After receiving varied, constant, and numerous gifts from Ron and Lynn Cohen throughout decades of service, New Dramatists has once again been blessed by this extraordinary couple. We are humbled and grateful to announce a donation in their memory by their son, Laurence "Larry" Frazen, to help support actor fees over the next two years.
The couple regularly volunteered together at our Annual Spring Luncheon. Each year, without fail, they could be found stationed next to the poster of the honoree, sharpies in hand, inviting playwrights to sign their names.
Lynn, perhaps best known popularly as Magda in Sex and the City, passed away on February 14, 2020. Ron, a longtime city editor and financial editor of Women’s Wear Daily, passed away on November 22, 2023.
For more than twenty years, Lynn was an embedded, invaluable member of the New Dramatists community. She performed brilliantly in countless readings and presentations at New Dramatists, in plays by Sarah Ruhl, David Lindsay-Abaire, and so many others. In 1998, Lynn was awarded the New Dramatists Charles Bowden Award for her above and beyond service to the creation of new work by our resident writers. Her contributions continued for the next two decades and she carried a sense of the history of New Dramatists into every work room. She was a regular for our annual Nocturnal Commissions fundraiser, often bringing down the house like she did in Qui Nguyen’s vulgar rap-battle play, written for her and set in "an old folx home." She was also one of the “vegetarians” who, along with her beloved Ron, wouldn’t miss the opportunity to roll (and eat) pigs-in-blankets at the holiday party. She was one of a kind; a theatre luminary; a star, and everyone’s great friend. Ron, also an actor and director, was ever a presence at Lynn's side (or patiently waiting by the door as she made her sixth round of goodbyes).
Ron and Lynn were memorialized together in February, 2024 at the Anne L. Bernstein Theater in Manhattan, and their love for each other will be an enduring inspiration for our entire community. Thanks to their gift, their generosity to their fellow artists will be felt, literally, through their financial support, but their true impact on our community is timeless and immeasurable. They are terribly missed.
Following Larry Frazen's largesse, you are invited to help underwrite actor fees at New Dramatists in memory of Lynn & Ron Cohen. Note "Lynn & Ron" in the field provided.
ADD YOUR SUPPORT FOR ACTOR FEES IN HONOR OF LYNN AND RON COHEN
