Joan Cullman
Joan Paley Straus Cullman was an American philanthropist and Tony Award Broadway producer.
Biography
Born Joan Paley to a Jewish family in 1932 in Far Rockaway, Queens, she is a graduate of Brooklyn College. She has one brother, Leon Paley. After school, she worked for Stan Lee of comic book fame. She went on to produce nine Broadway shows including Yasmina Reza's Art, which won the Tony and New York Drama Critics Circle awards for best play; David Hare's Tony Award-nominated Skylight ; Tony-nominated Sweet [Smell of Success (musical)|Sweet Smell of Success] ; Tony-nominated The Play What I Wrote ; The Rink, a musical written by Terrence McNally with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb; David Hare's The [Judas Kiss (play)|The Judas Kiss]; Carmelina; ''Amy's View; Oh, Brother!; Mademoiselle Colombe; and Caroline, or Change''.Since 1985, Cullman served on the board of the Lincoln Center Theater and most recently as vice chairman; she founded the Joan Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity, which has been presented to the likes of Tom Stoppard, Stockard Channing, Julie Taymor, and Spalding Gray.