Festive spring colors of different suits and dresses filled the Frederick P. Rose Hall this Monday evening with a vibrancy that reflected the inspiration that was to follow during the night’s events. It was the 2015 NYU Tisch Gala, which is a celebration of the Tisch School of the Arts as well as an honoring of those graduates who have found success after their days at NYU. Among them that night was actor Michael C. Hall of titles such as Six Feet Under, Dexter, and most recently Hedwig and the Angry Inch who received the Big Apple Award for Outstanding Achievement in Performing Arts. Alongside him were Steven Lutvak and Robert L. Freedman who not only co-created the Tony award winning musical, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, but also received the Big Apple Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Theatrical Arts.
All honorees beamed with pride as they made their way down the red carpet and were all very humbled and gracious to be receiving their awards. Each honoree’s answers were similar which spoke to not only their success in receiving the award but their character as well:
Michael C. Hall: “It’s amazing. It’s very gratifying and humbling. It was a fundamental time in my life [being a student at NYU], and fuels me still.”
Steven Lutvak: “It’s incredibly moving, surprising and funny and touching and wonderful and strange. Is that enough adjectives? It’s thrilling to have been a member of the first class [of the Musical Theater program] and now I’m also teaching there, so it really is coming full circle.”
Robert L. Freedman: “It’s very humbling, and it’s very gratifying because Tisch School of the Arts is a really importance influence on my life.”
Not only were there distinguished honorees, but very proud friends as well. Each presenter for the honorees’ awards was a close to them in some way; Winnie Holzman attended NYU alongside Freedman, Tyne Daly is a close friend of Lutvak, and Peter Krause, also an NYU alumnus, presented Hall his award, being close friends with him after meeting on the set of Six Feet Under. All presenters expressed their joy and pride in their friends. During Krause’s speech in particular, he mentioned many stories about Hall and his family, how they related to each other on set, obstacles in Hall’s life that he has overcome, but kept coming back to the phrase that his friend was just always, “really excited to be here.”
And although that was particular to Krause’s speech, it seemed to be the theme of the night. Inspirations abounded in performances by current NYU Tisch students and Dean Allyson Green’s exercise with her students in which she asks them what brought them to Tisch and what they hope to accomplish from it.
Echoing through the performances and speeches throughout the night was a question I’d asked the honorees previously on the red carpet about what advice they’d give a student studying what they once studied. They’d each had very unique, thought out responses that strayed far from the arbitrary “Work hard and never give up,” mantras many can receive when asking such a question. For Michael C. Hall, he said it was important to “do your best to be where you are, and not where you hope or plan to be.” For Steven Lutvak, “Be patient, find a life partner, find a shrink, and save your money.” And Robert L. Freedman parted with, “Trust yourself, believe in yourself, and your best work will flow from that.”
It was very clear this night that Tisch gives its students a sense of inspiration and courage in everything they set out to do, and puts an emphasis on finding what it is about their studies and themselves that is most important to them and cultivating that. Such was seen in each honoree of the night, as well as the performances alongside them. So to all Tisch students, current, past, or prospective: live in the moment, be patient, and believe in yourself and one day you may be receiving an award alongside the likes of Michael C. Hall, Steven Lutvak, and Robert L. Freedman.