PHILADELPHIA (May 12, 2009) – Famed Broadway director James Lapine will receive an honorary doctorate of fine arts and deliver the keynote address to the nearly 500 members of the class of 2009 from the University of the Arts at the school’s 131st commencement May 21 at the Academy of Music.

Portia Hamilton Sperr will also receive an honorary doctorate, while the late illustrator Richard Amsel ’69 and cult stop-action animators Timothy and Stephen Quay ’69 will receive the University’s venerable Silver Star Alumni Award.

A Pulitzer Prize, Tony and Drama Desk Award winner, Lapine has been honored for “Sunday in the Park with George” (1984), “Into the Woods” (1988), “Falsettos” (1992), “Passion” (1994) and “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” (2005). Charles Gilbert, newly named director of the Ira Brind School of Theater Arts, will present Lapine with the award.

Founder of Philadelphia’s Please Touch Museum and Greene Towne Montessori Preschool, Sperr is a former University of the Arts faculty member and museum pioneer. She was instrumental in creating the University’s Museum Education program and spearheaded the innovative Philadelphia program “Museums in the Life of the City.” Polly McKenna-Cress, Associate Professor of Museum Studies, will present Sperr with the award.

Though Amsel passed away in 1985, he will be honored posthumously with the Silver Star Alumni Award, which his brother Michael Amsel will accept on his behalf. A Main Line native, Richard Amsel created some of the most recognizable, iconic show business-related imagery of the late 20th century, including movie posters for “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and more than 30 other major motion pictures, 37 cover portraits for TV Guide, and album covers and posters. Some of his subjects included Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Bette Midler, Elvis Presley, Lucille Ball, Johnny Carson and Katharine Hepburn. The University hosted a retrospective of Amsel’s work this spring after receiving his more than 500-piece collection as a gift.

Natives of Norristown, Pa., the Quay Brothers received their Star Award Alumni Award in April when they were in Philadelphia to receive the Vision Award for extraordinary achievement in filmmaking in conjunction with Philadelphia CineFest. The brothers also participated in the closing celebration of “Dormitorium,” an exhibition at the University’s Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery of sets from their movies, including “Street of Crocodiles” (1986) and “The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes” (2006).

The University of the Arts is the nation’s first and only university dedicated to the visual, performing and communication arts. Its 2,300 students are enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs on its campus in the heart of Philadelphia’s Avenue of the Arts. The institution’s roots as a leader in educating creative individuals date back to 1868.

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