Prospect Theater Company’s annual Spring Gala will honor four extraordinary members of the theatre community with the second annual Muse Awards: legendary actor and activist George Takei; educator and Tony & Grammy Award nominee Michael McElroy, Founder of Broadway Inspirational Voices; theater education leader Jim Hoare, Executive Vice President of Theatrical Rights Worldwide; and composer, lyricist, music producer, and activist Georgia Stitt.
Prospect’s Spring Gala will be held on Monday, May 1st at The Edison Ballroom (240 West 47th Street). The evening will include cocktails, dinner, and entertainment from special guests in celebration of this year’s Muse Award recipients.
“The collective impact that the 2023 Muse Award recipients have had on the theater community is truly inspiring,” said Producing Artistic Director Cara Reichel. “Their individual commitments to both creativity and change-making inspire all the artists of Prospect Theater Company, and we are honored to celebrate their work and sing their praises!”
- Theater educator Jim Hoare is VP of Education for Theatrical Rights Worldwide, bringing new musicals to student communities across the country;
- Tony & Grammy nominated artist and educator Michael McElroy is shaping the next generation as head of the BFA program at the Univ. of Michigan, and is founder of the Tony-winning Broadway Inspirational Voices;
- Composer, lyricist, music producer and activist Georgia Stitt is a changemaker through her art and as a leader Maestra, an organization for women and nonbinary people making music in the theater industry;
- and legendary actor George Takei, a civil rights activist, social media superstar, Grammy-nominated recording artist, New York Times bestselling author, and pioneering actor whose career has spanned six decades on television, film, and on Broadway in the musical ALLEGIANCE, inspired by his own life experiences.
Prospect’s Board Gala Committee Co-Chairs include Jane Abramson, Tira Harpaz, and Jason Ma.
Additional event information, including gala co-hosts, award presenters, and performers will be announced shortly.
To reserve tickets for the Spring Gala, please visit ProspectTheater.org.
LIA CHANG is an actor, a multi-media content producer, an award-winning filmmaker, and a photo activist and documentarian, who lifts up and amplifies BIPOC communities and artists and the institutions that support them. Lia is also the host and Executive Producer of BACKSTAGE PASS WITH LIA CHANG, an Arts and Entertainment and Lifestyle series that airs on Sundays at 6:30pm on FIOS 34, RCN 83, Spectrum 56/1996 and MNN2.
Lia moved to New York from her home in San Francisco when she was 17 years of age and made her stage debut as Liat in a national tour of South Pacific with Barbara Eden and Robert Goulet. She spent many years working extensively Off-Broadway, including Signature Theatre’s revival of Sam Shepard’s Chicago. Her film work includes Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, and The Last Dragon. The decades of being viewed by others through the narrow lens of “Asian actor” in the industry brought Lia to a turning point, and she picked up her camera, determined to create awareness by documenting the work and the lives of her BIPOC colleagues, resulting in the creation of thousands of photographs and pieces of video. Her photo archives are housed in the AAPI collection in the Library of Congress’ Asian Reading Room under “Lia Chang Theater Portfolio collection,1989-2011” and in the “Lia Chang Photography Collection” in The Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library.
Lia’s awards include the 2000 OCA Chinese American Journalist Award, the 2001 AAJA National Award for New Media and the 2022 Prospect Muse Award. She is also an AAJA Executive Leadership Graduate, a Western Knight Fellow at USC’s Annenberg College of Communications for Specialized Journalism on Entertainment Journalism in the Digital Age, a National Press Photographers Association Visual Edge/Visual Journalism Fellow at the Poynter Institute for New Media, and a Scripps Howard New Media Fellow at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
More recently, Lia co-founded Bev’s Girl Films, which makes films that foster inclusion and diversity on both sides of the camera. She executive produced and starred in the indie films Hide and Seek (AA Film Lab’s 2015 72 Hour Shootout Best Actress Nomination), Rom-Com Gone Wrong, and When the World Was Young (2021 DisOrient Film Audience Choice Award for Best Short Narrative).
Backstage Pass with Lia Chang 