Leading Ladies

Ruby Dee
Ruby Dee is an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and activist. She has won two Drama Desk Awards, a Grammy Award, an Obie award and a Lucille Lortel Award. She is best known for her role in A Raisin in the Sun both on Broadway and in film. As a recognized champion of Civil Rights she was awarded, along with her late husband, the Lifetime Time Achievement Freedom Award presented by the National Civil Rights Museum.

Eve Ensler
Eve Ensler is an American Tony Award - winning playwright, performer, feminist and activist. She is best known for her play The Vagina Monologues.

Rosemary Harris
Rosemary Harris is a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame. Throughout her career she has been nominated for an Academy and a BAFTA Award and has won a Golden Globe, an Emmy, a Tony Award, an Obie, and five Drama Desk Awards.

LaChanze
LaChanze is an actress, singer, and dancer. She won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical in 2006 for her role in The Color Purple. She has appeared on Broadway in Ragtime, Company, Once on This Island, Dreamgirls, and Uptown… It’s Hot.

Elizabeth Ireland McCann
After starting out as a ticket taker, Liz McCann earned her law degree from Fordham University and has since become one of the most influential women of the theatre in both New York and London. She has produced a dizzying array of hits, which include eight Tony Award winners. Her most recent productions include Driving Miss Daisy, Hair, Equus and the last revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Estelle Parsons
Estelle Parsons has worked extensively in film and theatre and has directed several Broadway productions. She made her Broadway debut in the original production of South Pacific. She has been honored with two Drama Desk Awards, an Obie Award and has been nominated on four occasions for a Tony. In 2004 Parsons was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Chita Rivera
Chita Rivera is regarded as an American National Treasure and is Broadway’s most accomplished and versatile actress, singer, dancer. A recipient of the prestigious Kennedy Center honor, Chita has won two Tony Awards as Best Leading Actress in a Musical and has received six additional Tony Award nominations.
 
Fran Weissler
Fran Weissler, along with her husband Barry, has won six Tony Awards: Othello, hit revivals of Fiddler on the Roof, Gypsy, Annie Get Your Gun, La Cage Aux Folles and the worldwide hit, Chicago, the longest running musical revival on both Broadway and the West End. Other credits include Cabaret, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Zorba, My One & Only, Falsettos, My Fair Lady, Grease, Wonderful Town, Sweet Charity and The Scottsboro Boys. Upcoming productions include a Zorba revival and a musical adaptation of the film, Waitress.

Photos clockwise from top: Ruby Dee, Eve Ensler, Rosemary Harris, LaChanze, Elizabeth Ireland McCann, Estelle Parsons, Chita Rivera, and Fran Weissler. (Chita Rivera Photo Credit: Laura Marie Duncan).

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