|
STELLA ADLER STUDIO
Swell Soiree Kicks Off
Stella by Starlight Gala
Story by Edward T. Callaghan
Photos by Rob Rich
 HE stately Samuel Tilden Mansion on
Gramercy Park, home to the National Arts Club (NAC), was the
setting for an elegant soiree for the committee, sponsors and
friends of the upcoming Stella by Starlight Gala to benefit the
scholarship and outreach programs of the Stella Adler Studio of
Acting.
NAC president O. Aldon James Jr., Studio
vice-chairman Ellen Adler, and president and artistic
director Tom Oppenheim, and co-host Jean Claude
Mastroianni (NAC) welcomed a glittering crowd of some 150 of
New York’s most ardent supporters of the arts to the gilded
parlor rooms.
BORU Vodka and Castle Brands, sponsors of the
event with NAC, served up libations for the guests.
In true Group Theatre tradition, the room was
abuzz with artists and actors, playwrights and producers, singers
and stars. Young Stella Adler student Anisha Nagarajan, currently
starring in Bombay Dreams, brought the chatter to a halt
with a soaring aria from Aida that left the crowd
breathless before they broke into a roaring ovation that could be
heard in Times Square.
Sipping their martinis while strolling through the
art-filled rooms were producers Barbara Ligeti, Howie Silver and
Murray Bruce, actors Cynthia Adler, Larry Luckinbill and
Lois Smith, starmaker Peter Bennett, investment
banker Richard Rabbito, the Drama Desk’s Randie Scott
Levine, HBO’s Andrew Goldman, writers Dolores
Barclay, Howard Kissel, Patricia O’ Haire, Arlene Epstein and
Sheri, Baroness de Borchgrave, artist Don Duga, filmographer
and award winning director Albert Maysles, Nina Engel,
Sean-Patrick Hillman, Lucia Kaiser, WNET’s Sean Lacey,
Princess Brigitte De Beauharnais-Romanovsky and scores more.
Highlights of the Stella by Starlight Gala,
co-chaired by Michael Medavoy, Roy Scheider and Benicio
del Toro, will be the presentation of the 2004 Stella Adler
School of Acting Awards and a specially created Salute to
Musical Theater.
Slated to be honored this year are Tony Kushner
with the Jacob Adler Award for courageous contributions to Jewish
and American culture, to be presented by Mike Nichols; Arthur
Miller with the Group Theater Award for prolific achievement
in theater, film, television arts and for community and social
commitment presented by Zoe Caldwell; and posthumously Marlon
Brando, former honorary chairman of the famed acting school,
with the Stella Adler Award for consummate artistic achievement
and interpretation.
Both Arthur Penn and Whoopi Godberg will
make special tributes to Brando. The new honorary chairman of the
Studio, fellow alumnus Warren Beatty, will accept the award
on Brando’s behalf.
|
