The Theatre Museum held its 2005 awards Monday at the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel. The hotel received an award for restoring the theater’s Greco-Roman interior. Kitty Carlisle Hart and Anne Kaufman Schneider, the daughter of George S. Kaufman, gave awards to Michael Kantor and Laurence Maslon for their six-part PBS series “Broadway: The American Musical.” Mr. Kantor recalled the time George Bernard Shaw was asked to give a toast on the topic of sex. Shaw began, “It gives me great pleasure” and then sat down. Mr. Kantor said preserving the legacy of theater gave him great pleasure.

Describing the video accompanying Messrs. Kantor and Maslon’s television series, Ms. Hart laughed after accidentally saying “BVD” instead of DVD. Master of ceremonies Simon Jones picked up on this theme in introducing actor Samuel E. Wright, saying that Mr. Wright’s credits include having once played a bunch of grapes in a Fruit of the Loom commercial. The audience laughed more when Mr. Jones said that he himself had played the unfrosted side of a Kellogg’s frosted mini-wheat.

Gerald Schoenfeld presented Inside Broadway executive director Michael Presser with a theater arts education award for 24 years of bringing theater education to students. “Monty Python’s Spamalot” actor David Hyde Pierce presented a theater history preservation award to Ten Chimneys Foundation, the Wisconsin estate created by Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. He described its interior as “Dolly Madison meets Salvador Dali meets ‘Hello Dolly.'”

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MIDWEST MEETS MANHATTAN For 35 years, the Playwrights’ Center has been a national resource for developing new plays and assisting playwrights at every stage of their career. Last week the Minnesota-based nonprofit held its first New York reception welcoming its newly created National Advisory Board. Members in attendance included Laurie Carlos, Barbara Field, Jeffrey Hatcher, Craig Lucas, Mac Wellman, and Gordon Davidson, who flew in from Los Angeles. Mirth ensued when Mr. Lucas, upon his name being introduced, exclaimed enthusiastically, “I’ll do anything” for the Playwrights’ Center. The center’s producing artistic director, Polly Carl, greeted attendees that evening. There was a moment of silence for playwright August Wilson, who started his career at the Playwrights’ Center with a Jerome Fellowship.

Theater artists and playwrights in attendance included Doris Baizley, Hayley Finn, Melanie Marnich, Kim Merrill, Kathleen Tolan, and Tracey Scott Wilson. Also attending were Amy Dorfman of the Shubert Foundation, Sue Drury of the Dramatists Guild Fund, Diane Ragsdale of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Rachel Neuberger of SPF/Tepper Foundation; and Elizabeth Bennett of Second Stage Theatre. The Playwrights’ Center board members who were present included the managing director of the Guthrie Theater, Thomas Proehl; co-artistic producing director of the Pillsbury House Theatre, Faye M. Price; and consultant Miriam Kelen.

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NEW MAG Fire and ice took center stage Sunday at KGB Bar. Matt Briggs, author of “Shoot the Buffalo” (Clear Cut Press), read a fictional scene about hypothermia, while David Levinson, author of “Most of Us Are Here Against Our Will” (Gardners Books), read a story about a woman who ritually burns her deceased son’s belongings as part of her grieving process. Kate Benson, author of “Two Harbors” (Harvest Books), also read. Her literary agent was spotted in the audience.

Also attending were Tao Lin and Nick Antosca, who are contributors to the first issue of Opium magazine, a biannual literary journal launched in late August. The magazine already existed online, but this is its first venture into print. Todd Zuniga, the magazine’s founder and editor in chief, was also in the audience. The Knickerbocker asked him if it was easier to publish online than in print. “118 percent easier,” he said.

The magazine’s Web site advises, “[W]e do not, despite our title, encourage drugs and their use.” Mr. Zuniga described how he came up with the name of the magazine. He was an associate editor at Official PlayStation Magazine when Van Burnham, author of a book on the history of video games, asked him on an escalator, “How long have you been at OPM?” Mr. Zuniga kept repeating the sound of the letters “OPM” in his head, realizing he had found a title for his magazine.

gshapiro@nysun.com