The nation's oldest non-profit workshop "dedicated to the development of new playwrights" honored Albee with its 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony at the New York Marriott Marquis. The annual luncheon salutes an artist who has made an "outstanding artistic contribution to the American theatre." Past honorees include Chita Rivera, George C. Wolfe, Meryl Streep, Barbara Cook, Angela Lansbury, Julie Andrews, Glenn Close, John Kander and Fred Ebb, Neil Simon, Jerry Herman, Stephen Sondheim, August Wilson, Gwen Verdon, Terrence McNally and Arthur Miller.

Deuce's Marian Seldes, a frequent actor in Albee's plays, was the Chairperson for the event. Honorary chairs included producers Elizabeth I. McCann and Daryl Roth, Abby Von Nostrand of Samuel French Inc. and Gerald Schoenfeld and Philip J. Smith of The Shubert Organization.

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At left (from top): Angela Lansbury and Edward Albee; Ivy Vahanian and Xanthe Elbrick; Laura Bell Bundy and Terrence McNally; Stark Sands; Elke and Ben Gazzara; Walter Bobbie and Brian Dennehy; Swoosie Kurtz and Julie White; Jerry Stiller and Edward Albee; William Ivey Long, Charlotte d'Amboise, Tonya Pinkins and Michael Cerveris; Mary Louise Wilson and Brian Murray; Chairwoman Marian Seldes and Edward Albee.

Below: David Hyde Pierce, Debra Monk, Edward Hibbert, Edward Albee, Karen Ziemba and Jill Paice at the New Dramatists 58th Annual Spring Luncheon honoring Albee.

photos by Aubrey Reuben