Atlantic Spring Gala Toasts Felicity Huffman May 1

Atlantic Theater Company's (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, Managing Director) 2006 Annual Spring Gala will honor Academy Award nominated and Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning Atlantic founding ensemble member Felicity Huffman with a no-holds barred tribute on Monday, May 1st, 2006 at the legendary Rainbow Room (30 Rockefeller Plaza, 65th Floor). This year's gala promises to deliver a toast and a roast to the life of this prolific artist and celebrate the accomplished history of the award winning Off-Broadway theater company.

The same evening, Monday, May 1st, Atlantic will be awarded the Lucille Lortel Outstanding Body of Work Prize at a ceremony to be held at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street).

Emmy and Golden Globe Award winning actress Felicity Huffman received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her role in the acclaimed film Transamerica. In addition to a recent Best Actress Golden Globe Award for the film, her hit series "Desperate Housewives" also won an Emmy Award for Best Television Series Musical or Comedy. Huffman was awarded her first Screen Actor's Guild award for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series for "Desperate Housewives," with the show also winning Best Ensemble comedy. Huffman met husband William H. Macy (co-founder of Atlantic along with David Mamet) twenty years ago as a student at the prestigious company where she appeared Off-Broadway in Shaker Heights, Dangerous Corner and The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite.

To kick off the next 20 years, the Gala will also feature an exclusive preview of Atlantic's first musical ever - the world premiere production of Spring Awakening featuring music by Grammy nominated singer songwriter Duncan Sheik and book and lyrics by Steven Sater. This new musical is directed by three-time Tony Award® nominee Michael Mayer and begins previews on May 18th at Atlantic Theater.

The Gala will begin at 6:30 p.m. with cocktails and music; dinner at 7:30 p.m. followed by a tribute and performance including musical guests, a short retrospective film and celebrity guest performers at 9:00 p.m.

Atlantic is thrilled to be "roasting" Felicity and to be having her help celebrate its future following 20 years of producing great theater including this season's Harold Pinter double bill of Celebration and The Room, The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow by Rolin Jones and Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant of Inishmore, which recently concluded an acclaimed run at Atlantic prior to transferring to Broadway, where previews begin April 19th at the Lyceum Theatre.

Last year's gala saluted Atlantic co-founders William H. Macy and David Mamet and celebrity guests included Steve Martin, Julia Stiles, Liev Schreiber, Lynn Redgrave, Julianna Margulies, Katie Erbe, Camryn Manheim, Joel Grey, Clark Gregg, Michael J. Fox, Jeffrey Tambor, Elijah Wood, Sam Mendes, Giancarlo Esposito and Patti LuPone.

Co-founded by David Mamet and William H. Macy, Atlantic Theater Company is the award-winning Off-Broadway theater dedicated to producing great plays simply and truthfully by both emerging and established playwrights. Since its inception, Atlantic has produced more than one hundred plays, including last season's World Premiere of David Mamet's Romance, the Tony Award-winning production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh, Mojo by Jez Butterworth, Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange, Dublin Carol by Conor McPherson, The Cider House Rules, adapted by Peter Parnell, and Woody Allen's A Second Hand Memory and Writer's Block. Over the last two decades, Atlantic has garnered four Tony Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, seven Obie Awards, and an Outer Critics Circle Award.

Gala proceeds this year will go to Atlantic's Play Development program, including the newly constructed STAGE 2 devoted solely to producing emerging works. Opening in June, this 99-seat theater on West 16th Street will be a second Atlantic home for artists and audiences and a vital addition to Atlantic's main stage theater on West 20th Street. Proceeds will also go to its growing arts education programs, including ATLANTIC FOR KIDS children's productions and the STUDENTS AND EDUCATORS in-classroom instruction series. Currently Atlantic serves 3,000 students in 17 New York City Public Schools.

In January, Atlantic entered its third decade with a milestone move of the Atlantic Acting School and administrative offices to the Port Authority Building at 111 Eighth Avenue, following a $4 Million renovation. The new headquarters, encompassing 25,000 square feet, houses a ninety-nine seat state-of-the-art black box theater, lobby with gallery, nine rehearsal and classroom studios, a scenic shop, box office, dressing rooms, student/faculty lounges and administrative and artistic staff offices.

Atlantic Theater maintains an ensemble of actors, writers and directors that represent a who's who among the artistic world. In addition to founders David Mamet and William H. Macy the ensemble includes founding members Felicity Huffman ("Desperate Housewives") and Clark Gregg (In Good Company, Spartan, "The West Wing"), Mary Steenburgen (Academy Award winner for Melvin and Howard, Elf, "Joan of Arcadia"), Kristen Johnston (Emmy Award winner for "The Third Rock from the Sun"), Giancarlo Esposito (Carlito's Way: The Beginning, Ali, Do the Right Thing), Chris Bauer (The Ballad of Bettie Page, "The Wire") and Camryn Manheim (Emmy Award winner for "The Practice") among others.

TABLE PRICES: $20,000 (Sponsor), $12,000 (Producer), $6,000 (Angel) and $1,200 (Patron ticket). Individual tickets are $600.

To purchase tickets, contact Erika Mallin, Director of Development via phone at (212) 691-5919 ext. 1087 or emallin@atlantictheater.org

www.atlantictheater.org