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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.

Day Four of Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program Inspires and Surprises

July 16, 2009

LFFP Photos by Jim Brozek Photography © Ten Chimneys Foundation

Notes from Sean Malone – President, Ten Chimneys Foundation
Thursday, July 16, 11:35 p.m.

The fourth day of the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship program was an inspirational experience. Lynn Redgrave and the inaugural Lunt-Fontanne Fellows (selected as the premier actors in top regional theatre cities across the country) spent all morning and all afternoon together delving into monologues that the Fellows had brought to explore with Lynn. The morning master class was in the Lunt-Fontanne Program Center, the afternoon in the Lunts’ beautiful mural-filled Drawing Room.

Each actor spent about 45 minutes working on the monologue they brought; all of the other Fellows, along with Lynn, shared and discussed insights, questions, and ideas with the actor who was sharing. Honestly, it’s difficult to express in words how moving the experience was to watch these actors work with Lynn and each other. Each of these monologues was deeply engaging and poignant the first time they were shared. Their evolution over such a short period of time was astounding, and completely unexpected. The entire room was brought to tears multiple times (very much including me).

Here’s who did what during the day:

• Suzanne Bouchard from Seattle Repertory Theatre: Rosaline from Love’s Labour’s Lost

• Dan Donohue from Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Richard II

• Lee Ernst from Milwaukee Repertory Theater: Hamlet
• Mary Beth Fisher from the Goodman Theatre: Gertrude from Hamlet
• Jon Gentry from Arizona Theatre Company: Hamlet
• Francis Guinan from Steppenwolf Theatre Company: Hamlet

• Naomi Jacobson from Arena Stage: Cleopatra
• Kim Staunton from Denver Center Theatre Company: Lady Macbeth
• Jack Willis from American Conservatory Theater: Capulet from Romeo and Juliet

Thursday was also a day where the Fellows shared reflections of their experience at Ten Chimneys. A crew from Public Television filmed interviews with each Fellow, Public Radio interviewed Lynn and the Fellows, and American Theatre Magazine and Backstage Magazine both did interviews for national features. (Teresa Eyring, the Executive Director of Theatre Communications Group, the national organization for non-profit theatre in America, flew in from New York to observe the program – and also talked with the Fellows about their experiences.)

The reflections that Lynn and the Lunt-Fontanne Fellows shared were so personal and eloquent. In the coming weeks, I’ll find a way to share many of them with you. For now, I thought I would share one quote from Fellow Kim Staunton’s interview for Public Television.

“More than anything, beyond being a magical experience, it’s also been an inspirational experience – just what I needed to come into my life right now. I’m now back to that passionate thing that made everything possible for me when I started doing this 20 years ago. I understand it from the Lunts’ perspective now. I understand it from these brilliant Fellows that I’m working with now – their passion, and their commitment, and their talent. I understand it from Ms. Redgrave now – who is one of the greatest actresses in the world, and comes from one of the greatest acting families. So between that and the Lunts – my God. Inspiration? It’s beyond inspiration.”

After a day of powerful work and insightful reflection, the Fellows were treated to a summer supper party on Pine Lake, at the home of a Ten Chimneys Trustee – for good food, good conversation, a lovely lake view, and even an outdoor showing of The Guardsman, the Lunts’ only movie together. It was a surprising and inspirational day. And tomorrow promises even more.

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