On March 25 at Theatre for the New City, Melba LaRose will be presented with the Acker Award for her numerous contributions to NYC avant-garde theatre as a playwright, director, and actress.  She is Artistic & Executive Director of the nonprofit NY Artists Unlimited, known for its dedication to works that evoke dignity of the individual and sanctity of the human spirit.  For 25+ years, the company has reached audiences throughout NYC and the Northeast with plays that are multicultural, multidisciplinary, and nontraditionally cast in all ways.  Melba also created the International CringeFest/ Bad Plays Festival and Downeast Arts Center in the East Village.  She debuted in NY avant-garde theatre with Warhol luminaries Jackie Curtis and Candy Darling, as the star of Curtis's "Glamour, Glory & Gold, the Life & Legend of Nola Noonan, Goddess & Star."  She toured internationally with the NY Street Theatre Caravan and was a member of Lonny Chapman's Group Repertory Theatre, LA.  Melba appears in 4 editions of Who's Who, has won numerous grants and awards, and is a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women, International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts (ietm), International Centre for Women Playwrights, Dramatists Guild, AEA, SAG-AFTRA.  The ACKER AWARDS were created by Alan Kaufman in San Francisco and Clayton Patterson in New York.  Join Patterson and friends as they pay tribute to members of the avant-garde arts community who have made outstanding contributions in their discipline in defiance of convention, and to those who have served their fellow writers and artists in outstanding ways.  At the free event, doors open at 6 and the ceremony, hosted by Phoebe Legere, begins at 7 pm.  No reservations, just show up!