Eustis will be presented with the honor during the "Love Letters to the A.R.T." benefit party, to be held at Boston's Back Bay Events Center. The Award is named in honor of A.R.T's founding artistic director. Brustein annually presents the award to a theatre artist whose work contributes and influences the art form.

The event will include cocktails, dinner and performances by Hair Tony Award nominee Gavin Creel, who will also star in the upcoming A.R.T. production of Prometheus Bound.

According to A.R.T., "In the spirit of the night’s theme, each performer will choose a personal love poem, a song, or a romantic scene to perform."

Tony nominee Diane Paulus, who staged the Tony-winning revival of Hair for the Public Theater, serves as artistic director of the A.R.T., which presented Elevator Repair Service's heralded production of Gatz prior to its Off-Broadway arrival at the Public last fall.

The 2011 Robert Brustein Award Honorary Committee includes Jenny Gersten, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tony Kushner, Mandy Patinkin, Willie Reale and Jeffrey Richards. In addition to his work at the Public, Eustis previously served as the artistic director of the Trinity Repertory Company, the Eureka Theatre and was the associate artistic director of the Mark Taper Forum. He commissioned Tony Kushner's Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels in America and directed its premiere at the Mark Taper. He will stage the New York debut of Rinne Groff's Compulsion, starring Mandy Patinkin, at the Public this February. Under his aegis, the Public productions of Hair, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and The Merchant of Venice have all transferred to Broadway to critical acclaim.

For gala tickets phone (617) 496-2000 x8832 or visit americanrepertorytheater.org/loveletters .