Goodman Theatre announces Heather Headley, Tony Award-winning Broadway actor and Grammy Award-winning singer, will headline the “Together Center Stage” virtual 2021 gala fundraiser. Among the many accolades in her career, Headley is known for her acclaimed performance in the Elton John-Tim Rice musical Aida, directed by Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Robert Falls.
Chicago stars Sydney Charles, Lucy Godínez and Bethany Thomas, each of whom have appeared as part of Goodman projects in recent years, perform songs by Elizabeth Addison, Khiyon Hursey, Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews—luminary voices from the next generation of American composers. The evening will also feature a very special performance by Curtis Bannister under the music direction of the acclaimed Jermaine Hill.
Gala co-chairs are Women’s Board members Jill Javors and Heather Zimmerman, and Board of Trustees members Tracy Healy and Elaine Leavenworth. Honorary co-chairs are Women’s Board members Diane Landgren and Nina Owen. Benefit Events Leadership Chair is Joan E. Clifford. “Together Center Stage” streams Saturday, May 22 at 7pm CST. Event support starts at $1,000; for more information call 312.443.3811 ext. 220 or visit GoodmanTheatre.org/Together. All proceeds benefit Goodman Theatre’s Education and Engagement programs.
Heather Headley was born and raised on the Caribbean island of Trinidad. Her family moved to the United States in the early 90’s, where Heather’s love for the arts continued. In 1997 Heather won the role of Nala in the original Broadway cast of the Elton John and Tim Rice’s hit Tony Award-winning musical The Lion King. While still in The Lion King, Heather was asked to audition for the title role in the writing duo’s next Broadway venture together, Aida. Her portrayal of the Nubian princess, Aida, won her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical. That year she was listed as one of People magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People and Essence magazine’s 30 Women To Watch. Heather continued her musical success on the pop charts with her 2002 debut album This Is Who I Am and earned numerous accolades including Grammy Award nominations for Best New Artist and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. Heather returned in January 2006 with In My Mind, her long-awaited second solo album. In 2009 Heather released Audience of One, for which she won the Grammy Award for the Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album, and in 2012 she released Only One In The World. In 2012 Heather made a triumphant return to the stage, starring in The Bodyguard in London’s West End, and in 2016 she made her return to Broadway, starring in the Tony Award winning production of The Color Purple as Shug Avery. In 2018 Heather had a recurring role on Chicago Med playing the formidable Gwen Garrett. Heather can currently be seen as a series regular in Sweet Magnolias on Netflix.
The “Together Center Stage” Virtual Gala is presented by Goodman Theatre’s Women’s Board. Since its inception in 1978, the Women’s Board—currently under the leadership of President Fran Del Boca—has raised more than $50 million in support of Goodman productions and an array of educational programs through special events and projects. Members serve on committees for the annual Goodman Theatre Gala, the Goodman Auction, the Women’s Board Annual Appeal and the Education and Engagement Committee. The Board also provides support for Capital and Endowment initiatives, both personally and through solicitations. A major initiative has been increasing support for the Goodman’s productions and numerous educational and community programs, which offer myriad opportunities for students and audience members of all ages.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Elizabeth Addison (Composer) is a composer, lyricist, playwright and arts administrator. She is currently writing a new musical Chasing Grace, musical directing and composing for the short film The Slave Narratives of Willie Mae, planning a production of her musical This is Treatment at Northeastern University and co-designing a New Works Program for the Improbable Players. She is the former Associate Artistic Director and founding member of The Dreamscape Project Group, an all-female theatre troupe dedicated to developing pieces that address diversity through dance, movement, music and dramatic narrative. She is a teaching artist with the Improbable Players and recently was commissioned to write a new play Stages of Change. She is the recipient of the Bob Jolly grant, Boston Opportunity Fund and the Boston Foundation Live Arts Boston grant for her new one-ish woman musical F**k! Now what?! She has been featured in Scout Cambridge Magazine, Boston Voyager Magazine and The Boston Herald. In 2019, Elizabeth finished a demo album for F**k! Now what?! and recently launched an online interview series called Chasing Beads.
Curtis Bannister (Performer) is a multi-genre performance artist. Recent credits include his performance in the Drama League Award-nominated visual album Breathing Free, a collaboration with Heartbeat Opera, the Broad Stage and the Mondavi Center. Additional performance credits include The Gospel at Colonus (Skylight Music Theatre, Court Theatre); Candide (The Philadelphia Orchestra); Leonard Bernstein’s Mass (Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra); Kiss Me, Kate (St. Petersburg Opera); The Last 5 Years (Jedlicka Performing Arts); Ragtime (Maryland Arts Festival); Ain’t Misbehavin’ (The Rev Theatre Company, Theatre at the Center, Olney Theatre Center); Titus Andronicus (Stillpointe Theatre); Parade (Writer’s Theatre); and The Pajama Game (Theatre at the Center). His television credits include his role as Marquis in Apple TV+’s Dickinson. TheCurtisBannister.com | @thee_cb
Sydney Charles (Performer) returns to the Goodman where she previously appeared in Lottery Day and Father Comes Home From the Wars Parts 1, 2 & 3. Other Chicago credits include Duchess! Duchess! Duchess! and Wally World (Steppenwolf Theatre); Theatre for One: Here We Are and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (Court Theatre); The Color Purple ( Drury Lane); Nina Simone: Four Women (Northlight Theatre); Flyin' West (American Blues Theater); The Wiz (Kokandy Productions); and Dessa Rose (Bailiwick Chicago). Regional credits include I Hate it Here (Studio Theatre). Television credits include The Chi, Shameless, The T and The Haven . Her other work includes assistant director and dramaturg for Bug (Steppenwolf Theatre), associate director for His Shadow (16th Street Theater); and associate director for The Shipment (Red Tape Theatre). She is the recipient of 3Arts "Make a Wave" award, a Black Theater Alliance Award, Chicago Reader's "Best Stage Performer" runner-up, a four-time Jeff Award nominee and has been featured twice as part of NewCity 's "50 Players of the Year." She is a member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA and is represented by Stewart Talent.
Lucy Godínez (Performer) Chicago credits include Oliver! (Jeff Award Nomination, Marriott Theatre); Footloose (Marriott Theatre); Into the Woods (Writers Theater); Legally Blonde (Paramount Theatre); In the Heights (Porchlight Music Theatre); and Hair (Mercury Theatre Chicago). She was most recently seen as Boli in American Mariachi at the Dallas Theater Center and will appear in the Goodman Theatre's upcoming production of American Mariachi later this year. She is a graduate of Northwestern University.
Matt Gould (Composer) is a two-time recipient of the Richard Rodgers Award, The Jonathan Larson Award, and the ASCAP Foundation’s Dean Kay, Harold Adamson and Richard Rodgers Awards. His musical Invisible Thread (aka Witness Uganda) had its New York premier at Second Stage Theater and its world premiere at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard. His original musical Lempicka premiered at the Williamstown Theater Festival in 2018. Other works include The Family Project (Center Theatre Group) and Twilight in Manchego, directed by Tony Award winner Billy Porter. Gould has written and arranged music for Playwrights Horizons, and translated, adapted and directed Romeo and Juliet in Pulaar (Mauritania, West Africa). He has performed across the US and around the world, including in Uganda, Mauritania, and Japan. A graduate of Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, he is a frequent speaker and guest lecturer at schools and Universities. He is the co-director of UgandaProject. @FakeMattGould
Jermaine Hill (Music Director) is an award-winning music director, singer, arranger and vocal coach who previously worked with the Goodman as music director, pianist and conductor for The Music Man. Other Chicago credits include Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies and Memphis (Porchlight Music Theatre); The Color Purple (Drury Lane Theatre); Too Heavy for Your Pocket (TimeLine Theatre); The Total Bent (Haven Theatre); Nell Gwynn and Madagascar (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); and Ragtime (Griffin Theatre). As an actor, he has worked with Erasing the Distance and the Onion Labs, and was a guest star on Chicago Med. He is an Assistant Professor of Theater at Columbia College Chicago and an Ensemble Member of Griffin Theatre Company. A proud graduate of Ithaca College and the New England Conservatory of Music, he is represented by Gray Talent Group.
Khiyon Hursey (Composer) is a writer and composer based in Los Angeles and New York. He was a staff writer for Soundtrack on Netflix and is currently co-writing Love in America, a movie musical to be produced by Issa Rae, and co-penning songs with Oscar Award winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul for a major musical motion picture. He is the recipient of the ASCAP Foundation’s Irving Burgie Scholarship, the Bart Howard Songwriting Scholarship, the Lucille and Jack Yellen award, a 2016 NAMT Writers Grant, a 2016/2017 Dramatists Guild Musical Theater Fellow, 2017 Space on Ryder Farm Residency, 2018 Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project residency, 2019 ASCAP Foundation Musical Theatre Workshop, 2019 Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, the 2020 Johnny Mercer Writers Grove at Goodspeed Musicals and the 2020 Stephen Schwartz Award. His musical Eastbound was selected for the 2020 National Alliance of Musical Theatre Conference and he has works in development at New York Stage and Film and Ars Nova. Hursey got his start as the music assistant on the off-Broadway and Broadway productions, and the Grammy Award-winning cast album of Hamilton. He is a graduate of Berklee College of Music with a degree in Songwriting.
Griffin Matthews (Composer) is known for the viral video Dear Amy Cooper: Broadway is Racist that garnered more than a million views across social media platforms. Matthews co-wrote and directed Witness Uganda at The Wallis Theater. Additional directing credits include Night Divine, Cynthia Erivo and Shoshana Bean’s holiday concert at the Apollo Theater, and Leslie Odom Jr’s debut concert for his McKittrick Hotel residency. Matthews also co-wrote the documentary musical The Family Project. Performance credits include Invisible Thread (aka Witness Uganda) (Second Stage, American Repertory Theater). Television credits include Dear White People (Netflix) and The Flight Attendant (HBO). He received his BFA from Carnegie Mellon University. @GriffinsThread
Bethany Thomas (Performer) is a Chicago-based singer, actor and songwriter whose credits include work with Goodman Theatre, Writers Theater, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Porchlight Music Theatre, Marriott Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, The Fly Honey Show, The Paper Machete, The Neo-Futurists, Second City, WBEZ and the Hideout. A 3Arts Awardee in music, Thomas tours and records with country punk Jon Langford, and writes and records her own music. In 2020, she released her debut album BT/She/Her and a second album Material Flats with longtime collaborator Tawny Newsome. @bethanyt80
ABOUT GOODMAN THEATRE
Chicago’s theater since 1925, Goodman Theatre is a not-for-profit arts and community organization in the heart of the Loop, distinguished by the excellence and scope of its artistic programming and community engagement.
Led by Artistic Director Robert Falls and Executive Director Roche Schulfer, the theater’s artistic priorities include new play development (more than 150 world or American premieres), large scale musical theater works and reimagined classics. Artists and productions have earned two Pulitzer Prizes, 22 Tony Awards and more than 160 Jeff Awards, among other accolades. The Goodman is the first theater in the world to produce all 10 plays in August Wilson’s “American Century Cycle.” Its longtime annual holiday tradition A Christmas Carol, now in its fourth decade, has created a new generation of theatergoers in Chicago. The Goodman also frequently serves as a production and program partner with national and international companies and Chicago’s Off-Loop theaters.
Using the tools of the theatrical profession, the Goodman’s Education and Engagement programs aim to develop generations of citizens who understand the cultures and stories of diverse voices. The Goodman’s Alice Rapoport Center for Education and Engagement is the home of these programs, which are offered free of charge for Chicago youth—85% of whom come from underserved communities—schools and life-long learners.
As a cultural and community organization invested in quality, diversity and community, Goodman Theatre is committed to using the art of theater for a better Chicago. Goodman Theatre's Action Plan for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Anti-Racism and Access (IDEAA) was born out of the belief that progress means action, which includes building on the decades-long commitment to using art, assets and resources to contribute to a more just, equitable and anti-racist society.
Goodman Theatre was founded by William O. Goodman and his family in honor of their son Kenneth, an important figure in Chicago’s cultural renaissance in the early 1900s. The Goodman family’s legacy lives on through the continued work and dedication of Kenneth’s family, including Albert Ivar Goodman, who with his late mother, Edith-Marie Appleton, contributed the necessary funds for the creation of the new Goodman center in 2000.
Today, Goodman Theatre leadership also includes the distinguished members of the Artistic Collective: Rebecca Gilman, Henry Godinez, Dael Orlandersmith, Steve Scott, Kimberly Senior, Chuck Smith, Regina Taylor, Henry Wishcamper and Mary Zimmerman. Jeff Hesse is Chairman of Goodman Theatre’s Board of Trustees, Fran Del Boca is Women’s Board President and Megan McCarthy Hayes is President of the Scenemakers Board for young professionals.