ERS 2026 Gala

Ariana Smart Truman is a creative producer, arts educator, and nonprofit leader whose work has been deeply shaped by her long relationship with Elevator Repair Service. When Gatz began touring and ERS’s footprint expanded, she served in overlapping roles (including company and stage management) before moving into senior producing and organizational leadership. Across that arc, she helped support the creation, touring, and sustainability of ERS’s body of work, as well as the infrastructure that made ambitious projects possible. During this period, ERS received an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence, among other recognitions.

In parallel with her work at ERS, Ariana has sustained a long-standing commitment to arts education and access. She is the Co-Founder and Director of The Wooster Group Summer Institute, a tuition-free, three-week multidisciplinary program for New York City public-school students. Across her producing and teaching work, she has consistently advocated for equity-driven practice, mentorship, and artist-centered labor structures.

As an independent producer, she has collaborated with many artists and ensembles, including David Levine, Anna Kohler, Mike Iveson, Yehuda Duenyas, and Catapult Opera. She lives in the Hudson Valley with her family and recently completed her Master Gardener certification through the Cornell Cooperative Extension. She will begin the Master of Education program in the Teaching and Teacher Leadership track at the Harvard Graduate School of Education this summer.

WilmerHale is a leading international law firm working at the intersection of government and business to support clients across a range of industries. A steadfast commitment to pro bono has been WilmerHale’s hallmark since the early 20th century. At forerunner firm Hale and Dorr, partner Reginald Smith became regarded as the “Father of Legal Aid” after authoring Justice and the Poor in 1919 – a book that galvanized the bar to dedicate financial and pro bono support to legal aid organizations.

Over the decades, WilmerHale has achieved groundbreaking pro bono victories, from Simmons v. Roper, in which the US Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment forbids the death penalty for persons under age 18, to Boumediene v. Bush, in which the US Supreme Court ruled that Guantanamo Bay detainees have a constitutional right to challenge their detention in US civilian courts.

Today, WilmerHale works at the forefront of civil rights. In 2025, the firm won verdicts totaling $108 million for two wrongfully convicted individuals; achieved a victory before the US Supreme Court, which vacated our client’s death sentence; and won final approval of a $12.5 million settlement for Black special agents in a class action challenge to discriminatory employment practices.