About the Scholarship
The annual Marcia Quick Gard Theatre Arts Scholarship was created, funded, and is entirely managed by Larry Gard in memory of his deceased wife, and in honor of her dedication to the art of acting and her life-long accomplishments on stage. The purpose of the scholarship is to provide an opportunity for serious acting students to audition for an award of financial assistance to be used toward their education as a professional actor.
Beginning each December, eligible students may register using this website to audition for the scholarship. After registration is complete, each student is assigned an audition slot by Mr. Gard. Both initial and final auditions take place in Richmond, VA, over the course of one or two weekends in April or May. Each year, the audition process is facilitated by a different professional theatre company located in Richmond. There are 3 adjudicators for the auditions: 1) The artistic director of the facilitating theatre company, and 2) A fellow theatre arts professional chosen by the artistic director, and 3) Larry Gard.
By June 1 of each year, the facilitating theatre will announce an overall scholarship winner who will receive an award of $1,000.00, and a runner-up who will receive an award of $500.00. The facilitating theatre will also receive $500.00 from Mr. Gard in recognition of its contribution to that year’s audition process.
About Larry Gard
Larry Gard retired from his position as artistic director of the Carpenter Science Theatre Company at the Science Museum of Virginia on March 31, 2018, after over 19 years of service. Prior to that, he was manager of the Lilly Theater for over 10 years at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, where he wrote, produced, directed and acted in live theater productions for family audiences.
He joined Actors Equity Association in 1982, and has performed a variety of roles for theaters in 5 states. Larry taught Introduction to Acting for 5 years at IUPUI, and has guest lectured at three additional universities. He has written 21 produced scripts, and has composed both thematic and incidental music for 9 theatrical productions.
He married Marcia Quick in 1986, and the two of them enjoyed many theatre projects together until her passing in 2016.
Special Thanks
Larry would like to thank Mary Conner, Marc Hardy, Dorothy Webb, Jane Stein and other friends who have donated funds to the scholarship. A complete list of donors will be forthcoming. In addition, Larry would like to acknowledge Melissa Johnston Price and Deejay Gray for advising him on the creation and structure of the scholarship.