FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Contact:
Elyse Singer
esinger@gradcenter.cuny.edu

The 2017 Edwin Booth Award: Taylor Mac

Friday, April 28, 2017 • 7:00pm

Proshansky Auditorium l The Graduate Center CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue (at 34^th St.), New York, NY 10016 thesegalcenter.org

 (NEW YORK, March 24, 2017) – Join us for an evening celebrating the groundbreaking work of Taylor Mac, American actor, playwright, performance artist, director, producer, and singer-songwriter. Mac’s 24-hour, 246-song marathon performance, A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, was hailed by Wesley Morris in the New York Times as “one of the greatest experiences of my life” and was recently named the 2017 recipient of the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History.

Mac receives the 2017 Edwin Booth Award, given annually by the CUNY Graduate Center’s Doctoral Theatre Students’ Association (DTSA) to honor outstanding contributions to the NYC theatre community. Hosted by MC Salty Brine, the event will feature scheduled guests Tigger!, Matt Ray, Machine Dazzle, Crystal Lucas-Perry, Morgan Jenness, Maria-Christina Oliveras, Paul Zimet & Ellen Maddow, and more. Speakers include Frank Hentschker, Executive Director of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Niegel Smith, and Sean Edgecomb.

Past Edwin Booth Award honorees include: The Royal Shakespeare Company (‘83), Ellen Stewart (‘84), Joseph Papp (‘89), Tony Kushner (‘02), Karen Finley (‘08), The Living Theater (‘09), Elevator Repair Service (‘14) and Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir (’16).

This event is FREE but reservations are **required.** Visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/taylor-mac-and-friends-2017-booth-award-ceremony-registration-31459491185

The Proshansky Auditorium is located at The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue, at 34th Street. Subway: Herald Square, lines B, D, F, M, N, Q, R.

Presented by the GC CUNY Doctoral Theatre Students’ Association (DTSA; Elyse Singer, Second Vice President), in collaboration with The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, and GC Public Programs (Karen Sander, Director).

Additional support from Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS), The Center for the Humanities at The Graduate Center CUNY, and the Doctoral Students’ Council Marvin Carlson, Sidney E. Cohn Chair in Theatre Studies; David Savran, Vera Mowry Roberts Chair in American Theatre.

About the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center:  The Segal Center bridges the gap between the academic and performing arts communities through dynamic public programs and digital initiatives that are free and open to all.

Home to theatre artists, scholars, students, performing arts managers, and the local and international performance communities, the Segal Center provides a supportive environment for conversation, open exchange, and the development of new ideas and new work. Year round, the Center presents a wide variety of FREE public programs which feature leading national and international artists, scholars, and arts professionals in conversation about theatre and performance. Programs include staged readings to further the development of new and classic plays, festivals celebrating New York performance (PRELUDE) and international plays (PEN World Voices), screenings of performance works on film, artists in conversation, academic lecture series, televised seminars, symposia, and arts in education programs. In addition, the Center maintains its long-standing visiting-scholars-from-abroad program, publishes a series of highly regarded academic journals, as well as single volumes of importance (including plays in translation), all written and edited by renowned scholars.

The Graduate Center, CUNY, of which the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center is an integral part, is the doctorate-granting institution of The City University of New York (CUNY). An internationally recognized center for advanced studies and a national model for public doctoral education, the school offers more than thirty doctoral programs, as well as a number of master’s programs. Many of its faculty members are among the world’s leading scholars in their respective fields, and its alumni hold major positions in industry and government, as well as in academia. The Graduate Center is also home to twenty-eight interdisciplinary research centers and institutes focused on areas of compelling social, civic, cultural, and scientific concerns. Located in a landmark Fifth Avenue building, The Graduate Center has become a vital part of New York City’s intellectual and cultural life with its extensive array of public lectures, exhibitions, concerts, and theatrical events. www.gc.cuny.edu

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