MTC's Lynne Meadow Receives the Museum of the City of New York's Louis Auchincloss Prize

The annual presentation of the Museum of the City of New York's Louis Auchincloss Prize will be held on Monday, October 22nd at 6 pm. This year, the prize will be awarded to Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director of the Manhattan Theatre Club, and the event will feature a performance by Bebe Neuwirth and special appearances by Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker.

The Louis Auchincloss Prize is presented to writers and artists whose work is inspired by and enhances the five boroughs of New York City. Disciplines include literature, architecture, art, music, playwriting, and photography. The Prize honors Louis Auchincloss (1917–2010) for his many years of service to the Museum of the City of New York as well as for his literary contributions that established him as one of the leading American novelists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Past recipients include lyricist Sheldon Harnick, Ada Louise Huxtable, for her architectural criticism, Pete Hamill for his literary contributions, and photographer Elliott Erwitt. Louis Auchincloss accepted the first prize himself in 2007.

As Artistic Director of Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) for four decades, Lynne Meadow has created, with her partner Barry Grove, one of the nation's most acclaimed not-for-profit theatres. She has directed and/or produced more than 500 New York and world premieres and nurtured hundreds of writers and theater artists. Six MTC productions have been honored with The Pulitzer Prize for Drama, including four in the past 11 years (Lynn Nottage's Ruined in 2009, David Lindsay-Abaire's Rabbit Hole in 2007, John Patrick Shanley's Doubt in 2005, and David Auburn's Proof in 2001). Plays developed at MTC under her visionary leadership include Donald Margulies' Time Stands Still; Charles Busch's The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Terrence McNally's Love! Valour! Compassion!; Beth Henley's Crimes of the Heart; and Richard Maltby's Ain't Misbehavin. On behalf of MTC, Meadow has accepted every major theatrical award including 18 Tony Awards, 47 Obies, and 29 Drama Desk Awards; Meadow herself is the recipient of the Mr. Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement, Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award, and The Lilly Award for Lifetime Achievement. Meadow has strived to ensure that MTC's work reaches a range of theatergoers. Her initiatives include collaborating with leading regional theatres to bring major new American plays to New York; bringing student and family audiences to the theatre through ambitious education programs; and moving successful plays, originally produced at MTC, to other venues for longer runs. Today, MTC's plays are studied on every college campus, performed all over the country and the world, and have been translated into many different languages. For the exceptional body of innovative work created for the theater under Meadow's artistic direction - productions as broad and diverse as New York City itself - the Museum is honored to present her with its 2012 Louis Auchincloss Prize.