MICHELLE WILLIAMS, AJA NAOMI KING, AND TRACEY SCOTT WILSON APPOINTED TO OPENING ACT’S ARTISTIC ADVISORY BOARD
Opening Act Also Announces 2017 #POWEROF10 CAMPAIGN
Opening Act announced today actors Michelle Williams (Manchester By the Sea), Aja Naomi King (How To Get Away with Murder), and playwright Tracey Scott Wilson (Buzzer) have joined its Artistic Advisory Board. This group of key supporters lend their names, time, and expertise to serve as ambassadors for the organization, which for more than a decade has provided free after-school theater programming to New York City’s most under-served public high schools.
When Michelle Williams first visited an Opening Act program in Brooklyn, she witnessed firsthand the original theater Opening Act students create and perform. She emotionally told students, “[The point of making art] is to inspire people, to move somebody else into their own action. What you guys have done is inspire me into my own action.”
Opening Act’s other Artistic Advisory Board Members include: Uzo Aduba (actor, Orange is the New Black), Kristen Bell (actor, Frozen), Alexa L. Fogel (casting director, The Wire), Marcus Gardley (playwright, dance of the holy ghosts: a play on memory), Jared Gertner (actor, Book of Mormon), Richard Hester (production, Jersey Boys), Matt Hoverman (playwright, The Glint), Kwame Kwei-Armah (playwright/director/actor/broadcaster, Elmina’s Kitchen), Kenny Leon (director, HAIRSPRAY LIVE!), Kobi Libii (actor, Amazon’s Alpha House), Donald Margulies (playwright, Collected Stories), Andrew McCarthy (actor, Pretty in Pink), Michael Mastro (actor/director, West Side Story), Susan Mufson (Opening Act supporter), Lizabeth Newman (Opening Act supporter), Louis Scheeder (Associate Dean of Faculty for the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University), Jean Smart (actor, Designing Women), Cecily Strong (actor, Saturday Night Live), and Patrick Vassel (director/playwright, Associate Director of Hamilton).
Opening Act is also launching its annual #POWEROF10 Campaign. The Campaign aims to raise $100,000 through small donations in 10 days, from October 18-27, to support Opening Act’s programming in 51 of New York City’s most high-need high schools. Programs offer opportunities for students to develop leadership, community, and commitment in schools that have little-to-no after school or arts education offerings.
Please visit www.openingact.org/powerof10 to learn more.
Opening Act is an innovative nonprofit that brings free, long-term theater programs to 51 of New York City’s most under-served public high schools. Through theater, Opening Act students gain confidence, pride, and the knowledge that they can succeed at anything in life. Opening Act’s vision is to see that every New York City public school student has access to an artistic space where they can develop commitment, community, and leadership through their artistic achievement.