Tony Award-Winner Alice Ripley & Boston
Legend Paula Plum to be honored at SpeakEasy Gala
BOSTON, MA: Tony Award-winning
actress Alice Ripley and legendary Boston artist Paula Plum will be honored at
SpeakEasy Stage Company’s 21st Annual Benefit Gala and Silent Auction to be held
Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel.
Heralded as “a force of nature” by Variety, Alice Ripley received the 2009 Tony
Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the role of Diana Goodman in the
Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Next to Normal. Theatergoers may also know Ms.
Ripley for her many recordings as well as her unforgettable performances in the
Broadway hits Side Show, The Rocky Horror Show, James Joyce's The Dead, Sunset
Boulevard, and The Who's Tommy.
Paula Plum is a Boston-based actress, director, playwright, teacher, mentor, and
creative visionary. She has appeared in countless regional productions,
including SpeakEasy’s local premieres of The Divine Sister, Body Awareness,
Reckless, The Savannah Disputation, The History Boys and The New Century. She
has been honored with three Elliot Norton Awards and four Independent Reviewers
of New England (IRNE) Awards; and, in 2003, was named a Distinguished Alumna of
Boston University's School for the Arts. She is currently in the final year of a
three-year Fox Foundation Actor Residency with SpeakEasy Stage.
“I am thrilled that SpeakEasy will be honoring these two amazing artists,” said
SpeakEasy Producing Artistic Director Paul Daigneault in announcing this year’s
honorees. “Each of these women is not only supremely talented, but also fearless
in their choice of roles and approach to their work. It is a privilege to
recognize these two outstanding women for their many contributions to the art of
theatre.”
The March 27th Benefit Gala, An Evening with Alice Ripley and Paula Plum,
includes dinner, a cocktail hour, silent auction items, and special performances
from Alice Ripley and a host of SpeakEasy favorites.
Tickets are $175 and may be purchased online at www.SpeakEasyStage.com or by
calling the SpeakEasy Administrative Office at 617-482-3279. There will also be
a limited number of $50 general admission lounge seats good for the
entertainment portion of the evening only.
ALICE RIPLEY won critical acclaim and the 2009 Tony Award for Best Actress in a
Musical for her performance in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Next to Normal. She
also received Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations for her work as conjoined
twin Violet Hilton in the cult hit Side Show. On Broadway, Ms. Ripley created
the roles of Janet in The Rocky Horror Show, Molly Ivors in James Joyce's The
Dead, Betty Schaefer in Sunset Boulevard, the Specialist's Assistant in The
Who's Tommy, and Bathsheba in King David. Most recently, Ms. Ripley was seen
Off-Broadway in the debut of Thomas Higgins' play, Wild Animals You Should Know
at MCC's Lucille Lortel Theatre. She is in the upcoming series Modern Love for
Lifetime Television and she has a starring role in the upcoming feature film
Isn't It Delicious.
Alice is also an accomplished musician and has recorded both as a solo artist
and with her band RIPLEY. Among Ms. Ripley’s recordings are: Next to Normal;
Little Fish; Skinner/Ripley: Raw at Town Hall; Sondheim: The Stephen Sondheim
Album; Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens; The Rocky Horror Show; The
Stephen Schwartz Album; Duets; Unsuspecting Hearts; Side Show; and The Who's
Tommy. With her band RIPLEY, Alice has written and produced the albums
Everything's Fine (2001, Sh-K-Boom Records), Ripley EP (2003), and Outtasite
(2006). Currently, Ms. Ripley is writing lyrics along-side composer Michael Roth
for a work entitled Landscape the Tar Roof Tree, a performance piece for eight
singer-actors.
Ms. Ripley’s YouTube channel (ripleytheband) is notorious for its 300+
ridiculous videos that play to an insatiable audience.
PAULA PLUM is a Boston-based theatre artist who has contributed to countless
local theater companies as an actress, director, playwright, teacher, mentor,
and creative visionary.
Her SpeakEasy credits include roles in such diverse shows as The Divine Sister,
Body Awareness, Reckless, The Savannah Disputation, The History Boys and The New
Century. Other local credits include lead roles in Blithe Spirit, Miss
Witherspoon, Three Tall Women; The Goat, or Who is Sylvia, The Heiress, and
Sideman (Lyric Stage); Faith Healer, Molly Sweeney, Happy Days, Breath of Life
(Gloucester Stage); No Exit, Ivanov, Mother Courage, Lysistrata (American
Repertory Theater) and Wit (Lyric West) . A founding member of the Actors'
Shakespeare Project, Ms. Plum has played Cleopatra in Antony & Cleopatra,
Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Margaret in Richard III, and Lady Macbeth in
Macbeth. She is also the creator of seven one-person shows, most notably, Plum
Pudding and Wigged OUT!, which she has performed in Boston and throughout New
England.
Ms. Plum has been honored with three Elliot Norton Awards, four Independent
Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Awards; and, in 2003, was named a Distinguished
Alumna of Boston University's School for the Arts. She is currently in the final
year of a three-year Fox Foundation Actor Residency with SpeakEasy Stage. She is
married to actor Richard Snee.
