LA Canyon News, CA
March 14 2009
Five Women Of Theater To Receive Awards
by Tommy Garrett on Mar 14, 2009 – 4:41:50 PM
HOLLYWOOD’My `Queen of the Lot’ co-star Tanna Frederick will be
receiving an award by the Women’s Theatre Festival later this
month. Tanna told Canyon News, `I am extremely excited about this
honor and the amazing opportunities I’ve been given recently.’
The Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival will honor five women for
their exceptional career and life achievements at its Opening Night
Gala on March 26 at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica.
Leilani Chan will receive the Rainbow Award. She is an award-winning
performance artist and Founding Artistic Director of TeAda
Productions. TeAda exists to enrich the repertoire of works created
and performed by people of color. TeAda is currently producing
`Healing Aloud,’ a festival of new works partnering women of color
with immigrant health organizations to create multi-disciplinary
performances. Ms. Chan is a steering committee member of the National
Asian American Theater Conference & Festival. She has directed new
works by Robert Karimi at OUTNORTH in Anchorage, Alaska; Kristina Wong
at REDCAT , [INSIDE] the Ford, and at La Pena Cultural Center; and
Shyamala Moorty at REDCAT. Her own full-length solo shows, `Tita on
the Run’ and `E Nana I Ke Kumu,’ have toured nationally. She has
worked with communities to develop community-based performances and
has been presented at many performance venues across the
country. Ms. Chan received her M.F.A. from UC Irvine.
Tanna Frederick will receive the Maverick Award. In addition to
appearing in plays at Skylight Theatre, the Coronet, Greenway Court
Theatre (for Robey Theatre Company) and at Edgemar Center for the
Arts, she has emerged as a queen of independent films, starring in
`Hollywood Dreams,’ `Irene in Time,’ and `Queen of the Lot’ as the
leading lady of director Henry Jaglom’s feature film repertory
company. Away from stage and screen, she devotes her time to
philanthropic pursuits. She is co-founder of Project Save Our Surf, a
surfing event that this year will benefit Oceana, a nonprofit
international advocacy program created with the sole purpose of
protecting the world’s oceans to sustain the circle of
life. Ms. Frederick also founded the Iowa Film Festival. She is a
graduate of the University of Iowa.
Gay Iris Parker will receive the Eternity Award. At Pasadena
Playhouse, she is responsible for cultivating and sustaining a diverse
audience base for main stage productions, including (as of this
writing) the hit musical `Stormy Weather.’ She produces community
outreach events, such as panels and exhibits in addition to the
popular `Conversations With¦’ programs, which have included such
guests as Leslie Uggams, Marlee Matlin, Ruby Dee, Vernon Winfrey
(Oprah’s father), Michael York, Carol Lawrence, Marilyn McCoo, Billy
Davis, Jr., and the late Gregory Hines. Ms. Parker has also served as
audience consultant for Geffen Playhouse (`Ain’t Nothin’ But The
Blues,’ `Emergency’), Center Theater Group (Alvin Ailey American Dance
Theatre), Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts (Three Mo’ Tenors),
and Ebony Repertory Theatre. She has also performed public relations
duties for the Pan African Film Festival, Buskaid Soweto String
Orchestra, artist and author Synthia St. James, French horn virtuoso
Robert Watt (L.A. Philharmonic), and UNICEF Los Angeles. Ms. Parker
received degrees from CSULA and Loyola Marymount. Until 2007, she was
a part-time adjunct instructor in Communication and Performing Arts at
Pasadena City College.
Adriana Sevan will receive the Integrity Award. Her solo play `Taking
Flight’ debuted at the Kirk Douglas Theater in 2006 and won the San
Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award the following year, subsequently
being performed across the country. She has just received the 008
Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award which gifts her
with a generous commission to research and write a new play about her
grandparent’s survival of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, which will be
developed by the award’s host theaters: The Lark Play Development
Center in New York, Silk Road Theatre Company in Chicago and Golden
Thread in San Francisco. Ms. Sevan is devoted to bringing theater and
girls together. She currently leads transformational mentoring
workshops for at-risk adolescent girls using creative writing and
improvisation as tools for girls to discover their vibrant, vital and
unique voices.
Eartha Kitt will posthumously receive the Infinity Award. She died
this past Christmas Day at the age of 81 after a career in which she
enjoyed stardom in every performing arts medium. After enduring an
impoverished childhood made bleaker by discrimination because of her
mixed African American-Cherokee-Caucasian background, she began her
show business career as a dancer of the famed Katherine Dunham
Company, performing with them in her 1948 motion picture debut,
`Casbah.’ Declaring her `the world’s most exciting woman,’ Orson
Welles cast her as Helen of Troy in his 1950 staging of `Doctor
Faustus.’ Cast in the hit revue, `New Faces of 1952,’ she began a hit
recording career with her biggest hit, `Santa Baby,’ being released
the following year. Hollywood beckoned, and she was cast opposite
Sidney Poitier in 1958 in `The Mark of the Hawk.’ Her busy career
continued to flourish as she replaced Julie Newmar as Catwoman on the
`Batman’ TV series. Ostracized after her vocal opposition to the
Vietnam War during a White House luncheon, she made a Broadway
comeback , receiving Tony nominations for `Timbuktu’ and `The Wild
Party.’ Finding a gay audience during the disco years, she returned
their love by becoming a vocal advocate for marriage equality
rights. In later years, she continued to perform on Broadway and in
night clubs, and won two Daytime Emmys for the Disney Channel series
`The Emperor’s New School." She is survived by a daughter and
grandchildren.
The awards will be presented at Highways Performance Space , 1651 18th
Street in Santa Monica, 90404 on Thursday, March 26 . A champagne
reception and light buffet at 7 p.m. precedes the 8 p.m. awards
ceremony and show. The event will be hosted by Festival honorary
co-chair Hattie Winston (`Becker’) and Pasadena Playhouse Artistic
Director Sheldon Epps. Entertainment includes short theater pieces by
Angela Dean-Baham and Rose Weaver. The show and ceremony are directed
by Adleane Hunter and written by Angela Gibbs.
Tickets for the March 26 event are $60 each or two for $100.
Substantial discounts are available for group purchases. Reservations:
818-760-0408. Online ticket purchases can be made at
Sponsors of the event include California Arts Council, Los Angeles
County Arts Commission, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural
Affairs, Union Bank of California, U.S. Bank and Adilah Barnes
Productions.
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