Save the date for the 11th anniversary of Broadway Stands Up for Freedom, our annual star-studded concert to support the youth programs of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

7:30 p.m. Monday, July 22, 2013
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
566 LaGuardia Pl. at Washington Square South, New York City

Read what everyone was saying about last year's concert!

For more event information contact Marc at mloresto@nyclu.org

SUSAN BLACKWELL (host) is a singer, actress, and writer, having starred in [title of show] on and off-Broadway and in plays and musicals at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, Roundabout, the Atlantic Theatre Company and the New Group. On the small screen, Blackwell has been featured in The Sopranos, The Good Wife and numerous Law & Order episodes and hosts her own internet interview show, Side by Side by Susan Blackwell, which features conversations with Broadway denizens Daniel Radcliffe, Sutton Foster, Laura Benanti and Jonathan Groff, among others. The original cast recordings of [title of show] and NOW. HERE. THIS. are available on Sh-K-Boom records. Susan is a proud MacDowell Fellow, and an avid teacher of creative writing, performance and vampire slaying. www.susanblackwell.com

DANIEL GOLDSTEIN (director) directed the 2011 Broadway revival of Godspell and has directed plays and musicals in New York and at prominent regional theaters nationwide, as well as the New National Theatre in Tokyo. Goldstein works with playwrights regionally and in New York to develop new projects. He is the co-author (with Michael Friedman) of The Song of Songs and Unknown Soldier, a musical commissioned by the Huntington Theatre Company, and the sole author of Winter Birds, Celebration and Artificial Fellow Traveler, a solo project about the 1959 American Exhibition in Moscow. He is proud of his work with the NYCLU, his wife Melissa Lee and their daughter Gracie.

GEORGIA STITT (musical director). Stitt’s work includes a half-dozen Broadway shows, including Avenue Q, Annie and Little Shop of Horrors; conducting projects for Encores!; and television and film projects America’s Got Talent (for producer Simon Cowell), Grease… (for Andrew Lloyd Webber), Clash of the Choirs (featuring Patti LaBelle, Nick Lachey, Michael Bolton, Kelli Rowland and Blake Shelton), and Disney/ABC TV’s Once Upon A Mattress, starring Tracey Ullman, Carol Burnett, Matthew Morrison and Zooey Deschanel. She is music supervisor on the upcoming film The Last Five Years (Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan) and has released three albums of original music, provided arrangements for the Boston Pops and Tanglewood (Stephen Sondheim 75th Anniversary Tribute) and is currently writing Samantha Spade: Ace Detective for the TADA Theatre Company. www.GeorgiaStitt.com

CAST

KATE BALDWIN Broadway: Finian's Rainbow (Tony Award nomination), The Full Monty, Thoroughly Modern Millie (original cast) and Wonderful Town. Tour: Irving Berlin's White Christmas (Betty Haynes). New York: Opening Doors at Zankel Hall, four Encores! Regional: The Women (Mary Haines) at San Diego's Old Globe, South Pacific (Nellie, Helen Hayes nomination) at Arena Stage, She Loves Me (Amalia, IRNE nomination) at Huntington Theatre and Williamstown Theatre Festival, Henry V (Katharine) at Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. Concerts: Chicago Humanities Festival, NSO, PSO and the American Songbook Series. TV: Law & Order: SVU (guest star). PBS: Live from Lincoln Center: Stephen Sondheim's Passion. Recording: Let's See What Happens (PS Classics). Baldwin is a graduate of Northwestern University.

CLINTON CURTIS is a performer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and son of musicians and reggae hall owners who was raised between the islands of Key West and Jamaica. He is signed to indie record label 27 Sound and has released three full-length original albums, including the most recent, Curtis & Reinhard at The Pigeon Club, a collaboration with brother/sister duo Blaire and Gray Reinhard. Both the Clinton Curtis band and Curtis & Reinhard are staples of the New York City downtown and Northeast music scene. Additionally, Clinton and his band have been named cultural ambassadors by the US State Department. This winter they will spread the gospel of rock and roll throughout the Caribbean, Central and South America. ClintonCurtis.com CurtisReinhard.com

RANDY GRAFF Broadway: Fiddler… (Drama League nomination); A Class Act (Tony, Drama Desk nominations); City Of Angels (Tony, Drama Desk awards); Moon Over Buffalo, Laughter On The 23rd Floor, High Society, …Falsettos and the original company of Les Miserables (Helen Hayes nomination). Off-Broadway, Graff has starred at Primary Stages, Playwrights Horizons, Roundabout Theater, the Village Gate, and the Vineyard Theater as well as in City Center Encores!’ Damn Yankees and Do Re Mi. Regional work includes leading roles at the Hartford Stage, Kennedy Center, Old Globe, Williamstown and McCarter Theater. On television, Graff has appeared on Law and Order, Cashmere Mafia, Mad About You and the Tonight Show.

JULIE HALSTON is well-known to New York theatre audiences for her work with playwright and performer Charles Busch, as well as for her Broadway performances in Anything Goes, Hairspray, Gypsy and many more. Among her many awards and nominations, Halston most recently received a lifetime achievement award from the off-Broadway Theater Alliance. Her solo comedy show Classical Julie, which was extended six times at Birdland, will return in August. A veteran of Law and Order and more than a half-dozen films, she is forever grateful for appearing nightly around the world as Bitsy Von Muffling on Sex and the City.

CELIA KEENAN-BOLGER Broadway: Peter And The Starcatcher (Tony nomination); The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Tony nomination, Drama Desk and Theatre World Awards) and Les Miserables (Drama Desk nomination). Off Broadway: Peter And The Starcatcher (Drama Desk nom.); A Small Fire, Saved (Playwrights Horizons); Bachelorette, Little Fish (Second Stage) and Juno (City Center Encores). Regional credits include Laura in The Glass Menagerie (American Repertory Theatre), Johanna in Sweeney Todd (Kennedy Center), Emily in Our Town (Intiman Theatre), Clara in The Light in the Piazza (Goodman Theatre) and concerts with Adam Guettel (Lincoln Center) and Audra McDonald, among others. TV: Law & Order, Heartland, The Education Of Max Bickford. Film: Mariachi Gringo. Celia is a graduate of the University of Michigan Musical Theatre Department.

LISA KRON is a playwright and performer whose plays include Fun Home, a musical adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel written with composer Jeanine Tesori (to premiere at the Public Theater this fall), The Ver••zon Play, In The Wake, Well, and 2.5 Minute Ride. She is a founding member of the Obie- and Bessie Award-winning theatre company The Five Lesbian Brothers, and as an actor performed most recently in the Foundry Theater’s production of Good Person of Szechwan, which will return to the Public Theater this fall.


CARRIE MANOLAKOS With her debut album “Echo” in the top 100 of iTunes’ pop charts, Manolakos’s cover of the Radiohead classic Creep, captured live at (le) poisson rouge, quickly made her an internet sensation. Elle magazine included Manolakos in 30 Under 30: Essential Names to Know; she has been selling out venues all over New York City, including recent back-to-back shows at Joe’s Pub. On Broadway, Manolakos played Sophie in Mamma Mia!, and toured the US as Elphaba in Wicked. Manolakos’ upcoming independent film project, in which she will both star and compose the soundtrack, is scheduled to shoot in late 2013.

NELLIE MCKAY won a Theatre World Award for her Broadway debut as Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera. McKay has been seen onscreen in PS I Love You, and has written music for Rumor Has It (Rob Reiner) and Boardwalk Empire, Weeds, Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS, Privileged and Nurse Jackie. She has appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, The View, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Live with Regis & Kelly and CBS Saturday Morning. Home Sweet Mobile Home is McKay’s latest album. McKay has published in The New York Times Book Review; she is currently starring in Old Hats with David Shiner and Bill Irwin.

GRACE MCLEAN is a singer, songwriter and actor who has released three EPs (two with the rock band Lily & James; a third, Make Me Breakfast, as Grace McLean and Them Apples). McLean has performed Grace McLean Lives… at The Flea Theater, Ars Nova and Joe's Pub and has appeared in Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812 (Kazino), Sleep No More, The Last Goodbye (Williamstown), From The Fire (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, MTM Best New Musical) and La MaMa Cantata (La MaMa, and internationally in Spoleto, Zagreb and Belgrade). McLean is currently composing music for a pop ballet inspired by 12th century German mystic Hildegard von Bingen. www.gracemclean.com

ZACHARY PRINCE was last seen in the Second Stage revival of The Last Five Years (Jamie u/s) directed by Jason Robert Brown. Broadway: On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, Baby It's You. Noted roles include: The Baker in Moisés Kaufman's Into The Woods at Kansas City Rep and Frankie Valli in the first National Tour of Jersey Boys. Concert appearances include performances with the Cincinnati Pops, Sun Valley Summer Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Omaha Symphony, Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Prince earned his BFA at Carnegie Mellon University. www.zacharyprince.com

TONYA PINKINS One of Time Out New York’s 25 All Time Broadway Divas, Pinkins won a Tony award for Jelly's Last Jam and was nominated for Caroline or Change and Play On. Known to TV audiences for roles on 24, Army Wives and daytime dramasAll My Children and As the World Turns, Pinkins also appeared in the film Enchanted as Phoebe Banks. In addition to five cast recordings, she has released two solo albums, LIVE @JOE'S PUB and LIVE @JOE'S PUB TOO. Her Harold Arlen tribute sold out Jazz at Lincoln center and her Ethel Waters concert sold out 54 Below. Oprah named her “One of ten women in America who take your breath away.” @Tonyapinkins

ANTHONY RAPP created the role of Mark Cohen, from Rent's original workshop to Broadway, London and the feature film. On Broadway, he performed in Precious Sons (Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk nomination), Six Degrees of Separation and You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Regional projects include Little Shop of Horrors, his brother Adam's plays Nocturne and Gompers and the title roles in Henry V and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Among numerous film and television roles, Rapp was featured in Dazed and Confused, Six Degrees of Separation, A Beautiful Mind, The X-Files, Law & Order: SVU and Kidnapped. Rapp has also released a solo CD (Look Around), written a New York Times bestselling memoir and directed the South African premiere of Rent in Johannesburg.

LIANA STAMPUR is a singer/songwriter/teacher and the proud founding performer of NYCLU's Broadway Stands Up For Freedom! benefit concert. She is also a proud founder of ArtStrides, a 501c3 not-for-profit which provides access to arts-based programming to vulnerable communities, and is earning her Masters degree in Early Childhood Education at Bank Street. Thanks to DL and all the wonderful folks who have used their voices to stand up for freedom.