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NEW YORK – Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) Commissioner Pat Swinney Kaufman today announced the honorees for the first-ever “Made in NY” Awards Ceremony for Theatre and Live Performance, celebrating individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to the theatre and live performance industry in New York City. Mayor Eric Adams and Commissioner Kaufman will host the inaugural ceremony to celebrate the honorees at Gracie Mansion on September 15, 2025. The honorees are Tony Award® winning actor and producer as well as co-founder and president of the Black Theatre United LaChanze; founder and artistic director of Brooklyn’s St. Ann’s Warehouse Susan Feldman; public relations executive and founding co-chair of the NYC Theatre and Live Performance Industry Council Ken Sunshine; and Tony Award® Winning Choreographers of Buena Vista Social Club on Broadway Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck.
The evening will also include an orchestra trio featuring musicians from current Broadway shows Maybe Happy Ending and Hell’s Kitchen. These musicians are participants of the Broadway Musicians Equity Partnership, which aims to support musicians who have historically been underrepresented on Broadway, with access, learning opportunities and resources on playing in the musical theatre industry.
“Whether you’re an eager understudy waiting for your big break, an acclaimed actress at the top of your game, or a long-time theater lover who has seen every show, New York City’s arts and live performance scene is unparalleled. It is where barriers have been broken, stars have been born, and generations have been inspired,” said Mayor Adams. “With this new awards ceremony, we will honor that legacy and the people who have helped build it. Congratulations to LaChanze, Susan, Ken, Patricia, and Justin on this honor and your extraordinary careers in the field.”
“We are very excited to announce that the first-ever ‘Made in NY’ Award Ceremony, held exclusively to celebrate our city’s vibrant Theatre and Live Performance community will honor LaChanze, Susan Feldman, Ken Sunshine, Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck – all of who are names well known for decades of commitment to their crafts and making NYC a global creative capital,” said MOME Commissioner Kaufman. “The contributions of these honorees are widespread, from performing to educating to incubating to promoting, and we look forward to the moment where we can gather the artists, administrators and community leaders of this industry together for a special night.”
Created by MOME in 2006, the “Made in NY” awards shine a light on individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to the city’s entertainment and digital media industries. The upcoming theater-focused event follows the 2025 “Made in NY” Awards, which were held for the first time in ten years at Gracie Mansion and celebrated the film and television industry. This month’s event will bring the total of “Made in NY” Awards presented throughout the commendation’s existence to a total of 82. Previous honorees include Joe Benincasa, Danielle Brooks, Alan Cumming, Neil Patrick Harris, John Leguizamo, Audra McDonald, Patina Miller, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and The New Victory Theatre.
Since coming into office, Mayor Adams, MOME, and the entire Adams administration have worked to bolster the city’s theater and live performance sector, including convening the first-ever Live Performance Industry Council to gather leaders in live performance and government together to address challenges and identify strategies for growth; partnering with Seats on the Spectrum to make mainstream theater performances more welcoming to audience members on the autism spectrum; and ongoing support for the “Made in NY” Stagecraft Bootcamp in partnership with the Roundabout Theater Company Theater Workforce Development Program, which has trained and placed over 150 New Yorkers in good paying jobs in the theater, many of which joined unions or who are on track for membership.
About the “Made in NY” Awards Ceremony for Theatre and Live Performance Honorees
LACHANZE is a Tony®-winning actor, four time Tony®-winning producer and advocate with nearly 40 years of experience on Broadway. LaChanze has served as producer on the lauded The Outsiders (Tony Award®), the Pulitzer Prize winning play Topdog/Underdog (Tony Award®), Kimberly Akimbo (Tony Award®), Here Lies Love, and Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (Tony Award® nomination) and is currently a producer on Buena Vista Social Club and the Pulitzer Prize winning play, Purpose (Tony Award®). This season she also made her directorial debut with Wine in the Wilderness at Classic Stage Company. In 2024, LaChanze launched her own production company, LaChanze Productions, where she discovers, develops and delivers groundbreaking Broadway and commercial entertainment projects. As an actor, LaChanze has starred in The Color Purple (Tony Award®), Once on This Island (Tony Award® nomination), Trouble in Mind (Tony Award® nomination), Summer: The Donna Summer Musical (Tony Award® nomination), If/Then, A Christmas Carol and many others. She was also honored as a 2025 TIME’S Closer. LaChanze is committed to producing theatre that transforms, transcends and inspires. She is the proud president of Black Theatre United, an advocacy organization dedicated to protecting Black bodies, Black talent, and Black lives on and off our stages.
SUSAN FELDMAN is the founder and artistic director of St. Ann’s Warehouse, has built a career converting found spaces into cultural destinations, starting with the adaptive re-use of a landmark church 45 years ago. After transforming two industrial warehouses into temporary flexible theaters, Susan led the conversion of a pre-Civil War Tobacco Warehouse into a permanent home for St. Ann’s Warehouse. Susan’s mission: to build partnerships with international artists and American audiences; to instigate change through shared art and activism across borders. In the early years in St. Ann’s Church, Susan originated iconic collaborations like John Cale and Lou Reed’s Songs for ‘Drella’, Lou Reed’s Berlin; The Comedian Harmonists: Band in Berlin; and historic concerts by Marianne Faithfull and Jeff Buckley with music producer Hal Willner. In DUMBO since 2000, St. Ann’s has presented with Britain’s National Theatre (People, Places & Things), the National Theatre of Scotland (Blackwatch), the Almeida (The Hunt), the Donmar Warehouse (The Cherry Orchard) Wise Children/ Kneehigh (Brief Encounter); Good Chance Theatre (The Jungle). Known for her fierce support of artists, Susan maintains ongoing relationships with Emma Rice, Enda Walsh and Cillian Murphy, and Phyllida Lloyd. With The Walk, Susan co-produced Little Amal Walks NYC, led by a12’ tall child refugee puppet. Susan and St. Ann’s Warehouse have won major international architectural awards for the new building, the 2019 Tony Award® for Daniel Fish’s reimagined Oklahoma!, the Coro Leadership Award, and the Lily Award. In 2022 she was awarded the Presidential Distinguished Service Award by the President of Ireland.
KEN SUNSHINE
Ken Sunshine founded Ken Sunshine Consultants in 1991, later to become Sunshine Sachs and then Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis (SSM&L) in 2022. Over the past three decades, the firm has represented clients ranging from leading corporations, nonprofits, unions, and social impact organizations, Sunshine has lectured widely on public relations, politics, and image management, and has been a guest on many television news outlets. Sunshine’s archival materials, The Ken Sunshine Papers, are housed in the La Guardia and Wagner Archives at CUNY. Sunshine currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the City University of New York, the External Affairs and Legislative Committees and Cultural Property Task Force at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and The Public Theater. He is Co-chair of The Mayor’s Theatre/Live Performance Industry Council and is a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Sunshine has received many accolades for his work, including the City and State Responsible 100 Lifetime Achievement Award, and several honors for his leadership in the civil rights movement.
PATRICIA DELGADO AND JUSTIN PECK
Patrician Delgado is a first-generation Cuban American born in Miami, Florida. She was a principal dancer with the Miami City Ballet where she worked for 20 years and is currently a freelance artist living in NYC and a member of the dance faculty at The Juilliard School. Patricia has performed works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Twyla Tharp, among others, one of her most memorable roles is Juliet in John Cranko’s “Romeo and Juliet”. Patricia has also been incredibly fortunate to have created feature works with choreographers Alexei Ratmansky, Justin Peck, Liam Scarlett, Pam Tanowitz, Jamar Roberts, Lauren Lovette, John Heginbotham, Andrea Miller, Jodi Melnick and more. She has performed around the globe, and is a repetiteur for Justin Peck, having staged his works for Boston Ballet, Ballet Arizona, and for members of The American Ballet Theatre and The Juilliard School, and in Dresden, Germany at the Semperoper Ballett. Delgado was an Associate Producer on the 2020 Broadway revival of West Side Story and Associate Choreographer on the feature film West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg. She was named a “Mujeres Imparables” by Telemundo in February 2022 and is a member of the Advisory Committee at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. She cofounded and is artistic advisor of Adriana Pierce’s queer the ballet. Delgado is currently Co-Choreographer on Buena Vista Social Club™ on Broadway, and the recipient of the 2024 Lucille Lortel Award, the 2025 Chita Rivera Award, and the 2025 Tony Award® for Outstanding Choreography. She is devoted to creating a nurturing and positive environment of diversity, authenticity, inclusivity, vulnerability and belonging in all that she embarks upon. She and her husband, Justin Peck welcomed their daughter, Lucia Isabella into this world in March, 2021.
Justin Peck is a director, choreographer, filmmaker, and dancer based in New York City. He is the Resident Choreographer of the New York City Ballet, and only the second person in the institution’s 75-year history to hold this title. He has developed and created over 50 dance and theater works that have been presented on stages around the world, including Lincoln Center, the Palais Garnier, Sydney Opera House, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Broadway. His creations for the dance world have been performed by companies all over the world, including the Paris Opera Ballet, Australian Ballet, Dresden Semperoper Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, Boston Ballet, Juilliard, National Ballet of Canada, Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, LA Dance Project, Dutch National Ballet, the School of American Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, and Houston Ballet among many others. Peck works extensively as a filmmaker, with credits including direction of music videos for The National, Chris Thile, and Dan Deacon; choreographing the 2021 film West Side Story in collaboration with director Steven Spielberg; and being commissioned by the New York Times to direct 10 films celebrating the best acting performances of the 2018 year. Peck danced with New York City Ballet from 2006-2019, eventually achieving the rank of soloist in 2013. Peck’s is a three -time Tony Award® recipient for Best Choreography for the Broadway productions of Carousel (2018), Illinoise (2024) and Buena Vista Social Club (2025); as well as a recipient of the National Arts Award (2018), the Golden Plate Honor from the Academy of Achievement (2019), the Bessie Award for Outstanding Production for Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes (2015), the World Choreography Award for the film West Side Story (2022), and the Lucille Lortel Award and Chita Rivera Award for Outstanding Choreography for the production of Buena Vista Social Club™ (2024/2025).
ABOUT THE MAYOR’S OFFICE OF MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT:
The Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment’s mission is to support and strengthen New York City’s creative economy and make it accessible to all. Including film/TV, music, theatre/live performance, digital games and publishing, the creative industries account for roughly 440,000 local jobs and have an economic impact of over $150 billion annually. MOME comprises four divisions: The Film Office, which coordinates on location production throughout the five boroughs; NYC Media, the City’s official broadcast network and production group; the Press Credentials Office, which issues press cards; and Creative Sector Programs to advance industry and workforce development across NYC’s creative sectors.
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