March 15, 2019 – The Laguna Beach Arts Alliance (LBAA) is excited to announce award-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden as the honored guest speaker at the 13th Annual Art Star Awards to be held on Sunday, April 7th at [seven-degrees] in Laguna Beach at 6 p.m. As the guest speaker, Marcia Gay will share stories about her successful and diverse career.
“With awards and accolades across the entire artistic spectrum, Marcia Gay Harden truly is an artists’ artist. We are honored and thrilled to have her as the 2019 guest speaker of Art Star Awards” said LBAA Chair Rosemary Swimm.
Marcia Gay Harden has forged an incomparable body of work, transforming into each character she plays with the skill of a chameleon. Her critically lauded performances are myriad – from glamorous Ava Gardner in Sinatra, to artist Lee Krasner in Pollock (winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress), to the down-and-out Celeste in Mystic River (Oscar-nominated in the same category) – and her versatility has been praised in other films such as Millers Crossing, The First Wives Club, Meet Joe Black, Mona Lisa Smile, The Hoax and Used People.
Marcia Gay Harden has chosen a life away from mainstream Hollywood, moving between independent and studio films, and between television and theatre. In 2011 she reprised the role she originated on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning play God of Carnage alongside the original cast with a tremendously successful stage run at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles. In 2009, it was her exceptional Broadway performance in this starring role that earned a Best Actress Tony Award. Her fellow-nominated stars in the play included James Gandolfini, Hope Davis and Jeff Daniels. Harden also received an Outer Circle Critics Award for her performance, as well as nominations from the Drama Desk and Drama League. That same year, she was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for her role in The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler.
Recently concluding a three-season run as Dr. Leanne Rorish in the CBS drama Code Black, for which she was nominated for a People’s Choice Award as Favorite Actress in a New TV Series, Harden also had a memorable arc on ABC’s hit drama How To Get Away With Murder. On the big screen she reprised her role as Christian Grey’s mother in Universal’s Fifty Shades Freed, following Fifty Shades of Grey and Fifty Shades Darker, the trilogy grossing over $1.3 billion worldwide. Other recent films include the Paul Weitz comedy Grandma, starring alongside Lily Tomlin, and After Words, a romantic adventure shot on location in Costa Rica. Adding author to her professional oeuvre, last spring Harden saw the publication of The Seasons of My Mother, A Memoir of Love, Family, and Flowers (Atria/Simon & Schuster), a poignant personal story which Publishers Weekly called a “graceful memoir.”
Other nominations include a Tony nomination for Angels in America (for which she won the Drama Desk and Theatre World Awards), an Emmy nomination for her guest appearance on Law and Order: SVU, and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for American Gun. In the Summer of 2017, she made her UK theatre debut starring at Alexandra in the Chichester Theatre Festival’s production of Sweet Bird of Youth.
Marcia Gay Harden graduated from the University of Texas with a B.A. in Theatre and an MFA from the Graduate Acting program at New York University.
Don’t miss this evening of Hollywood glitz and glamour Laguna Style! To purchase tickets to attend the Art Star Awards, please contact: info@lagunabeacharts.org. Tickets are $100 each and include dinner as well as all the festivities.
The Laguna Beach Arts Alliance was established in 2002 as the result of an exciting partnership among more than 20 Laguna Beach organizations. The mission is to serve as an advocate for the arts, promote collaboration and networking among the arts organizations of Laguna Beach, and to serve as a united voice for the arts in the city. Members of the Arts Alliance include City of Laguna Beach Arts Commission, Blue Water Green Earth, Community Art Project, Festival of Arts, First Thursdays Art Walk, KX 93.5 Radio, Laguna Art-A-Fair Festival, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach Craft Guild, Laguna Beach Live!, Laguna Beach Sister Cities Association, Laguna College of Art & Design, Laguna Concert Band, Laguna Dance Festival, LOCA Arts Education, Laguna Playhouse, Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, Lagunatunes Community Chorus, No Square Theatre, Sawdust Art Festival, [seven-degrees], and Visit Laguna Beach,.
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