For Immediate Release:
Media Contact: Candi Adams (917) 776-1170 candiadamsnyc@gmail.com

THE ZIEGFELD CLUB, INC. IN PARTNERSHIP WITH NEW YORK STAGE AND FILM PROUDLY ANNOUNCES TIDTAYA SINUTOKE IS THE RECIPIENT OF THE SIXTH ANNUAL BILLIE BURKE ZIEGFELD AWARD

THE PRESTIGIOUS $10,000 GRANT SUPPORTS
AN EMERGING FEMALE MUSICAL THEATER COMPOSER

October 6, 2020— Ziegfeld Club, Inc., one of New York City’s first performing arts charities to benefit women, is thrilled to announce that Thailand born, NYC-based composer Tidtaya Sinutoke is the recipient of the sixth annual Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award. This prestigious award for a female musical theater composer is presented in partnership with New York Stage and Film. Past recipients of the Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award include the composers and composer/lyricists Masi Asare, Julianne Wick Davis, Anna K. Jacobs, Rona Sidiqqui and Shaina Taub. Sinutoke will receive the award at a virtual presentation on November 9.

The Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award, which includes a $10,000 grant, aims to celebrate an emerging female identifying composer or composer/lyricist who compellingly demonstrates outstanding artistic promise in musical theater composing and clearly demonstrates how the grant money and mentorship will further her artistic career. In addition, the recipient receives one year of artistic and professional mentorship from a prominent Broadway composer or producer. Previous mentors include Tony Award- winning composer Jeanine Tesori; Tony Award-winning producer Daryl Roth; composer Kristen Anderson-Lopez; producer Barbara Whitman; and Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage.

This year’s selection committee included Ella Rose Chary, Kirsten Childs, Nikka Graff Lanzarone, Clara Luthas, Alexa Spiegel, Mary Sedarat, Nadav Wiesel, John Margulis, Laurie Sanderson, Natasha Sinha, Shea Sullivan and Rachel Sussman.

“We at the Ziegfeld Club are passionate about increasing the presence of women among the ranks of musical theater composers,” said Ziegfeld Club Executive Director Laurie Sanderson. “I am overjoyed with our choice of Tidtaya Sinutoke; her talent is outstanding. I only wish we could have giventheawardtomanymoreapplicants,sincethesubmissionswereofsuchhighquality. Itisanhonor to present this award for the first time in partnership with New York Stage and Film. Together our organizations can help emerging female/female identifying composers to receive the recognition and opportunities that they so richly deserve.”

“To receive the Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award is an honor almost beyond my imagination,” said Tidtaya Sinutoke. “From my childhood in Thailand, listening to my mother’s rendition of show tunes, to studying music, to pursuing my dream in New York, has been a long, serendipitous journey. Khobkhun ka (thank you in Thai) to the Ziegfeld Club, New York Stage and Film and the committees for this honor and support.”

TIDTAYA SINUTOKE (ฑิตยา สินุธก). Her composition credits include Half the Sky (5th Avenue Theatre’s First Draft Commission); Sunwatcher (The Civilians R&D Group); Clouds are Pillows for the Moon (Yale Institute for Music Theatre, Kilroy’s Honorable Mentions); Hart Island Requiem (The Civilians R&D Group, Polyphone Festival); and Water is Life (NYMF – How the Light Gets In). She was awarded a 2017 Jonathan Larson Grant and the 2020 Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award. She is also a recipient of the Composer-Librettists Studio at New Dramatists, Johnny Mercer Songwriter Projects, NYFA IAM Mentoring Program, Robert Rauschenberg Residency, EtM Con Edison Composer-in-Residence, Musical Theatre Factory MAKERS Cohort, and Rhinebeck Writers Retreat. A proud member of ASCAP, the Dramatists Guild, Maestra, and the Thai Theatre Foundation. BM from Berklee College of Music; MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

ABOUT THE ZIEGFELD CLUB, INC.:

Described by The New York Times as one of “New York’s pioneering feminist institutions,” and “Broadway’s best kept secret,” The Ziegfeld Club is among the first not-for-profits in the Broadway community. Founded in 1936 by Billie Burke in honor of her late husband Florenz Ziegfeld, musical theater impresario and producer of the legendary Ziegfeld Follies. The organization was originally formed to provide help to Ziegfeld Girls who had fallen on hard times. As all of the Ziegfeld Girls have now passed away, the Ziegfeld Club’s mission remains to help women of today’s musical theatre.

Additionally, the Ziegfeld Club has preserved exciting theater history in their treasured archives that include unique Ziegfeld memorabilia. Today the Ziegfeld Club is expanding its legacy of helping women in the theatre by establishing The Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award a $10,000 grant and a year of professional mentorship which is awarded to an emerging, female composer-lyricist who compellingly demonstrates outstanding artistic promise in musical theater composing and who can clearly show how the grant money and mentorship will further her artistic career, and the Liz Swados Inspiration Grant, a $5,000 grant awarded to a NYC based female music educator.

ABOUT NEW YORK STAGE AND FILM:

New York Stage and Film (Christopher Burney, Artistic Director; Thomas Pearson, Executive Director; Mark Linn-Baker, Max Mayer, Johanna Pfaelzer, Leslie Urdang, Producing Directors) is a not-for-profit company dedicated to both emerging and established artists in the development of new works for theater, film and television. Since 1985, New York Stage and Film has played a significant role in the development of new plays, provided a home for a diverse group of artists free from critical and commercial pressures, and established itself as a vital cultural institution for residents of the Hudson Valley and the New York metropolitan region. www.newyorkstageandfilm.org

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Billie Burke (1884-1970) was an American actress remembered for her sparkling comic technique and distinguished career on stage and screen. Making her stage debut in 1903, Burke starred in dozens of Broadway and West End plays, as well as silent and talking films. In 1914, Burke wed Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., the Broadway impresario whose legendary series of Ziegfeld Follies—featuring statuesque show girls with elaborate feathered headdresses—“Glorified the American Girl” from 1907-1931. Their daughter, Patricia, was born in 1916. Upon Ziegfeld’s death in 1932, Burke continued to honor her husband’s legacy through the establishment of the Ziegfeld Club Inc. in 1936. She also produced the 1934 and 1936 editions of The Ziegfeld Follies.

Burke became a beloved character actress during Hollywood’s Golden Age, and was nominated for a 1939 Academy Award for her performance in Merrily We Live. The recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, she is eternally recognizable to all generations as Glinda the Good in MGM’s classic The Wizard of Oz.