You are cordially invited to the Vanguard Theater’s 10th Anniversary Gala! 

Join us as we celebrate a dazzling decade of breaking down walls, challenging narratives, and keeping the D.R.E.A.M. alive through the magic of theater.
It's going to be a show-stopping night full of heart, harmony, and community celebration.

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A decade of Vanguard. A stage full of familiar faces.

Over the past 10 years, some extraordinary artists have graced the Vanguard Theater stage. This September, we’re bringing many of those artists back home for our 10th Anniversary Gala.

Our featured performers have taken their talents to stages across the country and around the world, including Broadway. You may recognize them from a Vanguard Main Stage production you’ve seen over the years. You may recognize them from the Broadway stage. On September 26, they’ll come together once again on the Vanguard stage, sharing memorable moments and songs from seasons past.

The evening will also feature special performances from our Vanguard Theater EDU students, bringing together the artists who have helped shape Vanguard’s first decade with the young artists who represent where we’re going next.

Ten years of stories. Ten years of artists. One unforgettable night.

You’re truly in for a treat.

Meet the performers

MEET THE HONOREES

  • Diversity

    Honoring Lylette Pizarro & Rene McLean


    The Diversity Award honors those who widen the circle, opening doors so that more voices, more stories, and more artists find their place at the center of the work.

  • RECIPROCITY

    Honoring Jessica Sporn


    The Reciprocity Award honors artists who have achieved extraordinary things and continue to give their time, talent, and experience back to others.

  • EDUCATION

    Honoring Lindsay Roberts Greene & Tamar Greene


    The Education Award honors those who invest in the next generation, expanding access to arts education and proving what young artists can do when someone believes in them.

  • ACTIVISM

    Honoring John McEwen

    The Activism Award honors those who use the arts to push for a more just world, advancing equity, access, and collaboration across every community they touch.

  • MENTORSHIP

    Honoring Kathleen Marshall


    The Mentorship Award honors those who lift as they climb, shaping the artists and leaders coming up behind them through generosity, guidance, and example.

get to know them

  • Lylette Pizarro is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Influence Media Partners, where she leads the company’s vision of building a modern, artist-first music and entertainment platform. A trailblazing executive, Pizarro has redefined how music rights are valued and managed by forging innovative partnerships that protect creative legacies while driving new cultural and commercial opportunities.

    Since co-founding Influence, she has overseen more than 30 investments across music rights, including publishing, recorded music, and Name, Image & Likeness (NIL). She has partnered with GRAMMY®-winning and multi-platinum artists such as DJ Khaled, Future, Enrique Iglesias, Blake Shelton, Tyler Johnson, Tainy, Jessie Reyez, and Julia Michaels. In April 2025, she led a landmark deal with DJ Khaled and We The Best Music Group, acquiring his catalog and launching joint ventures spanning film & television, brand partnerships, and NIL rights.

    Before launching Influence, Pizarro was an award-winning partner at RPM GRP, where she created cultural campaigns for leading global brands including PepsiCo, Apple, Verizon, and LVMH. She was instrumental in brokering multifaceted partnerships with world-renowned icons such as Beyoncé, Katy Perry, DJ Khaled (pre-2025), the Michael Jackson Estate, and David Bowie.

    A proud New Yorker, Pizarro is a member of the Board of Directors of The Apollo Theater Foundation. Her career reflects a lifelong commitment to celebrating culture, empowering artists, and shaping the future of music and entertainment.

  • Rene McLean is a music executive, entrepreneur, and Co-Managing Partner and Founder at Influence Media Partners, a leading music and entertainment investment company whose mission is to transform the music space by partnering with artists, songwriters, and creative executives to steward legacy works while building future brand value. With more than 25 years in the industry, McLean has built a career at the intersection of culture, commerce, and creativity.
    McLean is also the founder of SLANG, a next-generation music, media, and publishing company launched under the Influence Media umbrella. Culture- and tech-forward by design, SLANG focuses on developing artists and songwriters while creating innovative pathways for brands to authentically connect with consumers.
    Prior to founding Influence Media and SLANG, McLean began his career in the 1990s at some of the industry’s most influential labels, including Virgin Records, RCA, Elektra, and Interscope Records. During this period, he played a pivotal role in early marketing strategies for now-iconic artists such as Eminem, Missy Elliott, Busta Rhymes, Mobb Deep, and Wu-Tang Clan. He also helped pioneer the modern field-marketing model, an approach that later became foundational to his entrepreneurial ventures.
    In 2000, McLean founded The RPM Group, a music marketing and management firm that consulted with artists and producers including Pharrell Williams, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, and more. During this time he also managed major artists including Kelis, Cam'ron and LMFAO. His work during this era further cemented his reputation as a strategist capable of bridging artist development, brand partnerships, and cultural relevance. In this role, McLean led negotiation and execution of multi-million-dollar partnerships with global brands including Pepsi, Belvedere Vodka, Visa, LVMH, and Verizon.
    McLean co-founded Influence Media Partners in 2019 alongside his wife and business partner Lylette Pizarro McLean, a music marketing executive, and Lynn Hazan, former CFO of Epic Records and RED Distribution. Backed by Backed by BlackRock and Warner Music Group in a 750M partnership, Influence Media initially distinguished itself by investing in contemporary music catalogs, including hip-hop, highlighted by the landmark acquisition of Future’s publishing catalog in 2022. The company has since expanded its portfolio to include works by Blake Shelton, DJ Khaled, RaiNao, and Enrique Iglesias and more.
    Following Influence Media’s $360 million debt financing secured by music royalties in 2025, McLean and Pizarro further expanded the company’s vision through strategic joint ventures that span publishing, artist development, brand integrations, and film and television projects, including the upcoming feature film Killing Castro, executive produced by Influence Media and DJ Khaled and starring Al Pacino. Under SLANG, McLean has also signed Will Smith to the label, working closely with his team on distribution, marketing, and creative strategy, recently celebrating a No. 1 Gospel record.
    SLANG’s growing roster reflects McLean’s commitment to long-term artist development, with releases from developing and established talent including Isaia Huron, Camper, RX YP, TruththeBull, Leaf and The Underachievers, and partnering with Rob49 on joint venture, Vulture Mode. On the publishing side, SLANG represents and partners with artists and songwriters including Future, DJ Khaled, Lil Durk, and RaiNao, whose work has appeared on Bad Bunny’s recent releases.
    Born and raised in New York City, McLean came of age alongside the rise of hip-hop culture. The son of jazz musician Rene McLean Sr. and the grandson of legendary saxophonist and composer Jackie McLean, he draws on a deep musical lineage while maintaining a forward-looking vision. 

  • Lindsay Roberts Greene is a performing artist, arts education leader, and advocate for expanding access to transformative arts experiences for young people. Lindsay is a Broadway performer whose credits include The Phantom of the Opera, Carnegie Hall, New York City Center, Radio City Music Hall, Broadway national tours, and stages across the country. Her career spans theater, television, film, and recorded music, with performances featured on television and film soundtracks and scores, original cast albums, and other recordings.

    Offstage, Lindsay serves as Executive Director of Arts Ignite, a nonprofit bringing high-quality arts education to thousands of young people in New York City and through international partnerships, and is a former Vice Chair of Vanguard Theater Company’s Board of Directors. A published researcher, Lindsay is currently pursuing her Doctor of Education at Drexel University, where her research explores the design and implementation of performing arts education for young people experiencing humanitarian crises and other forms of adversity.

  • Tamar Greene is a Broadway performer, vocalist, educator, writer, arranger, classical pianist, and opera singer, best known as Broadway’s longest-running George Washington in Hamilton. A proud first-generation American of Jamaican and British heritage, his work spans Broadway, opera, regional theater, national tours, and symphonic performance.

    Notable credits include The Father in Jeanine Tesori’s Blue with Lincoln Center Theater and The Metropolitan Opera; Coalhouse Walker Jr. in Ragtime at Stages St. Louis, earning the 2025 St. Louis Theatre Circle Award for Outstanding Performer in a Musical; and performances in Show Boat, Sondheim on Sondheim and national tours of Love Never Dies, Porgy and Bess, and After Midnight.

    Tamar Greene is a frequent guest artist with leading symphonies nationwide and recently delivered a TED Talk, “Say Yes Before It’s Easy.” He teaches voice at Northeastern University and IAMT and holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music.

  • Jessica Sporn is an artist, activist, attorney, producer, and longtime champion of theater as a force for connection and change. She joined Vanguard after witnessing the impact of its first Broadway Buddy program on her daughter in 2016, eventually serving as Managing Director and helping shape the organization in profound ways. Today, she is a Vanguard Board Member Emeritus and remains an invaluable member of the Vanguard family.

    In fact, Vanguard’s commitment to Reciprocity grew in large part from Jessica’s belief that producing meaningful theater also means engaging with the world beyond our walls. She built relationships with nonprofit and community organizations whose missions aligned with the stories Vanguard was telling, creating opportunities for the arts to amplify their work, give back, and ensure that organizations committed to positive change could lift one another up.

    Jessica’s commitment to art and activism spans decades. A graduate of New York City’s Performing Arts High School, she performed with the Frank Hatchett Dancers, taught jazz at Broadway Dance Center, and later graduated magna cum laude from Rutgers School of Law. As an attorney at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, her work contributed to the landmark Braschi v. Stahl Associates decision, which expanded the legal definition of “family” to protect a surviving same-sex partner. An accomplished visual artist, Jessica has designed work for Hallmark and Recycled Paper Greetings, with pieces featured at the Jewish Museum and Metropolitan Museum of Art. She also created artwork for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Love is Love” campaign benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS following the Pulse nightclub shooting, and later for his campaign supporting Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

    Today, Jessica continues to champion theater that centers meaningful stories and underrepresented voices as a producer. Her producing credits include Beau, Chicken & Biscuits, Fat Ham, Little Girl Blue, A Strange Loop, Harmony, Mandela, Topdog/Underdog, and Purpose, as well as the new musical Wanted. Through every chapter of her life and career, Jessica has demonstrated the principle she helped instill at Vanguard: that our greatest impact comes not simply from the work we create, but from how we use that work to support, connect with, and lift up others.

  • John McEwen is recognized nationally as a highly skilled nonprofit leader with an exceptional track record of strategic planning, building and engaging boards of directors, communication, financial acumen, and fundraising. For more than 40 years, John has been a leader in developing innovative role model programs, driving collaboration with a variety of stakeholders, and spearheading a variety of campaigns including annual fund, capital, and sponsorship. As the Executive Director of New Jersey Theatre Alliance, New Jersey’s oldest arts service organization and the nation’s only statewide service organizationserving professional theatre, John provided the leadership for the Alliance’ssuccessful $1.5 million endowment campaign, and designed and implemented several initiatives benefitting the state’s entire arts sector including the Cultural Access Network Project, an educational and networking resource to assist the field in making their programs and facilities accessible to artists and patrons with disabilities. John, in partnership with the Board of Trustees and professional colleagues, has built the Alliance, which serves 41 member theatres throughout the state and region, into one of the nation’s most respected arts service organizations. Prior to the Alliance, John served as Vice President for Development of the New Jersey Network Foundation and the Director of Development for Paper Mill Playhouse. John is the Secretary of the Board for MidAtlantic Arts and serves on the Finance, Investment and Development Committees. John is a trustee of the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, and the Fund for New Jersey Blind. John has served on the boards of ArtPride New Jersey, the New Jersey Center for NonProfits, and Montclair University’s School of the Arts. John received his BA from Montclair State University and his MA from New York University, where he has served as an adjunct professor. John has consulted numerous organizations in New Jersey, regionally and nationally on board development, strategic planning, fundraising, and accessibility. John has been recognized by numerous state and national organizations for his work in the areas of arts access, fundraising, and advocacy. John is the recipient of the inaugural Excellence in Accessibility Award from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, the Robert Smythe Award for Outstanding Fundraising Professional from the Association of Fundraising Professionals/New Jersey Chapter , the Byrne/Kean Arts Advocate Award from Paper Mill Playhouse, the Thomas H. Kean Arts Partnership Award from New Jersey Network Public Television and Radio, the Award of Excellence from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, and the Arts Advocate Award from ArtPride New Jersey.

  • A nine-time Tony Award nominee, she has won the award three times for Best Choreography for the Broadway revivals of Wonderful Town, The Pajama Game and Anything Goes. She has worked on more than twenty Broadway shows and she is the first woman to have directed a play, directed a musical and choreographed a musical on Broadway. West End credits Anything Goes (Olivier Award), Sinatra, The Musical and Top Hat. Off-Broadway and regional credits include the New York Shakespeare Festival, Second Stage, Transport Group, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Old Globe, Long Wharf, Paper Mill, Hollywood Bowl, Boston Pops, Signature Theatre, St. Louis MUNY, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and Ogunquit Playhouse. Kathleen served as the Artistic Director for City Center Encores! for four seasons, during which time Encores! received a special Tony Award for Excellence in Theatre. Her film and television credits include My Week with Marilyn (choreographer), “Once Upon a Mattress”, “The Music Man” (choreographer) and “2 Broke Girls”. She has received three Drama Desk Awards, three Outer Critics Circle Awards, an Emmy nomination, the Smith College Medal (her alma mater), the Pennsylvania Governor’s Award for the Arts and she has been named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania. In November 2025, Kathleen was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.