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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.

Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program off to Perfect Start

July 13, 2009

LFFP Photos by Jim Brozek Photography © Ten Chimneys Foundation

Notes from Sean Malone – President, Ten Chimneys Foundation
Monday, July 13, 11:57 p.m.

This was an exciting day for Ten Chimneys, for the greater Milwaukee community, and for American Theatre. This afternoon, Ten Chimneys reassumed its historic role as “the place” for the nation’s top actors to convene – as we launched the groundbreaking Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program.

After arriving from across the country and settling in at the Delafield Hotel, Lynn Redgrave and the ten inaugural Lunt-Fontanne Fellows were thrilled to be able to experience Ten Chimneys for themselves. We started in the colorful and rustic Cottage Living Room, with Lynn and the ten Fellows introducing themselves to each other – sharing what theatre each represented, an overview of their work in their home city, kids, family, etc. The Fellows and Lynn repeatedly expressed their enthusiasm for the week to come, and their appreciation for the opportunity at hand.

It was a true pleasure to give this illustrious and inspiring group of actors a private tour of Ten Chimneys. We finished the tour in the Main House Dining Room, where a gourmet dinner was waiting for us, prepared by Scott Shully of Shully’s Cuisine, and drawn entirely from Alfred Lunt’s Cookbook. The menu included: cold vichyssoise soup, succulent beef pot roast, perfect risotto, beautifully-seasoned baked eggplant & tomatoes, a delightful Wisconsin cheese plate including berries picked from the Lunts’ estate, sinful crème brulee, and tasty pecan cookies. Alfred Lunt would have been proud. (We were all, certainly, very, very full.)

The dinner conversation was engaging, exciting, and exceedingly comfortable, including: stories about specific plays actors had created or seen, ideas about collaborative opportunities, anecdotes about performing Hay Fever at the National Theatre with Noël Coward (Lynn Redgrave does a fantastic Noël Coward impersonation), questions about how experiences in different cities/theatres compare with each other, thoughts about how theatres and communities deal with financial difficulties, and conjecture about the importance of clothing selection for men vs. women – and why.

Tomorrow Lynn and the Lunt-Fontanne Fellows dig in to their first master class sessions together. Richard III, Henry VI, and Antony & Cleopatra in the morning. Hamlet and King Lear in the afternoon.

It’s going to be a remarkable week.

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