by Rod Jones
Broadway superstar and Ļć½¶Šć University alumna Kelli OāHara will perform at a Feb. 29 event to benefit the Meyers Theatre for Young Audiences. āAn Evening with Kelli OāHaraā will be held at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
OāHara is returning to her home state after winning the Tony Award for Leading Actress in a Musical in the summer. She won the award for her performance in one of the most critically acclaimed productions in the country, āThe King and Iā at the Lincoln Center Theater.
OāHara, lauded as āBroadwayās golden girl and luminous starā by The New York Times, has had an additional five Tony Award nominations for her work in āThe Bridges of Madison County,ā āNice Work if You Can Get It,ā āThe Light in the Piazza,ā āThe Pajama Gameā and āSouth Pacific.ā She has also been nominated for Grammy awards twice and has appeared in film and television shows including āSex & The City 2,ā āBlue Bloods,ā āAlexander Hamiltonā and āNUMB3RS.ā
Ļć½¶Šć University is working to establish an endowment to support the Meyers Theatre for Young Audiences. The fund will provide resources to sustain annual theatrical and musical theater performances for young people and will add a creative outlet for new works.
The program at Ļć½¶Šć is the result of a decadeās worth of work by Sandy and Stewart Meyers, who brought the Kennedy Centerās Touring Theatre for Young Audiences performances to Ļć½¶Šć until that program was discontinued in 2012. Appointed to the Presidentās Advisory Committee on the Arts by President George W. Bush, Sandy Meyers has sought to carry forward the work of the Kennedy Centerās touring program to engage school children in live, values-based theatrical performances. The Meyers have worked with Ļć½¶Šć to offer spring semester productions focused on young audiences since February 2013.
The Meyers are using the experience they gained from the national Kennedy Center program to establish a local program in Ļć½¶Šć.
āThrough this special celebration, we are demonstrating how we invest in our children,ā Sandy Meyers said. āWe know that when children are able to experience live theatre it heightens their imagination and inspires creativity. By combining live theatre with a message about America's highest values, we are strengthening our community in many ways.ā
The Feb. 29 event will begin with a 5:30 p.m. reception, followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m. Tickets to āAn Evening with Kelli OāHaraā are $200 and can be purchased online at okcu.edu/Meyers.
Tax-deductible sponsorship opportunities are available. Visit the web page for more information.
