Tovah Feldshuh Acceptance Speech

Judith, Kitty, Senators Serf Maltese and Tarky Lombardi (my photographic chronicler) and dear friends, thank you for the Arts Advocate Award. After playing Prime Minister Golda Meir for the last 18 months, fighting for the survival of her state, believe me, advocating in Albany for artists and the allocation of public funds for non-profit live performance was easy, and a great joy.

First, I got to fly in a private plane with Dick Schwartz, then I got to represent my community, my beloved fellow actors and the non-profit theatres of New York State as well as the lifeline that helps them both: the New York State Council on the Arts.

Where would we be without non-profit theatres? GOLDA’S BALCONY began at a non-profit theatre, the Manhattan Ensemble Theatre… Why are theatres like MET so crucial? It’s an ecosystem. You can’t have a successful B’way without a successful off and off-off Broadway theatre – not to mention a successful and thriving regional theatre.

Excellence starts with small, meticulous steps… the Rural Arts Initiative, the Community E-Institute, the Rural Workshops, the Statewide Conference – all sponsored by the Alliance of New York State Arts Organizations, who is hosting us tonight – these are perfect examples of efforts well-placed. The level of the Alliance’s achievement and the success of their outreach is not an accident. It is the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution. It represents many wise choices among a myriad of alternatives.

Congratulations to the Alliance for all you do. Congratulations to you for giving artists breathing time and Time to Dream. We are the dark horses that you seek to make blue ribbon winners… we in live entertainment are often the ones with the smallest war chest and biggest dreams.

Thank you for reaching out to us. This country was built on dreams. When the arts shrink, dreams disappear. A dream in a young person can develop into a reality that will irrevocably enrich our entire culture.

As a young actor, once you get over the need for applause, the whole game of acting is transformation. The actor through his commitment to become other people is subliminally saying: “if I can do this, think what you can do.” The actor engenders the hope of change. And the literature we speak takes a moment out of time to closely evaluate and look at the challenges we all face, fight and try to overcome in life. Art has always been the signature of a great civilization."

Arts Organizations of all stripes fostered by the Alliance convene audiences, patrons and artists. They work with people in education, social services, juvenile corrections, and preservation They give the arts a home, provide a place and time for people to simply come together to celebrate, to learn, to look, to see.

We live in an ever-changing world, where technology has transformed our lives, and affected the way we receive our entertainment. Unless we persevere with our passion, vision and commitment, the LIVE ARTS as we know it will be overrun by mass media – (I am not talking about New York One now). But unless we pursue live performing with irrevocable commitment: we will forfeit being together in a room to experience each other’s humanity, we will be receiving information alone thru an electronic impulse from a computer screen. The Alliance reaches out to every citizen in this State -- across class lines to give them access and opportunity to participate in the Arts, the incubator of new thought. Thank you for what you’ve done, and will continue to do.

As Goethe said, “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.”

Thank you for honoring me, and more importantly, for lighting the way--

As George Bernard Shaw said, "I am of the opinion that our lives belong to the community, and it is our privilege to do for it whatever we can as long as we shall live. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. Life is no brief candle to me, it is a splendid torch which I've got hold of for just one moment in time, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."

This you do, our Alliance of New York State Arts Organizations, and I am so proud and grateful to be acknowledged by you tonight.

copyright 2004 by The Tovah Corp.