The NCTF's 25th Anniversary Chairman's Awards gala will take place May 19 with Mulgrew acting as Master of Ceremonies and Jones presenting Brustein the Achievement In Theatre Award. However, as a precursor to the event, Wasserstein, Durang and Landesman will toast their former teacher at a cocktail reception on April 30.

At the May 19 gala, George Wolfe also presents Laura Pels with the Theatre Professional Award and honorary NCTF chairman Hal Holbrook will present Dixie Carter with the Theatre Artist Award.

Robert Brustein is the founding director of New Haven, Connecticut's Yale Repertory Theatre and Boston, Massachusetts' American Repertory Theatre. An array of other theatre folk will acknowledge the man who, in his career, formed two prominent regional theaters.

"All you have to do is speak to anyone whose life was affected by Bob Brustein and you know he is one of theatre's greatest caldrons of talent," stated NCTF executive director Bruce Whitacre.

Under Brustein's tutelage, productions of Wings, The 1940's Radio Hour, Grown Ups, 'night, Mother, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Big River, Mastergate and The Old Neighborhood have made their way to Broadway. He has adapted 11 works including The Wild Duck, The Master Builder, Three Farces and a Funeral, Enrico IV, and Lysistrata as well as directed his own version of The Father, Ghosts, The Changeling, and the trilogy of Pirandello works: Six Characters In Search of An Author, Right You Are (If You Think You Are), and Tonight We Improvise. He has authored 13 books on theatre and society, including a memoir of his years as Dean of the Drama School at Yale. Brustein also served for 20 years as Director of the Loeb Drama Center, and is Professor of English at Harvard and drama critic for The New Republic. Among his awards include the George Polk Award in journalism, the Elliot Norton Award for professional excellence in Boston theatre, the New England Theatre Conference's 1985 Annual Award "for outstanding creative achievement in the American theatre," and the 1995 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts among others and was recently inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.

The NCTF is an association made up of 11 regional not-for-profit theatres that focus on promoting corporate support of theatre in New York and across the country. Among the theaters involved are Actors Theatre of Louisville, American Conservatory Theater, American Repertory Theatre, Center Theatre Group, The Cleveland Play House, The Globe Theatres, The Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Long Wharf Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre and Trinity Repertory Company.

Tickets for the Gala start at $1,000 and can be purchased by calling Christopher Wynn at (212) 750-6895.