2026 GALA
BENEFIT DINNER
IN SUPPORT OF THE ACTING COMPANY’S MISSION AND PROGRAMS
Monday, April 20th, 2026
6:30pm
583 Park Avenue
at East 63rd Street, New York City
ORDER OF THE EVENING
Cocktail Hour & Silent Auction
Award Presentation & Special Guest Performances
Dinner & Dancing
DRESS CODE
Festive Cocktail Attire / Business Formal
Honoring LISA PETERSON
with the JOHN HOUSEMAN AWARD for creative achievements and service to the artistic community
Lisa is a two-time OBIE Award-winning writer and director. She recently directed Doug Wright's GOOD NIGHT, OSCAR at the Goodman Theater, on Broadway and the West End, garnering Tony nominations for Scenic and Costume designs, as well as the 2023 Best Actor Tony Award for actor Sean Hayes. Lisa won her first OBIE for directing Caryl Churchill’s LIGHT SHINING IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE at New York Theatre Workshop and her 2nd OBIE, as well as a Lortel Award, for writing and directing AN ILIAD with Denis O’Hare, also at NYTW. Since then, she and O’Hare have written THE GOOD BOOK, commissioned and produced by the Court Theatre in Chicago and Berkeley Repertory Theatre and SONG OF ROME, produced at the Spoleto Festival in 2024. She also recently wrote and directed her own adaptation of Homer's ODYSSEY for The Acting Company.
She is nationally renowned for working on new plays and classics. Her directing work includes the world premiere productions of new plays by Claudia Shear (THE RECIPE, La Jolla Playhouse), Tony Kushner (SLAVS, Humana Festival and NYTW; his adaptation of GOOD PERSON OF SZECHUAN, La Jolla Playhouse), Beth Henley (RIDICULOUS FRAUD, McCarter Theater), Donald Margulies (COLLECTED STORIES, Manhattan Theater Club; THE MODEL APARTMENT and SHIPWRECKED at Primary Stages), Naomi Wallace (TRESTLE AT POPE LICK CREEK at NYTW and BIRDY at WP Theater), Marlane Meyer (PATRON SAINT OF SEA MONSTERS, THE CHEMISTRY OF CHANGE at Playwrights Horizons), Jose Rivera (SUENO at Hartford Stage and MCC), and many more. She has directed classics at theaters across the continent, including the Guthrie, Shaw Festival, Arena Stage, Yale Rep, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theater, Seattle Rep, American Conservatory Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Baltimore Center Stage, California Shakespeare Theater, Actors’ Theater of Louisville, Alley Theater, and South Coast Rep. Other recent New York credits include F*CK 7th GRADE by Jill Sobule and Liza Birkenmeier (The Wild Project, Drama Desk nomination 2023 Best New Musical); ERNEST SHACKLTON LOVES ME, Book by Joe DiPietro, Music & Lyrics by Brendan Milburn & Val Vigoda (2ST Tony Kiser Theater); HAMLET IN BED by Michael Laurence (Rattlestick); KING LIZ by Fernanda Coppel (Second Stage Uptown); TO THE BONE by Lisa Ramirez (Cherry Lane) among many, many others.
Lisa has directed regularly at Berkeley Rep (where she was Associate Director from 2016-2019), the Mark Taper Forum (where she was Resident Director for 10 years before that) and La Jolla Playhouse (Associate Director from 1992-1995). She has developed many new plays at the Sundance Theatre Lab, where she served as the Guest Artistic Director in 2019, as well as the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, and the Ojai Playwrights Conference. In 2022 she was given the Gordon Davidson Award for Lifetime Achievement in American theater.
Upcoming writing/directing projects: THE WAVES, adapted from the novel by Virginia Woolf with music by David Bucknam and Adam Gwon; THE IDEA OF ORDER, inspired by the poetry of Wallace Stevens and written with Todd Almond; and new musical projects with Curtis Moore + Tom Mizer, Joe DiPietro/Val Vigoda, Nathan Tysen/Chris Miller, Daniel Goldstein/Dawn Landes and Jill Sobule/Liza Birkenmeier.
About the JOHN HOUSEMAN AWARD
The indomitable co-founder of The Acting Company, John Houseman was an accomplished stage, film, radio, and television producer who earned the 1973 Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his performance in The Paper Chase. He published several volumes of memoirs, including Run Through, Front and Center, and Final Dress. He was educated in England and immigrated to the United States in 1924. Houseman organized, with Orson Welles, productions as part of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Theatre Project. He and Welles then formed the Mercury Theatre, which achieved success both on Broadway and radio. In the 1940s Houseman moved to Hollywood, where he produced 19 feature films. He continued to produce and direct plays on Broadway, and in the 1950s he worked as a producer for CBS-TV. He also served as artistic director for, among others, the American Shakespeare Festival, the Professional Theatre Group at the University of California at Los Angeles, and the drama division of the Juilliard School.
JOHN HOUSEMAN AWARD honorees include: Bartlett Sher, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Dakin Matthews, Sanford Robbins, Bill Rauch, John Guare, Mark Lamos, Dr. Mary Schmidt Cambell, Dana Ivey, James Houghton, James Bundy, Bernard Gersten, Dana Gioia, Theatre Development Fund, Edgar Lansbury, Patti LuPone, Jack O’Brien, Marian Seldes, Jeffrey Horowitz, Margot Harley, Tony Randall, Joan Warburg, Joe Dowling, Burt Reynolds, Elizabeth Smith, Kevin Kline, Jane Alexander, Julie Harris, Michael Kahn, Harold Prince, Uta Hagen, Barbara Matera, Zelda Fichandler, Alan Schneider, Joseph Papp, and Liviu Ciulei.
Thank you!
Group I Acting Company (dba The Acting Company) is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit charity. FEIN 13-2759292. Donations made in support of our mission and programs are tax deductible, less the fair market value of goods and services per dinner guest.