Ebersole, who recently concluded her Tony-winning run in Broadway's Grey Gardens, will discuss her varied and successful career with former prison inmates and will lead improvisational role-playing exercises with participants in order to assist them in reaching goals and handling social obstacles they may face.

The event, scheduled to take place on Aug. 14, is hosted by the Fortune Society, which was founded by David Rothenberg, who produced Fortune and Men's Eyes Off-Broadway in 1967.

That drama exposed the harsh conditions of life in a boy's reformatory. In preparation for the play, Rothenberg and his cast visited the Adolescent Remand Shelter on Rikers Island in order to gain a sense of authentic prison life. After a series of publicized talk-back sessions following performances of Fortune and Men's Eyes — which included a panel of former incarcerates — Rothenberg soon founded The Fortune Society, named for the production which helped raise awareness and open up the dialogue of life in and after prison.

For nearly 40 years The Fortune Society has been developing model programs that help former prisoners successfully re-enter their communities. The Fortune Society offers a holistic and integrated "one-stop-shopping" model of service provision. Among the services offered are supportive housing, career development, job retention, substance abuse treatment, alternatives to incarceration, HIV/AIDS services, education, family services, and drop in services as well as ongoing access to aftercare.

For more information, visit www.fortunesociety.org.