artistic excellence, cultural diversity and relevance, and unbounded reach and crafted by some of the most influential and provocative American theatre artists of today.

For 66 years, artists have been drawn to Williamstown Theatre Festival to make great theatre in an environment conducive to artistic risk-taking. Matthew Broderick, Audra McDonald, Dominique Morisseau, Mary-Louise Parker, Susan Stroman, Uma Thurman, and Blair Underwood are just a few of the luminous theatre artists who have worked at the Festival. Many others, including Chris Pine, Kate Hudson, Paul Giamatti, Allison Janney, Brie Larson, George C. Wolfe, and Kiefer Sutherland, began their careers at the Festival.

In addition, Williamstown Theatre Festival continues to grow new programs. Among the thriving new initiatives are COMMUNITY WORKS – a one-of-a-kind community-engaged theatre program – and the Andrew Martin-Weber New Play and Musical Commissioning Program, through which new work is created year-round by theatre artists including Jocelyn Bioh, Nathan Alan Davis, Halley Feiffer, Justin Levine, Matthew Lopez, Jiehae Park, Benjamin Scheuer, and many others.

Productions and artists shaped at the Festival fill theatres in New York City and around the world. In the abbreviated 2019-20 theatrical season alone, Williamstown Theatre Festival was represented or scheduled to be represented on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regionally by The Sound Inside and Grand Horizons, both of which received Tony Award nominations for Best Play, The Rose Tattoo, Seared, Selling Kabul, Unknown Soldier, Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow, and Lempicka. Cost of Living, which was developed and premiered at Williamstown Theatre Festival, was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Learn more about Williamstown Theatre Festival at www.wtfestival.org

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