P.T. Barnum Awards

The P.T. Barnum Awards for Excellence in Entertainment is an annual awards ceremony honoring alumni of Tufts University for their exceptional work in the field of media and entertainment. The show alternates between New York City and Los Angeles, respectively titled "From Ballou to Broadway" and "From the Hill to Hollywood."

The award began as a 2005 collaboration of The Hill to Hollywood Network of the Los Angeles Tufts Alliance, the Tufts Communications and Media Studies Program^[1], the Tufts Department of Drama and Dance^[2], and the Tufts Office of Alumni Relations^[3] in celebration of P.T. Barnum’s love of entertainment and creativity, and the desire to honor members of the Tuft's community for their advancement of and success within the media and entertainment industries.

From Ballou to Broadway 2010

The 2010 From Ballou to Broadway ceremony honored four Tufts alumni: actor Oliver Platt, TV producers Lisa Lax and Nancy Stern, and dance choreographer Art Bridgman. The event took place on June 7, 2010 at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in the Rose Building, located at 65th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in New York City. The evening's honoray emcees were actor and comedian Hank Azaria and stage actor and director Joel Bishoff.

Oliver Platt

Oliver Platt, actor and 2010 P.T. Barnum Award Recipient

Oliver Platt has risen from the Tufts stage to the big screen and Broadway, acting in dozens of diverse roles on film, television, and stage.

He was born in Ontario, Canada and, as the son of a diplomat, spent his childhood in Washington, DC, Asia, and the Middle East. He attended boarding school in Colorado before moving to Medford and graduating from the Tufts Drama department in 1983. He then spent several years working in Boston theater and training at Shakespeare & Co. in Lenox, Mass. He moved to New York City and appeared in off-Broadways shows at theaters like the Lincoln Center Theater and the Punch Line Theater, and eventually met Bill Murray, who recommended Platt to director Jonathan Demme, who cast him in Married to the Mob in 1988.

His earliest film success was Working Girl in 1988 with Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver. In the 1990s he appeared in films such as Flatliners, The Three Musketeers, A Time to Kill, The Impostors with Stanley Tucci, and Lake Placid. In 2005, he played a merchant in Casanova featuring Heath Ledger and Sienna Miller and won the New York Film Critics Online Award for best supporting actor.^[4]

Platt’s first television appearance was in the drama Deadline, a program about newspaper journalists in New York City. He later was featured on The West Wing for which he received an Emmy nomination. He is also known for his role as Russell Tupper in Huff for which he was nominated for two Emmy awards and a Golden Globe. In 2006, he made his Broadway debut in Conor McPherson's Shining City, set in Dublin, as an Irish widower and business man, for which he won a Tony award. The New York Times said of one of his performances “…Mr. Platt, mixing self-deprecating wryness with threadbare sorrow, rivets your attention as he tells it.”^[5]

In early 2009, Platt starred as Nathan Detroit in a revival of Guys and Dolls on Broadway. Platt is starring as the White House Chief of Staff in Roland Emmerich's 2012, a disaster film released November 13, 2009.

Mr. Platt now lives in New York with his wife Camilla and three daughters. The range of Platt’s acting skills is evident in the variety of roles he chooses, taking risks with drama, comedy, and action, on all three stages.

Lisa Lax and Nancy Stern

Twin sisters Lisa Lax and Nancy Stern, Co-founders of Lookalike Productions

Identical twin sisters Lisa Lax and Nancy Stern graduated with degrees from Tufts University in Political Science in 1986. Lookalike Productions represents their diverse collaborative efforts and their many television and film productions have earned them a combined 16 Emmy Awards. Lookalike is a full-service production company that produces short and long form documentary films; television specials and series; live events; award shows; commercials; and films for schools, corporations and not-for-profit organizations. In addition, Lookalike offers expertise in marketing, creative design, music composition and script writing.

During her twelve year tenure as former Producer/Director at NBC Sports and Olympics, Lisa Lax became one of the most respected production talents in the business. In her role as head of NBC’s Olympic profiles unit, Lax supervised the production of more than 500 feature stories on the world’s best Olympians. Lax also produced and directed several documentary films that were highlights of NBC’s Olympic coverage during the Atlanta, Sydney and Salt Lake City Games, including Emmy Award winning The Wonders of Rome, critically acclaimed Twice Born - Muhammad Ali and Peggy & Dorothy.

Nancy Stern’s remarkable talents include a vast expertise in producing live events, network television specials and scripted dramas. Her credits are notable for their variety, quantity and quality in sports, entertainment and news. Stern was the first woman to produce the world’s most famous bicycle race, The Tour de France, and the Wide World of Sports. Displaying her versatility, Stern segued into daytime television and created a new look in daytime drama as consulting producer and director for the two-time Emmy Award winning soap opera The City. She served as the co-executive producer for the primetime broadcast of the 1997 Daytime Emmy Awards. Stern also served as executive producer and director of NBC’s critically acclaimed and highly rated special The Cosby Show... A Look Back.

In 2002, Lax and Stern became partners in Lookalike Productions, where their first collaboration was the award-winning documentary [www.emmanuelsgift.com Emmanuel’s Gift]. The film highlighted the courageous efforts of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah as he fought for the rights of his 2,000,000 fellow disabled in Ghana, West Africa. “Emmanuel’s Gift” sparked a call to action. In July, 2006, Ghana’s Parliament passed a Disability Bill that had been ignored for decades, guaranteeing unparalleled rights for this long-overlooked community.

In 2008, they directed and produced Let It Out: The Movie, a documentary film presented by Kleenex where Olympic legends, Olympic hopefuls and fans share their most emotion-filled memories of the Games, as never been told before.

In conjunction with Sesame Workshop and Worldwide Pants Incorporated, Lookalike Productions has completed three prime time specials for PBS. The first, Coming Home: Military Families Cope with Change, featuring Queen Latifah, Elmo and John Mayer, tells the stories of four military families who are dealing with issues when a parent comes home from Iraq or Afghanistan with a physical or “invisible” injury. Families Stand Together: Feeling Secure in Tough Times, with hosts Al Roker and Deborah Roberts, showcases families who are struggling due to personal circumstances relating to economic insecurity. When Families Grieve, hosted by Katie Couric, presents families’ personal stories about coping with the death of a parent, as well as strategies that have helped these families move forward.

Besides their work with Sesame Workshop, Lax and Stern are currently directing and producing Unmatched: Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, a documentary film for ESPN’s upcoming series, 30 for 30. The film explores the intense rivalry and uncanny friendship between Chris and Martina told through their eyes only. 30 for 30 is an unprecedented documentary series featuring thirty films from some of today’s most prestigious filmmakers.

Most recently, the United States Figure Skating Association has commissioned Lookalike Productions to produce and direct a documentary that will commemorate the 1961 US Figure Skating team that perished in a plane crash on the way to the World Championships, as well as celebrate the generations of skaters who came before and after that tragic event.

Lax and Stern reside in New Jersey with their husbands and children.^[6]

Art Bridgman

Art Bridgman, choreographer and performer.

Art Bridgman is a choreographer, performer and co-artistic director of Bridgman/Packer Dance, which he founded with his partner and collaborator, Myrna Packer. Bridgman and Packer’s current work focuses on the integration of live performance and video technology in dances that have been described by The New York Times as “ingenious, magical and fascinating” and by The Boston Globe as “flat-out exhilarating”.

In recognition of their collaborative work, Bridgman and Packer were awarded a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography. They are also recipients of numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, USArtists International, and the National Performance Network.

Bridgman/Packer Dance has performed to high acclaim in New York City at Lincoln Center, City Center Fall for Dance Festival, Dance Theater Workshop, 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Festival and Central Park Summerstage. They have toured nationally to hundreds of venues including Spoleto USA, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, Dance St. Louis, Philadelphia’s Annenberg Center, and Boston’s ICA, and have appeared in major festivals throughout the world

Their innovative works, Trilogy and Double Expose, explore the intricacies of identity, gender, perception, and intimacy through Bridgman/Packer's choreographic concept of ‘video partnering’. Through their visually arresting interaction with their life-size video images and the use of bodies and costumes as projection screens, Bridgman and Packer blur the lines between image and reality, distort identity, and reveal multiple layers of consciousness.

Bridgman and Packer were selected as 2006 Dance Theater Workshop Digital Fellows and were highlighted in Dance Magazine’s May 2006 issue on “Great Partnerships”. Their work in live performance and video technology is featured in the 2009 book “Gegenwelten, Zwischen Differenz und Reflexion” (Against Worlds, Between Difference and Reflection) by Jurgen Schlader and Franziska Weber, published in Munich.^[7]

Bridgman fondly considers his first dance training to be ice hockey, which he played from the age of three in his native Minnesota. Art’s first real dance class was at Tufts University, where his future as a lawyer got sidestepped by a passion for dance fired up by then Dance Faculty member, Griselda White. He went on to study with Claire Mallardi at Harvard and then to dance professionally in New York City.

Bridgman graduated from Tufts University in 1972 with a degree in Political Science.

Hank Azaria, Honorary Emcee

Hank Azaria, actor and emcee for 2010 Ballou to Broadway Awards

Hank Azaria’s ability to transform himself into a multitude of characters has made him one of the most sought-after actors today. He has won four Emmys and received eight Emmy nominations, one Screen Actors Guild Award and four SAG nominations and a Tony nomination.

Azaria is the voice for several key characters in the animated hit comedy series The Simpsons. He has won three Emmys for his work on the show. Most recently, he starred in Fox’s Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian for which he received rave reviews as Pharaoh Kah Mun Rah. His upcoming film projects include Fox’s romantic comedy Love and Other Drugs, Warner Bros.’ animated feature Happy Feet 2 and Columbia Pictures’ The Smurfs (film).

Azaria produced and starred in the critically acclaimed Showtime series Huff, which received seven Emmy nominations, including one for Azaria for “outstanding performance by an actor.” He also received a SAG nomination for Huff in 2004 for “outstanding performance by an actor.”

In 2007, Azaria returned to Broadway to star in The Farnsworth Invention, from award winning writer Aaron Sorkin. He previously appeared as Sir Lancelot in the Tony Award-winning musical Spamalot, directed by Mike Nichols. His performance garnered him a Tony nomination for “Best Actor in a Musical.” During the summer of 2003, Azaria starred with Matthew Perry and Minnie Driver in David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago, performed at London’s Comedy Theatre.

Azaria has also added director and producer to his credits. He co-wrote, produced, directed and starred in the short film “Nobody’s Perfect,” which debuted in 2004 at the Sundance Film Festival and won “Best Short” at the 2004 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. He also received an Emmy Award and a SAG nomination for his starring role in ABC’s acclaimed tele-film Tuesdays with Morrie.

He was also nominated for an Emmy for his role as David (Phoebe's "scientist guy") on NBC's hit Friends and his recurring role as Nat the dog walker on NBC’s Mad about You. Azaria’s other television credits include the Golden Globe-nominated CBS telefilm “Fail-Safe,” and the NBC miniseries “Uprising.”

He received a Screen Actors Guild award nomination for his memorable turn as Agador Spartacus, the scene-stealing Guatemalan houseboy in Mike Nichols’ The Birdcage. Other feature credits include Year One, The Simpsons Movie, “Run, Fat Boy, Run,” “The Aristocrats,” “Dodgeball,” “Eulogy,” “Along Came Polly,” “Shattered Glass,” “Bark,” "America's Sweethearts," "Cradle Will Rock," "Mystery Men," "Mystery, Alaska," "Godzilla," "Great Expectations," "Celebrity," “Quiz Show,” “Heat,” “Grosse Point Blank,” “Now and Then” and “Pretty Woman.” He also lent his voice to Fox’s animated feature “Anastasia” as Bartok the comical bat. He reprised the role in the video sequel “Bartok the Magnificent.”

Azaria trained at the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and played Hamlet in a production of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” at Columbia University. He continued his theater studies at Tufts University, appearing in such plays as “Uncle Vanya,” “The Merchant of Venice,” “The Ballad of the Sad Café” and “The Dumb Waiter.”

Joel Bishoff, Honorary Emcee

Joel Bishoff directed the original production of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change which ran for 12 years and 5,003 performances, making it the second longest running musical in off-Broadway history. He also directed I Love You . . . in several cities across North America, London’s West End and the Mandarin language production in Shanghai and Beijing. Joel also directed the original production of Over the River and Through the Woods at off-Broadway’s John Houseman Theatre. Other directing credits include The Kiss at City Hall at Pasadena Playhouse, a Japanese language production of Annie in Tokyo and throughout Japan (now in its 10th year), The Tale of the Allergist's Wife at Laguna Playhouse, Sylvia (starring Cathy Rigby) and Too Old for the Chorus at La Mirada Center for the Performing Arts, and Ken Hill's Phantom of the Opera which played at The Opera Comique in Paris as part of a European tour. Mr. Bishoff also did the musical staging for the national tour of The Sound of Music starring Marie Osmond (which also toured Singapore and Korea) as well as the New York City Opera production starring Debby Boone. He has directed at the Long Wharf Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Festival, the New Yorker Theatre (Toronto), Gem Theatre (Detroit), Coronet Theatre (Los Angeles), Helen Hayes Performing Arts Center (Nyack), Stuart St. Playhouse (Boston), the Broward Center for Performing Arts (Miami), the Royal George Theatre (Chicago), Theatre at Old Towne (San Diego) among others. He has also taught at American Academy of Dramatic Art and at the Graduate Acting Program at UCLA. An MFA graduate of Columbia University, he is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

From the Hill to Hollywood 2009

Jeff Greenstein and Andrea Nelson Meigs, 2009 P.T. Barnum Award winners.

On May 7, 2009 the fifth anniversary of the program was hosted by Adam Felber, Tufts engineering class of 1989 and panelist on NPR’s Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! P.T. Barnum Awards were presented to TV writer/producer Jeff Greenstein, Tufts class of 1984, whose credits include Desperate Housewives and Friends; and ICM talent agent Andrea Nelson Meigs, Tufts class of 1990. The event was held at the Creative Artists Agency.^[8]

From Ballou to Broadway 2008

Albert Berger, Neal Shapiro, Jim Nicola, 2008 P.T. Barnum Award winners.

The 2008 P.T. Barnum Award winners were Jim Nicola, Tufts class of 1972, artistic director for the New York Theatre Workshop, who has worked on shows such as Rent and A Streetcar Named Desire; movie producer Albert Berger of Bona Fine Productions, which boasts film such as Little Miss Sunshine and Cold Mountain, Tufts class of 1979; and president of PBS station Thirteen/WNET New York City and former NBC News president, Neal Shapiro, Tufts class of 1980. The emcee was Late Show with David Letterman producer Rob Burnett, Tufts class of 1984, and the ceremony was held at the Loews Regency Hotel on June 9, 2008.

From the Hill to Hollywood 2007

The 2007 awards were staged at the Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles, presenting awards to major Hollywood producer Steve Tisch, Tufts class of 1971, who produced films such as Risky Business, Forrest Gump, and Seven Pounds; NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios Co-President and Executive Producer Ben Silverman, Tufts class of 1992, who produced shows including Ugly Betty and The Office; and Creative Artists Agency talent agent and Xbox designer Seamus Blackley, Tufts class of 1990.

From Ballou to Broadway 2006

In spring 2006, the P.T. Barnum Awards honored Tony Award nominated choreographer and Spectrum Dance Theater artistic director Donald Bryd; actor Dan Hedaya, Tufts class of 1962; NYU Tisch School of the Arts faculty member and founder of Mary Louise Geiger Lighting design, M.L. Geiger, Tufts class of 1979; The Late Show with David Letterman Executive Producer Rob Burnett, Tufts class of 1984; and Today co-host and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire host Meredith Vieira, Tufts class of 1975. The show was held at Feinstein’s Cabaret in the Loews Regency Hotel in New York.

From the Hill to Hollywood 2005

The premiere event was held in May 2005 at the Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles. Winners included Broadway, Hollywood and television actor Peter Gallagher, Tufts class of 1977, starring in American Beauty and Fox's The O.C.; Walden Media CEO and founder Cary Granat, Tufts class of 1980, notably overseeing production of the film The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe; Warner Brother Pictures Executive Vice President Courtenay Valenti, Tufts class of 1985, heading up production of films like You've Got Mail and Happy Feet; and CAA Literary Agent Jon Levin, Tufts class of 1975.

In November 2005, a special award was presented to Bollywood actress Ameesha Patel, Tufts class of 1997, in India. She has starred in dozens of Indian films since she began acting in 2000.

References

1. ^ http://ase.tufts.edu/cms/
2. ^ http://ase.tufts.edu/drama-dance/
3. ^ http://www.tuftsalumni.org
4. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001624/
5. ^ http://theater.nytimes.com/2006/05/10/theater/reviews/10shin.html
6. ^ http://lookalikeproductions.com/
7. ^ http://www.bridgmanpacker.org/
8. ^ http://ase.tufts.edu/cms/alumniawards.html