The Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro will moderate.

Abraham earned an Academy Award for his turn in the movie version of Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus as composer Antonio Salieri. He most recently appeared in the Off-Broadway run of Trumbo, the Madison Square Garden A Christmas Carol and the Encores! presentation of New Moon. His other stage credits include Triumph of Love, A Month in the Country, Angels in America, King Lear and The Fantasticks.

The event, the Joy Gottesman Ungerleider Lecture, is supported by the Dorot Foundation.

The event will take place in the Celeste Bartos Forum at The New York Public Library on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. Tickets are $15 for general admission, or $10 for library donors, seniors, students with valid ID and Playbill.com readers who mention the ticket code FMAPBO.

For more information call the NYPL's Cullman Center at (212) 930-9213 or email [email protected].