Eugene O'Neill Theater Center Presents Monte Cristo Award to Arthur Gelb and Barbara Gelb at Gala NYC Dinner

Meryl Streep is Honorary Chairman

Ric Burns, Zoe Caldwell, Brian Dennehy To Make Presentations

April 12, 2006

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center honors renowned Eugene O'Neill biographers Arthur Gelb and Barbara Gelb with its annual Monte Cristo Award at a Gala Dinner at a private club in New York, on Monday, May 1, 2006.

Among those gathered to fete the couple will be Honorary Chairman Meryl Streep, who heads up a Committee that includes Emanuel Azenburg, Roger Berlind, Ric Burns, Zoe Caldwell, Pat Daily and Tom Viertel, Brian Dennehy, Dasha Epstein, Joe Grifasi, Ted and Dina Merrill Hartley, Astrid Horan, Ruth and Stephen Hendel, Tony Kushner, Rocco Landesman, Samuel Liff, KarI and Jay McDowell, Cynthia McFadden, Polly and Newton P.S. Merrill, James Nederlander, Barbara and Lloyd Richards, Dyanne and John Rafal, Gerald Schoenfeld, Liz Smith, Helen Stenborg and Barnard Hughes, Mary and Mike Wallace, Betsy and George White, Marion and Fred Whittemore, and Max Wilk..

Two-time Tony Award winner Brian Dennehy and renowned documentary filmmaker Ric Burns will toast the Gelbs, who produced and wrote the script for Burns' recent PBS film biography, Eugene O'Neill. Four-time Tony Award-winning actress Zoe Caldwell will present the Gelbs with their award.

The Gelbs' O'Neill, the seminal biography about America's only Nobel Prize winning playwright and winner of four Pulitzer prizes, was first published in 1962. The first volume of their new definitive two-volume O'Neill biography, Life with Monte Cristo, was published in 2001 and they are currently at work on the second volume. Arthur Gelb is a native of New York and spent his entire 45-year career in the city room of The New York Times, where he served in many editorial posts and became Managing Editor in 1986. He was the paper's theater critic and Culture Editor in the 1950's, Metropolitan Editor from 1967 and Assistant Managing Editor from 1976. He is also the author of a memoir, City Room, about his years at the Times, which will be the basis for a documentary about the paper. The Gelbs met at the New York Times.

The Monte Cristo Award is given in recognition of distinguished careers exemplifying Eugene O'Neill's standard of excellence and pioneering spirit. Past recipients include Jason Robards, Jr., Edward Albee, August Wilson, Zoe Caldwelll, Brian Dennehy and Karl Malden.

Seating at the dinner is limited. For details and reservations, call Suzanne Hendrix, (860) 443-5378, x217.