The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center Honors Judith Light with 17th Annual Monte Cristo Award

On Sunday, May 21, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center will honor actress Judith Light with 17th Annual Monte Cristo Award. It will be presented by Thomas Kail.

Guests for the event include Michael Douglas, Zachary Quinto, Joe Mantello, Andre Bishop, Dan Lauria, Leigh Silverman, Kathryn Grody, Lynne Meadow, Robert Ackerman, Preston Whiteway (Executive Director of the O'Neill) and more.

The Monte Cristo Award is presented to a prominent theater artist each year in recognition of a distinguished career exemplifying Eugene O'Neill's "pioneering spirit, unceasing artistic commitment, and excellence."

Past recipients of the Award include Meryl Streep, Christopher Plummer, Michael Douglas, James Earl Jones, Nathan Lane, Harold Prince, Kevin Spacey, Neil Simon, Jason Robards, Jr., Edward Albee, August Wilson, Zoe Caldwell, George C. Wolfe, Brian Dennehy, Karl Malden, Arthur & Barbara Gelb, and Wendy Wasserstein.

Founded in 1964, the O'Neill is the country's preeminent organization dedicated to the development of new works and new voices for the American theater, and been home to more than 1,000 new works for the stage and thousands more emerging artists. Scores of projects developed at the O'Neill have gone on to full production at theaters around the world.

The O'Neill is the recipient of two Tony Awards and the National Medal of Arts for its contributions to American culture, and named in honor of Eugene O'Neill, four-time Pulitzer Prize-winner and America's only playwright to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The O'Neill has.

O'Neill programs include the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, National Critics Institute, National Puppetry Conference, Cabaret & Performance Conference, and National Theater Institute, which offers six credit-earning undergraduate training programs. In addition, the O'Neill owns and operates Monte Cristo Cottage as a museum open to the public.

The O'Neill owns and operates the Monte Cristo Cottage as a museum open to the public. The childhood summer home of Eugene O'Neill, the Cottage is a National Historic Landmark.

The event will be held at 6:30 p.m.m on Sunday, May 21 at 583 Park Avenue, New York. For information, visit www.theoneill.org.