Nathan Lane — who has starred in the McNally plays Dedication; The Lisbon Traviata; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; Bad Habits; and Love! Valour! Compassion! — will present the award. The actress-comedian Jackie Hoffman will serve as emcee of the event, which also honors the AIDS policy activist Dr. Judith Auerbach and the pediatric AIDS expert Dr. Donna Futterman.

McNally's plays Lips Together, Teeth Apart and Love! Valour! Compassion!, among others, deal with AIDS and related themes.

McNally's play Deuce will open on Broadway in April 2007 and will co-star Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes. His most recent works include Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams and The Stendhal Syndrome, both at Primary Stages; A Man of No Importance (book) at Lincoln Center Theater; and The Full Monty (book) on Broadway.

McNally has won four Tony Awards, most recently for his book for the musical Ragtime. He won the Tony in 1996 for his play Master Class; the 1995 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Play as well as the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play for Love! Valour! Compassion!; and the 1993 Tony for his book of the musical Kiss of the Spider Woman.

His other plays include Corpus Christi, A Perfect Ganesh, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune and It’s Only a Play. Earlier stage works include Bad Habits, The Ritz, Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone?, And Things That Go Bump in the Night, Next and the book for the musical The Rink. He wrote the libretto for the opera Dead Man Walking and has written a number of TV scripts, including "Andre’s Mother," for which he won an Emmy. The event will take place at The Drawing Center, at 35 Wooster Street, between Grand and Broome Streets. Tickets start at $150. For information, call (212) 253-7922 or visit www.treatmentactiongroup.org.