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Mission

Ten Chimneys Foundation’s Mission

  • Preserve and Share the buildings, furnishings, collections, and grounds of a national treasure – Ten Chimneys, the estate created by Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.
  • Serve as a continuing resource and powerful inspiration for theatre, the arts, and the art of living.
  • Offer public programs consistent with the Lunts’ varied interests and core values, while maintaining the integrity and intimacy of this extraordinary estate.

Ten Chimneys is a National Historic Landmark, a “Save America’s Treasures” project site, and is listed in the National Registry of Historic Places. Ten Chimneys is owned by the non-profit 501(C)3 organization Ten Chimneys Foundation, Inc.

2010 Lunt-Fontanne Fellows and Master Teacher Dedicate Week to Lynn Redgrave

July 11, 2010

Please click on the photo for a high-resolution version.

LFFP Journal: Sunday, July 11, 10:33 p.m.
Sean Malone, President of Ten Chimneys Foundation

The second year of the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program is off to an exciting, and touching, start. Master Teacher Barry Edelstein and the nine 2010 Fellows shared their desire to dedicate their work during this week to the memory of our dear friend, Lynn Redgrave, the inaugural Master Teacher of the program.

Barry Edelstein arrived from Manhattan, on the heels of his enormously successful launch of this year’s Shakespeare in the Park (featuring Al Pacino in The Merchant of Venice). The 2010 Lunt-Fontanne Fellows arrived from top theatre cities across the country.

After everyone settled in at The Delafield Hotel, I had the great pleasure of giving this talented group of artists a behind-the-scenes tour of Ten Chimneys. The Lunts specifically created Ten Chimneys to be a retreat that would simultaneously rejuvenate artists and inspire them to do extraordinary artistic work. It was wonderful to see a group of premier actors meet each other at Ten Chimneys – just as the Lunts intended. The light rain only served to add to the experience. With umbrellas in hand, we walked the grounds –the effect was, according to more than one Fellow, magical.

We finished the tour in the Main House Dining Room, where dinner was waiting for us – prepared by Shully’s Cuisine and drawn entirely from Alfred Lunt’s Cookbook. The menu included: cold vichyssoise, a perfect beef pot roast with potatoes and vegetables, and blueberry cake with fresh whipped cream. Alfred Lunt would have been proud – and full.

Befitting the history of the Lunts’ table – the charming conversation at dinner covered a wide range of topics – including: where American theatre is today and where it’s going, families and home communities, the nature and challenges of being a professional actor, why Al Pacino is so exceptional in Shakespeare in the Park, keeping great playwrights writing for the theatre, the exciting work that would be done during this week at Ten Chimneys, and a promise made by one Fellow to take a dip in the Lunts’ pool à la Noël Coward. (For the sake of discretion, I won’t be more specific.) The Fellows and Barry repeatedly expressed their enthusiasm for the week to come, and their appreciation for the opportunity at hand. At the end of dinner, the conversation turned toward the wonderful Lynn Redgrave, whose passing, as Barry said, “was a blow to all of us who value the theatre and love Shakespeare.” Everyone at the table was moved by the idea of dedicating their artistic work, and the entire week, to Lynn’s memory.

Monday, Barry and the Lunt-Fontanne Fellows begin that artistic work and dig in to their first master class sessions together. They can’t wait. Honestly, neither can I.

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