Theatre for the New City Honors Wallach, Jackson & Coigney at 'Love 'N' Courage' Benefit,' 2/22

The Pulitzer Prize and Obie Award-winning Theatre for the New City (TNC) will hold its 7th Annual LOVE 'N' COURAGE Gala on Monday, February 22nd at the National Arts Club, this year honoring the beloved acting couple Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson, as well as Martha Coigney, director of the InterNational Theatre Institute (ITI) in the U.S. for over 35 years, it has been announced by Crystal Field, co-founder and artistic director of Theater for the City. The LOVE 'N' COURAGE celebration will begin with cocktails at 6:30pm, Dinner at 7:00pm, and performances at 8:00pm.

The renowned actors/playwright Charles Busch will host.

Proceeds benefit the Emerging Playwrights' Program at Theater for the New City, located at 155 First Avenue in the East Village, where it remains one of the few remaining outposts for experimental and political theater in 21st century New York.

Among the performers at LOVE 'N' COURAGE will be two of the honorees themselves, Mr. Wallach and Ms. Jackson, along with guest artists Laura Linney (Oscar-nominated for "You Can Count on Me", "Kinsey"); playwright Romulus Linney; a trio of Tony Award-winning actresses - Marian Seldes (A DELICATE BALANCE), Elaine Stritch (Elaine Stritch AT LIBERTY) and Tammy Grimes (THE UNSINKABLE Molly Brown, PRIVATE LIVES); Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham ("Amadeus"); actress and socialite Betsy von Furstenberg; composer and singer Phoebe Legere; and tango dancers Daniel Fetecua-Soto and Anna Amadei. Chuck Cooper and Terri White, currently appearing in the hit Broadway revival of FINIAN'S RAINBOW will perform "The Begat" and "Necessity" from that show, as well.

Martha Coigney will be honored at LOVE 'N' COURAGE for her years of service from 1966 to 2003 as Director of the U.S. Center of the InterNational Theatre Institute (ITI), an international non-governmental organization founded in 1948 by UNESCO and the interNational Theatre community. A worldwide network, ITI promotes peace and solidarity between the world's many cultures through international exchanges in the performing arts.

LOVE 'N' COURAGE honorees Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson will be recognized for their inestimable contributions to stage, screen and television as actors par excellence for over 50 years. Married since 1942, the couple will celebrate their 62nd wedding anniversary in March 2010. Eli Wallach won a Tony Award in 1951 for Tennessee Williams' THE ROSE TATTOO, followed by Broadway credits including MISTER ROBERTS and CAMINO REAL. His numerous film credits include legendary performances in "Baby Doll," "The Misfits," "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly." Anne Jackson appeared on Broadway in SUMMER AND SMOKE, ARMS AND THE MAN, LOST IN YONKERS and was nominated for her performance in MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. A frequent performer on television, her film credits include "Lovers and Other Strangers" and "The Shining."

Co-host Charles Busch is the writer and star of such plays as THE LADY IN QUESTION, RED SCARE ON SUNSET, and VAMPIRE LESBIANS OF SODOM, and author of the Tony Award-nominated play THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST'S WIFE. His play SHANGHAI MOON debuted at Theater for the New City in 2000, and his latest play, THE DIVINE SISTER will premiere at TNC in February.

Celebrating its 38th year, Theatre for the New City is a long-running bastion for new theatrical works. While talented emerging playwrights often find themselves competing for funding with more established writers; Theater for the New City's mission is to offer "love and encouragement" to these struggling artists with its Emerging Playwrights Program, established in 1971. Theater for the New City is a Pulitzer Prize winning community cultural center known for its high artistic standards and community service. One of New York's most prolific theatrical organizations, TNC produces 30-40 premieres of new American plays per year, at least 10 of which are by emerging and young playwrights. Many influential theater artists of the last quarter century have found TNC's Resident Theater Program instrumental to their careers, among them Sam Shepard, Moises Kaufman, Richard Foreman, Charles Busch, Maria Irene Fornes, Miguel Piñero and Academy Award Winners Tim Robbins and Adrien Brody.

"Emerging playwrights are writers of great promise who have yet to fulfill their artistic goals, but whose visions are high," explains Crystal Field, whose Emerging Playwrights Program takes in fledgling and untried writers, offering a nurturing environment where new authors can flourish, and often realize their first fully produced work at Theater for the New City. Ms. Field notes that "love and courage are what a playwright needs to thrive in this field, and 'love and encourage' is what Theater for the New City does!"

Through the Emerging Playwrights Program, up-and-coming writers meet and have access to experienced designers, directors and performers. The emerging playwright is surrounded by dedicated professionals in an atmosphere of supportive collaboration. Theater for the New City has an open-door policy towards new work -- considering plays of any style, genre and political thrust -- and reading every script submitted. The company also produces and commissions plays by some of the better-known American Playwrights such as Maria Irene Fornes, Matt Morillo, Sam Shepard, Eduardo Machado, Ronald Tavel, Amlin Gray and Harry Kondoleon.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning Theater for the New City is committed to developing and nurturing creative talent in the New York City area. Other programs sponsored by the Theater include the Resident Theater Program, Arts-in-Education Program, Summer Street Theater Tour, the Lower East Side Festival of the Arts and, most recently, the Village Halloween Costume Ball. The Emerging Playwrights Program was founded in 1984 as part of the Resident Theater Program, and seeks to create a space where theater artists have room to develop new visions, free of commercial restraint and pressure. Past productions have included works that include song, dance, music, puppetry, poetry, and epic styles of drama, and have garnered 43 Obie Awards

Tickets to LOVE 'N' COURAGE are $125. For reservations and additional information, please call 212-254-1109 or visit www.theaterforthenewcity.net.