ANNUAL GALA 2018 CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF WP THEATER

Our 2018 Gala, chaired by WP Board Members LAURA BEINNER and JENNA SEGAL, celebrated 40 years of WP Theater and took place June 4, 2018 at the Edison Ballroom. The evening, which was hosted by VICTORIA CLARK, honored Goldman Sachs Treasurer BETH HAMMACK; and Tony Award-winning Producer DARYL ROTH.

On hand to perform and present was LILLI COOPER (Spongebob Squarepants, Spring Awakening, WP’s Sundown, Yellow Moon), ARIANA DEBOSE (Summer, A Bronx Tale, Hamilton), DOLL PARTS (Brooklyn’s Premiere Dolly Parton Cover Band, including star of WP’s [PORTO], Julia Sirna-Frest), KRYSTA RODRIGUEZ (What We’re Up Against, “Trial & Error”), ZOE SARNAK (WP Lab member & 2018 Jonathan Larson Grant Winner), and MARGO SEIBERT (In Transit, Rocky, WP’s Undeniable Sound of Right Now).

WP’s Annual Gala honors truly outstanding women who have taken risks, pushed limits, and broken ground in a wide variety of fields, celebrating their unique accomplishments. In 2018 we were pleased to honor women whose trailblazing excellence has set them apart as leaders in business, finance, and theater. We could not be more excited to have these honorees, each exemplary in their field, to celebrate 40 wonderful years of WP Theater’s achievements in the development of groundbreaking new plays by women.

 

ABOUT THE HONOREES

 

BETH HAMMACK is global treasurer of Goldman Sachs. She is co-chair of Firmwide Finance Committee, and a  member of Firmwide Risk Committee and Firmwide Enterprise Risk Committee.Previously, Beth was global head of  Short Term Macro trading and global Repo trading. This included franchise market maketing in short dated G10 interest rate swaps, FX forwards, cross currency basis and repo. Before that, she was co-head of US Interest Rate  Products cash trading, which included government bonds, agencies and mortgage pass-throughs. Beth joined Goldman Sachs in1993 as an analyst in Capital Markets and then moved to the Interest Rate Products trading desk, where she traded a variety  of instruments focused primarily on options and later agencies. She was named managing director in 2003 and partner in 2010. Beth is a member of the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee and Treasury Market Practices Group. Beth earned an AB in Quantitative Economics and History from Stanford University

 

DARYL ROTH is an Award-winning Broadway producer honored to hold the singular distinction of producing 7 Pulitzer Prize-winning plays:  Anna in the Tropics; August: Osage County (2008 Tony Award); Clybourne Park (2012 Tony Award); How I Learned to Drive; Proof (2001 Tony Award); Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women; and Wit.  The proud recipient of 11 Tony Awards and London’s Olivier Award, her over 110 award winning productions both on and Off-Broadway include Kinky Boots, now in its 6th smash year on Broadway, with productions in London, Toronto, Australia, Korea, Japan, and Germany. Other highlights include: Angels in America; Caroline, or Change; A Catered Affair; Closer Than Ever; Curtains; Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (2002 Tony Award); Paula Vogel’s Indecent; Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron’s Love, Loss, and What I Wore; The Normal Heart (2011 Tony Award); The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife; The Temperamentals; Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; War Horse (2011 Tony Award); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; and Wiesenthal. The Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award annually honors a gifted theatre artist or organization, providing them with financial support as they develop new works in an artistic residency. The last two years the Creative Spirit has been granted through the Lilly Awards for an Apprenticeship for Women in Design. Proud to have been inducted into the 2017 Theatre Hall of Fame, she was named to Crain’s 2017 “50 Most Powerful Women in New York.” Member of the New York City Police Foundation Board of Trustees; the Mayor’s Theater Sub-District Council; and an Honorary Trustee for Lincoln Center Theatre.      

 

ABOUT THE HOST

VICTORIA CLARK maintains a remarkable career as actor, director, and educator. Ms. Clark’s twelve Broadway credits include the original productions of Sunday in the Park with GeorgeHow To Succeed…Guys and DollsUrinetownCabaret, and the original casts of A Grand Night for SingingTitanicRodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, (Tony Nomination) Gigi (Tony nomination), and The Light in the Piazza, for which she won the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. Ms. Clark’s fourth Tony nomination was for Sister Act. Performances in plays include When the Rain Stops Falling (Drama Desk nomination), The Marriage of Bette and BooA Prayer for My Enemy, and The Snow Geese on Broadway. Ms. Clark’s films include Wanderland, The Happening, Cradle Will Rock, Tickling Leo, HarvestMain Street, and Archaeology of a Woman. Television credits include HomelandMercyLaw and Order (and SVU)The Good Wife, and The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair mini-series for EPIX. Ms. Clark has directed for the New York Musical Theater Festival (Newton’s Cradle, 2016 Best Musical, Best Director), Fredericia Theater in Denmark (2017,The Trouble With Doug), Philadelphia Opera Theater, Texas Opera Theater, Chautauqua Opera, and the 92nd Street Y, and has taught in numerous universities and conservatories world-wide including Yale University and Juilliard. In 2014-2015, she was Artist-In-Residence for Pace University in New York, where she directed The Light in the Piazza. She is currently writing a solo autobiographical play with music which will debut this year. Her solo debut CD Fifteen Seconds of Grace is available through PS Classics. Ms. Clark serves on the Board of Trustees for the Kurt Weill Foundation and New York City Center.