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Annual Gala

Annual Gala

Patrons Elissa Burke and Alec Stais

Patrons Elissa Burke and Alec Stais

Actor John Cullum and PH Board Chair Judy Rubin

Actor John Cullum and PH Board Chair Judy Rubin

Actors David Schwimmer and Sarah Sokolovic speak with Patrons at a reception after a performance of DETROIT.

Actors David Schwimmer and Sarah Sokolovic speak with Patrons at a reception after a performance of DETROIT.

Support Us

Patron Program

Partner. Advocate. Ambassador.

Gifts at every level support Playwrights Horizons’ mission to foster, develop and produce the work of new American playwrights and musical theater artists. 

When you support us with a contribution of $1,500 or more you join a group of dedicated partners that engage with the organization, get an insider’s view of how we develop and produce new work, and understand the need for and the impact of their philanthropy. Tickets sales and other earned revenue cover only approximately 60% of Playwrights Horizons’ annual expenses, with the remaining 40% covered by donations. Our community of contributors provides the support that is vital to our stability.

Patron Program Memberships include a subscription for two to all six Playwrights Horizons productions. Join before May 3rd and receive a one-year subscription to Time Out New York. We are thrilled to announce our 2013/14 Season:

MR. BURNS, A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY * NEW YORK PREMIERE
By Anne Washburn (The Internationalist). Music by Obie Award winner Michael Friedman (Saved, The DrunkenCity at PH; Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson). Directed by Steve Cosson (Gone Missing, This Beautiful City, founding Artistic Director of The Civilians).  “Inexhaustibly original. The sort of once in a blue moon show that stays stuck in your brain long after it has chilled you to the bone.” – Peter Marks, Washington Post. What will endure when the cataclysm arrives - when the grid fails, society crumbles, and we're faced with the task of rebuilding? Anne Washburn's imaginative dark comedy propels us forward nearly a century, following a new civilian stumbling into its future. A paean to live theater, and to the resilience of Bart Simpson through the ages, Mr. Burns is an animated exploration of how the pop culture of one era might evolve into the mythos of another.

THE PATRON SAINT OF SEA MONSTERS * WORLD PREMIERE
By Marlane Meyer (The Chemistry of Change at PH; Etta Jenks, Moe's Lucky Seven). Directed by two-time Obie Award winner Lisa Peterson (The Chemistry of Change at PH; An Iliad, Slavs!). Aubrey, a very determined romantic, believes she's met her soul-mate Calvin, a boozing womanizer. But in this tilted, thoughtful comedy, true love is an even more tangled predicament. Peopled by an assortment of eccentrics, mystics and front porch philosophers, this new play from Marlane Meyer is a sweet polemic, an unexpected love story, and a deliciously cockeyed view of the sustaining –and destructive – power of belief.

THE (curious case of the) WATSON INTELLIGENCE * WORLD PREMIERE
By Madeleine George (The Zero Hour). Directed by two-time Obie Award winner Leigh Silverman (Go Back to Where You Are, Blue Door, and the current The Call at PH; Chinglish, Golden Child, Well). Watson: trusty sidekick to Sherlock Holmes; loyal engineer who built Bell's first telephone; unstoppable super-computer that became a reigning Jeopardy! champ; amiable techno-dweeb who, in the present day, is just looking for love. These four constant companions become one in this brilliantly witty, time-jumping, loving tribute (and cautionary tale) dedicated to the people – and machines – upon which we all depend.

STAGE KISS * NEW YORK PREMIERE
By Sarah Ruhl (Dead Man's Cell Phone at PH; The Clean House, In the Next Room). Directed by Rebecca Taichman (Milk Like Sugar at PH; Orlando, The Scene, the recent Luck of the Irish). "Wickedly clever, with breezily elegant dialogue and Ruhl's pleasingly loopy logic." - Steven Oxman –Variety. Art imitates Life. Life imitates Art. When two actors with a history are thrown together as romantic leads in a forgotten 1930s melodrama, they quickly lose touch with reality as the story onstage follows them offstage. Sara Ruhl's singular voice returns to Playwrights Horizons with Stage Kiss, a charming tale about what happens when lovers share a stage kiss - or when actors share a real one.

YOUR MOTHER’S COPY OF THE KAMA SUTRA * WORLD PREMIERE
By Kirk Lynn (Founder, Rude Mechanicals, Austin). Directed by Anne Kauffman (Detroit, Maple & Vine at PH; Belleville). Carla agrees to marry Reggie on one condition: to break down any walls between them, they'll reenact their individual sexual histories with one another, good and bad, for better or worse. Years later, these stories bring unexpected hope to their household, now forced to confront those barriers a second time. Kirk Lynn's tough-love comedy navigates the boundaries of intimacy, finding startling empathy in the story of a father hell-bent on saving his family.

FLY BY NIGHT: A NEW MUSICAL * NEW YORK PREMIERE
Conceived by Kim Rosenstock (Tigers Be Still). By Ms. Rosenstock, Will Connolly (performer in Once) and Michael Mitnick (Sex Lives of Our Parents). “A breathtakingly good new musical. Smart, funny, and poignant lyrics nestle in sweet melodies within a brain teasing well-told tale.” – Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Chronicle. In this darkly comic rock-fable, a melancholy sandwich maker's hum-drum life is intersected by two entrancing sisters. A sweeping ode to young love set against the backdrop of the northeast blackout of 1965, Fly By Night is a tale about making your way and discovering hope in a world beset by darkness.

You’ll have the opportunity to see your gift at work in rehearsals, at private play readings, and an opening night or at an intimate dinner party with the playwright and the director.  Patrons have opportunities to meet the creative staff and actors, as well as members of the Playwrights Horizons’ Board of Trustees who are dedicated to our work and future.

Members of the Patron Program are our leading advocates and ambassadors.  It’s a rich relationship – for us and for you.  At Playwrights Horizions, our Patrons are part of a true family of donors.

When you become a member of the Patron Program, you will have the following benefits. For additional information, please contact Adam Turner, Manager of Individual Giving, at (212) 564-1235 x3145 or by email at aturner@phnyc.org.

With gifts of $1,500 or more, all but $550 is tax-deductible. Contributions of $1,500 and above are fully tax-deductible, if  all benefits are declined by the donor. Gifts under $1,500 are fully tax-deductible.

Scroll down for donor benefits at the FRIENDS and DONORS levels.

Corporate matching gifts

Do you participate in your company’s Matching Gift Program?  Numerous companies provide matches to donations made by their employees. See a list of companies that will match your gifts.

levels of giving
Patron $1,500 – $2,499
Sustaining Patron $2,500 – $4,999

All of the above plus:

Benefactor $5,000 and above

All of the above plus:

leader $10,000 and above

All of the above plus:

donate now


Friend $100 – $499
Donor $500-1,499

All of the above plus:

donate now

Gala photo by Lyn Hughes. Additional photos by Jeff Prout.

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