Joel Grey, Charles Dillingham Honored at NCTF 2011 Gala

National Corporate Theatre Fund (NCTF) will hold its Annual Chairman's Awards Gala and benefit on Monday, May 2 at the St. Regis New York hotel (2 East 55th Street at Fifth Avenue). This year, NCTF Chairman James S Turley, Chairman and CEO of Ernst & Young, will honor Oscar and Tony Award-winner Joel Grey (on Broadway this season inAnything Goes and director of The Normal Heart), recipient of the Theater Artist Award, presented by Anything Goes director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall; Charles Dillingham (Managing Director, Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles), recipient of the Theater Professional Award, presented by Benjamin Moore (Managing Director of Seattle Repertory Theatre) and Richard Thomas (Race on Broadway and The Public's Timon of Athens); and BNY Mellon, recipient of the Corporate Leadership Award, presented by Tony Award-winning stage and film actress Anika Noni Rose.  All net proceeds of the event will be distributed as the NCTF/BNY MELLON FUND FOR NEW AMERICAN THEATRE.

Hosted by Award-winning performer Lewis Black, this black-tie event will begin with cocktails at 6:30 PM followed by dinner and presentations at 7:30 PM.  The gala will feature performances by Broadway legend Ben Vereen and Tony Award-nominee Stephanie J. Block, and a silent auction filled with exciting prize packages.

Bruce Whitacre, NCTF Executive Director, said, "The achievements of our honorees are signal to the American theatre scene today.  Charles Dillingham has created an enduring legacy among theatre managers, and he has been a key leader of NCTF, as well as to every organization with which he has been involved.    We are recognizing one of our very own, and it is a great pleasure.  Joel Grey unforgettably embodies one of our strongest theatrical icons-who in the performing arts has not contemplated his amazing character, the Master of Ceremonies of Cabaret.  His performances time and again show us what it is to be human, to be alive, in the most vital way.  And BNY Mellon exemplifies two proud legacies of enduring community engagement that go back literally centuries in the American landscape, coast to coast.  How perfect that The National Theatre movement recognize the leadership of this historic institution now embarking upon an important new phase of its history."

Honoree of the 2011 Theatre Artist Award Joel Grey made his theatrical debut at the age of 9 in the Cleveland Playhouse production of On Borrowed Time and made his Broadway debut exactly two decades later as a replacement in Neil Simon's first comedy hit, Come Blow Your Horn (1961).  Since then, his Broadway credits include the Stop the World I Want to Get Off, Half a Sixpence, Cabaret (Tony Award), George M! (Tony nomination), Goodtime Charlie (Tony nomination), The Grand Tour (Tony nomination), Chicago (Drama Desk Award) and Wicked.  Joel's dramatic stage roles include Marco Polo Sings a Solo, Chekhov's Platonov, the Roundabout Theatre production of Give Me Your Answer, Do!(Drama Desk nomination) and Larry Kramer's seminal The Normal Heart at The Public Theatre, which he's directing this spring in its Broadway premiere.  He's currently starring in Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Anything Goes, starring opposite Sutton Foster.  Joel received the Academy Award, the Golden Globe and the British Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1972 film version of Cabaret (directed by Bob Fosse).  He is one of only eight actors to have won both the Tony and Academy Award for the same role.  Other film credits include Man on A Swing, Robert Altman's Buffalo Bill and the Indians, The Seven Percent Solution, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins,Steven Soderbergh's Kafka, Altman's The Player, The Music of Chance, Michael Ritchie's adaptation of The Fantasticks, Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark and Clark Gregg's Choke.  Recent television appearances include "Brooklyn Bridge" (Emmy nomination), "OZ," "Law and Order: CI," "House," "Brothers & Sisters," "Private Practice" and "Grey's Anatomy."  He was recently honored for his illustrious television career by The Paley Center for Media in both NYC and Los Angeles.  Joel is also an accomplished photographer.  He has three books of photographs, Pictures I Had to Take (2003), Looking Hard at Unexamined Things (2006) and 1.3 - Images From My Phone (2009).  The Museum of the City of New York's current exhibition, Joel Grey/A New York Life explores his life and career.  This NCTF Theatre Artist Award will be presented by director/choreographer of Anything Goes, Kathleen Marshall.

Honoree of the 2011 Theatre Professional Award Charles Dillingham (C.T.G. Managing Director) for the past 20 years has supervised all development, marketing, administrative and financial aspects of Center Theatre Group of Los Angeles-the Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson Theatre and Kirk Douglas Theatre. Prior to CTG, he was CEO of The Entertainment Corporation USA, presenting the Bolshoi Ballet, Bolshoi Opera, Kirov Ballet, Kirov Opera and Royal Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House and on U.S. tours. He was executive director of American Ballet Theatre when Mikhail Baryshnikov was artistic director, managing director of the Brooklyn Academy Of Music Theatre Company, general manager of The American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and general manager of the Williamstown Theatre Festival. He has served on the board of LA Stage Alliance and on theatre advisory panels at the California Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts and on the Board of Arts for L.A.  He is a member of the Board of Councilors of the USC School of Theatre, and the Executive Committee of the League of Resident Theatres.  This NCTF Achievement in Theatre Award will be presented by Benjamin Moore (Managing Director of Seattle Repertory Theatre) and Richard Thomas (Race on Broadway and The Public's Timon of Athens).

 Honoree of the 2011 Corporate Leadership Award BNY MELLON is a global financial services company focused on helping clients manage and service their financial assets, operating in 36 countries and serving more than 100 markets.  BNY Mellon is a leading provider of financial services for institutions, corporations and high-net-worth individuals, offering superior investment management and investment services through a worldwide client-focused team.  As of Dec. 31, 2010, the company reported $25.0 trillion in assets under custody and administration and $1.17 trillion in assets under management services, $12.0 trillion in outstanding debt and processes global payments averaging $1.6 trillion per day.  BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK).  Accepting on behalf of BNY Mellon is the company's President Gerald Hassell who oversees the company's broad range of securities servicing businesses, including asset servicing and issuer, broker-dealer, treasury and clearing services.  He also has management responsibility for client management, operations and technology.  Mr. Hassell was named to The Bank of New York's senior planning committee in 1994, and elected to its Board of Directors in 1998.  This NCTF Corporate Leadership Award will be presented by Tony Award-winning film and stage actress Anika Noni Rose.

Co-chairs of the 2011 Chairman's Awards Gala are Cisco Systems, Inc., Ernst & Young, RVM and Wells Fargo.

The Gala Committee includes: Mitchell J. Auslander, John R. Dutt, Richard Fitzburgh, Gretchen Shugart, John Thomopoulos and Isabelle Winkles.

NCTF is an association of ten of America's finest not-for-profit theatres dedicated to increasing the participation of corporations and their employees in supporting theatre across the country and in New York. Member theatres include:Actors Theatre of Louisville, American Conservatory Theater, American Repertory Theater, Center Theatre Group, The Cleveland Play House, Guthrie Theater, Long Wharf Theatre, The Old Globe, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and Trinity Repertory Company.

The 2011 NCTF Annual Chairman's Awards Gala and benefit honoring Joey Grey, Charles Dillingham and BNY Mellon will take place Monday, May 2 at the St Regis New York (2 East 55th Street @ Fifth Avenue).  For reservations to this black-tie event, please call Todd Rosen at (212) 750-6895 or email trosen@nctf.org.  Individual tickets are $1,000 - $2,500 and reserved tables are $10,000 - $25,000.  For more information, please visit www.nctf.org.