MTC to Pay Tribute to Artistic Director Lynne Meadow, 6/18

Manhattan Theatre Club will celebrate Artistic Director Lynne Meadow's 40th anniversary as the visionary and artistic leader of the organization with a special tribute on Monday, June 18. The event will begin at 6:30 PM with a VIP cocktail reception, followed by a 7:30 tribute event at the Samuel J. Friedman (261 West 47th Street). Immediately after the Friedman tribute event, a party will follow at Copacabana (268 West 47th Street).

Tickets for the event range from $40 to $500 and proceeds from the event will benefit Manhattan Theatre Club. For more information or to purchase tickets online, please visit www.manhattantheatreclub.com/events.

Under Meadow's artistic direction, Manhattan Theatre Club has garnered hundreds of awards and the artists nurtured by her and the company have made MTC a world class theatre. Meadow has been MTC's Artistic Director since 1972 and with Barry Grove, MTC's Executive Producer and her producing partner of 37 years, she has accepted every major theatrical award on behalf of the company including Tonys, Obies, Lortels, Drama Desk Awards, etc. Meadow has directed dozens of new plays both on and off Broadway. Her Broadway directing credits include Margaret Edson's Wit; Donald Margulies' Collected Stories; the 2001 Tony Award-nominated production of Charles Busch's The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Alan Ayckbourn's A Small Family Business; and Donald Margulies' The Loman Family Picnic. Her Off-Broadway directing credits include Alan Ayckbourn's award-winning Woman in Mind and Absent Friends; the Obie Award-winning Ashes by David Rudkin; Busch's Our Leading Lady; David Greig's The American Pilot; Ron Hutchinson's Moonlight and Magnolias; Marsha Norman's Last Dance; David Edgar's The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs; Principia Scriptoriae; Lee Blessing's Eleemosynary; Biography; Simon Gray's Close of Play; and Sally and Marsha.

Under her artistic leadership for the last three decades, MTC has produced five David Lindsay-Abaire plays including Rabbit Hole; six plays by Donald Margulies including Time Stands Still and Sight Unseen; Lynn Nottage's Ruined; nine plays by John Patrick Shanley including Doubt; two plays by David Auburn including Proof; nine plays by Terrence McNally including Love! Valour! Compassion! and Lisbon Traviata; five plays by Beth Henley including Crimes of the Heart; seven plays by Alan Ayckbourn including Woman in Mind and Absent Friends; Stephen Sondheim's Putting It Together; Ain't Misbehavin'; and Ashes by David Rudkin.

This season, Meadow has produced four productions on Broadway, all of which have received Tony nominations: Terrence McNally's Master Class (Best Revival of a Play), David Ives' Venus in Fur (Best Play, Best Actress – Nina Arianda), Margaret Edson's Wit which Meadow directed (Best Revival of a Play, Best Actress – Cynthia Nixon), and David Auburn's The Columnist (Best Actor in a Play – John Lithgow).

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) has been the artistic visionary and leader of Manhattan Theatre Club since 1972, creating work that has put the company at the forefront of the American theatre. Lynne has overseen hundreds of World, US and New York premieres; directed dozens of new plays on and off Broadway by America's and England's finest playwrights; and accepted every major theatre award, (Tonys, Drama Desks, Obies, etc.) on behalf of the company.

Some of the theatres where she has worked in addition to MTC include The New York Shakespeare Festival, The Phoenix Theatre, the Spoleto Festival and the O'Neill Theatre Center.

Lynne's directing work includes: Margaret Edson's Wit; Donald Margulies' Collected Stories (with Linda Lavin and Sarah Paulson); the 2001 Tony Award-nominated production of Charles Busch's The Tale of the Allergist's Wife on Broadway (starring Linda Lavin, Michele Lee and Tony Roberts) at MTC, and in the U.S. national tour (with Valerie Harper); the Broadway production of A Small Family Business (with Brian Murray); Donald Margulies' The Loman Family Picnic; the Obie Award-winning Ashes by David Rudkin; Charles Busch's Our Leading Lady; David Greig's The American Pilot; Neil Simon's Rose's Dilemma (with Mary Tyler Moore); Ron Hutchinson's Moonlight and Magnolias (with Douglas Sills); Three Sisters (with Dianne Weist, Sam Waterston, Christine Ebersole and Jeff Daniels); Golden Boy; Marsha Norman's Last Dance (with Jobeth Wiliams); David Edgar's The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs; Principia Scriptoriae; The Wager; Absent Friends (with Gillian Anderson and Brenda Blethyn); The Pokey; Eleemosynary (with Eileen Heckart); Vikings; Bits and Pieces; Blur (with Polly Draper); Biography (with Piper Laurie); Park Your Car in Harvard Yard (with Ellen Burstyn and Burgess Meredith); Captain's Courageous (with Treat Williams); Artichoke (with Amanda Plummer); Catsplay (which transferred to the Promenade Theatre); Chez Nous; Simon Gray's Close of Play and Sally and Marsha (with Christine Baranski and Bernadette Peters).

Some of the world and New York premieres produced by Lynne for MTC include, Ain't Misbehavin', the Fats Waller musical; Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley (Pulitzer Prize); The Miss Firecracker Contest by Beth Henley (with Holly Hunter); Eastern Standard by Richard Greenberg; Putting It Together (with Julie Andrews); Playland by Athol Fugard (with Kevin Spacey); Pretty Fire by Charlayne Woodard; Love! Valour! Compassion! by Terrence McNally; Sylvia by A.R. Gurney (with Sarah Jessica Parker and Blythe Danner); Fuddy Meers by David Lindsay-Abaire; King Hedley II by August Wilson; Proof by David Auburn (Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play); Sight Unseen by Donald Margulies (Pulitzer Prize); Doubt by John Patrick Shanley (Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play); Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire (Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play); Shining City by Conor McPherson; Translations by Brian Friel; Blackbird by David Harrower; LoveMusik, book by Alfred Uhry, songs by Kurt Weill; Mauritius by Theresa Rebeck; Ruined by Lynn Nottage (Pulitzer Prize); Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies; The Pitmen Painters by Lee Hall; Good People by David Lindsay-Abaire.

Lynne is a graduate of Bryn Mawr, and attended the Yale School of Drama. She has taught at Yale, Fordham, NYU, etc. She has twice been nominated for Best Director at the Drama Desk Awards: in 1996 for Leslie Ayvazian's Nine Armenians and in 1988 for Alan Ayckbourn's Woman in Mind (with Stockard Channing). She is also the recipient of the Lee Reynolds Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women, the Manhattan Award from Manhattan Magazine, the Person of the Year from National Theatre Conference, the Margo Jones Award, the 2003 Mr. Abbott Award, The 2011 Lucille Lortel Award for Lifetime Achievement and The 2011 Lilly Award for Lifetime Achievement.