Coming up in May: A Conversation with Rita Moreno and the Announcement of our 20th Anniversary Newman Center Presents Season!
While the month of May is still a few weeks off, we’re already getting excited for three big events on our calendar that we want to talk about.
May 12 will not only bring the legendary Rita Moreno to the Newman Center, we will also be announcing our 2022-2023 Newman Center Presents season that evening. Season tickets will go on sale May 12 and we can’t wait to share what we have been working on over the past six months.
Now, how did the Rita Moreno engagement come together? It began with conversations with our friends at Denver Film who annually put together the Women+Film Festival. They were looking to honor one of the brightest and best in the business. Conversations quickly turned to Rita Moreno, one of the very few performers who has won all four of the most prestigious awards in show business: an Oscar, a Tony, two Emmys, and a Grammy.
“We’re excited and grateful to expand upon this year’s Women+Film Festival with our partners at the Newman Center,” said Women+Film Founder Barbara Bridges. “What better way to do that than to pay tribute to the iconic Rita Moreno with our Inspiration Award, celebrating her work on the screen, the stage, and television. The incredible Carlotta Walls LaNier, with her lifetime of work in civil rights advocacy, certainly deserves our Impact Award.” The Women+Film Awards Luncheon will take place on May 13 at the Denver Art Museum. Tickets can be purchased at denverfilm.org.
The day prior, the Newman Center will host A Conversation with Rita Moreno on May 12. Featuring a moderated conversation with the Newman Center’s Executive Director Aisha Ahmad-Post, audience members can look forward to seeing clips from throughout Rita’s storied career, along with a Q&A to take place at the end of the show. “We are thrilled to bring the legendary Rita Moreno to Denver, and such an event would not be possible without our wonderful collaboration with Denver Film – the first of what we hope will be an ongoing partnership,” said Ahmad-Post.
Rita’s countless credits span more than seven decades. Most recently, Moreno co-stars and is an Executive Producer of the Steven Spielberg remake of West Side Story, which released worldwide this past December. She also stars in the upcoming feature film, The Prank, due to be released in 2022. Her documentary Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It, for American Masters Pictures had its world debut at Sundance Film Festival last year. The film then had its TV debut on PBS under the American Masters umbrella and is now available to stream on Netflix. Moreno received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush and the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama.
May is going to be memorable with Moreno, season announcements and so much more! Keep up-to-date with the latest performance announcements by subscribing to our weekly e-newsletter today.