The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center will honor its founder George C. White with the 21st Monte Cristo Award at the organization's spring gala, to be held at the Gotham Hall in New York City April 11. Oscar winner Michael Douglas, who helped build the O'Neill (literally—he was on the work crew that built the amphitheater), will present White with the award.
The O'Neill was founded in 1964 and remains one of the country's most distinguished organizations for new works development. Programs at the O'Neill include the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, National Critics Institute, National Puppetry Conference, Cabaret & Performance Conference, and National Theater Institute. White served for 37 years as president of the O’Neill and chairman of its Board of Trustees.
"We are so glad to be able to give this year's award to our founder, Mr. George White," says O'Neill Executive Director Tiffani Gavin. "As the man who started it all, he was unquestionably the honoree to celebrate at our first in-person Monte Cristo Award gala in two years.”
“George’s vision, tenacity, and willingness to take great risks for the sake of art and artists is no less than extraordinary, and it means a great deal to all of us to pay tribute to his outstanding legacy with the Monte Cristo Award,” adds O’Neill Board Chairman Tom Viertel.
The gala's Honorary Committee will include Congressman Joe Courtney, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, David Henry Hwang, Michael R. Jackson, Judith Light, John Logan, Senator Chris Murphy, Robert O’Hara, Maryann Plunkett and Jay O. Sanders, John Patrick Shanley, Jeanine Tesori, Preston Whiteway, Constanza Romero Wilson, and George C. Wolfe.
