LuPone, Grammer et al. Honor Gersten, Viola at The Acting Company's Masquerade Gala, 11/22

Bernard Gersten, Executive Producer of Lincoln Center Theater (LCT) will receive the John Houseman Award for his work at Lincoln Center and as Joseph Papp's Associate Producer of The New York Shakespeare Festival (NYSF) at The Acting Company's Masquerade Gala on Monday, November 22 at The Pierre Hotel, New York City. Tom Viola, Executive Director of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA), will also be honored with the Joan Warburg Humanitarian Award for his leadership and advocacy in the fight against AIDS. Kelsey Grammer and Patti LuPone will entertain as Angela Lansbury, Marian Seldes, Elizabeth Wilson, Campbell Scott, Dana Ivey, Shubert's Philip Smith and Robert Wankel, Jujamcyn's Paul Libin, Equity's Nick Wyman, The Actors Fund's Joe Benecasa and The Broadway League's Charlotte St. Martin join the salute.

Bernard Gersten's body of work includes A Chorus Line, For Colored Girls..., Streamers, Sticks and Bones and Hair at NYSF and, at LCT, The Coast of Utopia, Henry IV, King Lear, Anything Goes, South Pacific, Speed-the-Plow, The House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, The Sisters Rosensweig, Carousel, The Heiress, Arcadia, Ivanov, Parade, The Light in the Piazza, The Invention of Love, Contact, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, A Free Man of Color and 2011's much anticipated War Horse.

Under Colleen Dewhurst's Presidency of Actors Equity, Tom Viola became the founding administrative director of Equity Fights AIDS in 1988 saw through its merger with Broadway Cares in 1992 and has been Executive Director of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS since 1997.

Over $195 million for critically needed services for people living with HIV/AIDS and their families and other critical health issues nationwide has been raised by BC/EFA during those years-distributed to over 400 AIDS and family service organizations in 47 states, Washington DC and Puerto Rico, as well as providing strategic international support.

Actor/Director Campbell Scott, son of the late Ms. Dewhurst and George C. Scott will present the Warburg Award to Mr. Viola along with Joan Warburg, President of The Acting Company and life-long friend of Ms. Dewhurst. Ms. LuPone will present the award to Mr. Gersten as well as entertain.

Founded by Oscar winner John Houseman and current Producing Artistic Director Margot Harley in 1972, The Acting Company is America's leading and most honored touring repertory theater having reached 3.5 million people in 48 states and 10 foreign countries with 135 classic and new works. Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, Rainn Wilson, Jeffrey Wright, Jesse L. Martin, Frances Conroy, Keith David, Hamish Linklater, Harriet Harris and David Ogden Stiers are but a few who began their careers on tour with The Acting Company which was honored by the Tony Awards for Excellence in Theater. The Company recently presented Romeo and Juliet in New York and will return in April with a new production of The Comedy of Errors. It's Alumni Production of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter at New York Theatre Workshop was selected last season as the #4 Best Play by TIME Magazine.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos