House of

House of Gala Event 0 7pm - 27' January 2014 City Winery, 155 Varick Street, New York, NY SpeakEasy Gala Committee Co-Chairs Amanda Foreman Ariadne Calvo-Platero Cathy Graham Committee Members Danlela Amini Gabrielle Bacon Jonathan Barton Campbell Brown and Dan Senor Jonathan Burnham John Burnham Schwartz Mario Calvo-Platero Robin Canter and Sally Susman Lea Carpenter Daisy Prince and Hugh Chisholm Elizabeth Wagley and Joe Conason Christine and Cromwell Coulson Gruff and Rob Fah-bairn Susan Fades-Hill BrookeGeahan Susan Gilchrist and Andrew Roberts Barbara Goldsmith Victoria and Ben Gore Stephen Graham Dorothy and Stanton Green Bernard Kruger Paul LeClerc Sir Mark and Lady Sheila Lyall Grant Katte Lydon Christopher Mason Camille Massey Blythe Matters Ian Mohr Susan Morgenthau David Mortimer and Shelley Wanger Alexandra Munroe and Robert Rosenkranz Caroline and Patrick O'Hara Lucy Sykes and Euan Rellie Gretchen Rubin Marina Rust Dan Stevens Sir Tom Stoppard Jessica Strand Gabrielle Tana Diana Taylor Uma Thurman Karen and Clay Tompkins Vicky Ward Caroline Weber Lucas Witimann About our current structure: House of SpeakEasy Foundation's S01(c)(3) is pending. In the meantime, we have partnered with The Field (www.thefleld.org), a 501(c)(3) that acts as our 'ftscal sponsor.' The Field Is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt S01(c)(3) organization serving the performing arts community. Contributions made to The Field and earmarked for "House of SpeakEasy Foundation' are tax- deductible to the extent allowed by law. For more information about The Field Contact: The Field, 75 Malden Lane, Suite 906, New York, NY 10038, (212) 691-6969, wwwxhetleletorg, A copy of The Field's latest annual report may be obtained, upon request, from The Field or from the Office of the Attorney GeneraLCharities Bureau, 120 Broadway, New York. NY 10271. Please join us for the House of SpeakEasy Inaugural Gala Event Plays with Matches A Seriously Entertaining evening of literature, verse, music and song. Hosted by Andy Borowitz featuring Adam Gopnik, Susan Orlean, Uma Thurman, Dar Williams and Simon Winchester. Monday 27 January 2014 7.00pm Dinner and Cabaret will start promptly at 7.30pm RSVP using form below Gala Tickets $250 All but S120 per ticker is ma-deductible YES! I would like to apply for: $250 Gala ticket(s) 'If you would like to be seated near another parry, please indicate that favour response and we will do our best to seat you accordingly. I am unable to attend the event. Enclosed is my tax-deductible contribution of $ Name Address Phone Email PAYMENT MFTHOQ Charge this credit card: Type: Visa / MasterCard (sadly we cannot accept Amex) Number: Name on Card: Exp.: Signature: Enclosed is a check made payable to The Field Please accept my pledge to make payment by January 13, 2014 (please write 'House of SpeokEosy- in the Memo Line) PLEASE MAIL YOUR REPLY AND CHECKS TO: House of SpeakEasy, 117 East if Street, New York, NY 10003 If you wish to send form by email, please send to CW2: www.houseofspeakeasy.org EFTA00314488 House of SpeakEasy EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Dorothy Mitchell COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Caroline O'Hara PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Elizabeth Uzelac BOARD OF DIRECTORS Jonathan Barton, Chairman Susan Fales-Hill Amanda Foreman Paul LeClerc Camille Massey Uma Thurman Elizabeth Wagley Lucas Wittmann About House of SpeakEasy SpeakEasy was established in 2013 by a group of prominent writers and literary professionals to support the art of writing in all its diverse forms. Its mission is to promote innovative ways of bringing writers and their audiences together. SpeakEasy seeks to raise awareness of great writing and to provide the public with entertaining and exciting ways to connect with the literary arts. SpeakEasy's flagship program is "Seriously Entertaining", a monthly showcase of outstanding literary talent. Presented in dinner-theater style, each SpeakEasy cabaret features a variety of writers from across the genres, from fiction to non-fiction, from the dramatic arts to stand-up comedy - with poetry and song forming a key part of the evening. Every event has a title - a central theme - that is reflected, embodied by, or otherwise meditated upon by the writers on the stage. The SpeakEasy style of performance is based on a simple format; short monologue-style deliveries that are rehearsed but feel casual and spontaneous. It is the old lecture-hall mode of literary readings reborn and refreshed for the modern age. SpeakEasy has chosen City Winery as the venue for its New York series. Located at 155 Varick Street, City Winery is a convivial downtown space that provides intimacy and immediacy, along with room for an audience of 300, and a state-of-the-art stage. The program is beginning in early 2014, with monthly events, except for a break during the summer, until the end of the year. Our current roster of participating artists includes Jonathan Alter, Andy Borowitz, Susan Cheever, Simon Doonan, Ralph Fiennes, Stephen Fry, Michael Friedman, David Gilbert, Adam Gopnik, Mark Kingwell, Stephen Lang, Jay McInerney, Susan Orlean, Jay Parini, Katie Roiphe, Gretchen Rubin, Dan Stevens, Amor Towles, Dana Vachon, Amanda Vaill, Harriet Walter, Caroline Weber, and Simon Winchester. Central to SpeakEasy's mission is the insight that for writers to continue to earn a living from their craft, a new economic model is required. As a first step, in addition to selling books and dvds at every event, SpeakEasy compensates its performers by sharing the box office with them. Second, SpeakEasy is creating a digital platform to distribute recordings of the evenings, promote our participants' books and music, and create a community of passionate readers online. To extend SpeakEasy's reach to a broader literary community, however, it is our hope that the success of the gala and the 2014 program will enable us to take the SpeakEasy mission to schools and other educational settings in ways that will inspire future generations of writers. Whether that is connecting established writers with high schools and educational institutions ('A writer in every classroom') or providing supplementary teaching materials and tickets to teachers for SpeakEasy events (SpeakFreely'), SpeakEasy aims to introduce young people to the best writing of today. About the founders SpeakEasy is the brainchild of Dr. Amanda Foreman. An internationally best-selling and prize-winning author, Amanda has long been involved in the broader literary community as a scholar, writer, and judge for prizes such as the Man Booker and the National Book Award. Last year, together with Lucas Wittmann, she established and hosted a series of speaking events in New York for a UK-based organization called 5x15. These events featured five speakers, each discussing their work for 15 minutes. There were some outstanding evenings in the company of such luminaries as Paul Muldoon, Edward Hirsch, Hari Kunzru, Nathaniel Rich, Dambisa Moyo, Philip Gourevitch, Niall Ferguson, Peter Godwin, Jim Holt, Gretchen Rubin, Amber Tamblyn, Grace Coddington, and Andrew Solomon. Following the success of those NY events, Amanda and Lucas wanted to do more for the literary community at large, and so decided to establish SpeakEasy. They assembled an exceptional board comprising Paul LeClerc, former head of the New York Public Library; Camille Massey, VP at the Council on Foreign Relations; Uma Thurman, actress, Elizabeth Wagley, founder of the National Memo; Susan Fales-Hill, author; and Jonathan Barton, a partner of a New York-based hedge fund. www.houseofspeakeasy.org EFTA00314489