Ten Chimneys Foundation on Facebook

eNews Sign Up

Darling, we’d love to give you the inside scoop on what’s going on at Ten Chimneys. Sign up for our email updates today and receive an e-coupon for $5.00 off Full Estate Tour admission(s).

Ten Chimneys Foundation's email list is strictly permission based - we do not sell or rent your email address.

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.

Lynn Redgrave Delights Public Audience on Day Five of Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program

July 17, 2009

LFFP Photos by Jim Brozek Photography © Ten Chimneys Foundation

Notes from Sean Malone – President, Ten Chimneys Foundation
Friday, July 17, actually 12:24 a.m. the next morning

The fifth day of this important and exciting program started with a break from Shakespeare, as Lynn Redgrave and the Lunt-Fontanne Fellows did a “table read” of the entire first act of Noël Coward’s Design for Living.

Noël, Alfred, and Lynn were close lifelong friends. Before any of the three of them had “broken through,” they would spend countless hours together in a modest (very modest) “theatrical boarding house.” Noël wrote the following in his diaries about those times together:

“From these shabby, congenial rooms we projected ourselves into future eminence. We discussed, the three of us, over delicatessen potato salad and dill pickles, our most secret dreams of success. Lynn and Alfred were to be married. That was the first plan. Then they were to become definitely idols of the public. That was the second plan. Then, all this being successfully accomplished, they were to act exclusively together. This was the third plan. It remained for me to supply the fourth, which was that when all three of us had become stars of sufficient magnitude to be able to count upon an individual following irrespective of each other, then, poised serenely upon that enviable plane of achievement, we would meet and act triumphantly together – and the theatre would have a new cosmos.”

The Lunts and Coward achieved each component of their “plan,” culminating in the overwhelming success of Design for Living on Broadway. Ms. Redgrave and the Fellows had great fun connecting with the spirit of Noël and the Lunts by digging into this timeless comedy.

In the afternoon, Lynn and the Fellows continued their intensive work on the Shakespearean monologues each had brought to explore. The group continued to gel into what felt more and more like a “company” of actors. Several times, Fellows would make comments like, “that reminds me of back when so-and-so was working on such-and-such-piece…” only to stop themselves with the realization that the “back when” was barely 24 hours earlier.

After another delicious dinner at Andrew’s, the restaurant at the Delafield Hotel, the Lunt-Fontanne Fellows joined 300 eager audience members for “A Conversation with Lynn Redgrave.” For the first half of the program, Lynn enthralled the audience with excerpts from her critically acclaimed Shakespeare for My Father – which was a smash hit in regional theatres, on Broadway, on a National Tour, and in London’s West End. This was a special treat for all of us, as Lynn does not perform the show anymore – since she finished her triumphant run in London over a decade ago. The excerpts she shared deeply moved the audience, recreating personal remembrances of Lynn’s relationship with her father and family. Lynn played every “character” in her family; as scenes grew in intensity and meaning, Lynn would transition from memoir into Shakespearean text – heightening the language, the emotion, and our (the audience’s) connection to both Lynn and Shakespeare. It was performed beautifully and skillfully and so very generously. Personally, I felt honored and lucky to be brought into Lynn’s family and world. And I know that my fellow audience members felt the same. She was astonishing.

After the intermission, Lynn charmingly answered questions from the audience, delighting everyone with anecdotes and insights about her career and her many co-stars.

I am compelled to mention that Lynn does a pitch perfect impersonation of Noël Coward, which has made me laugh every time she’s done it this week. So I’ll conclude today’s update by quoting Mr. Coward; after hearing Lynn act for the first time, at the first rehearsal of Hay Fever at The National Theatre, Noël shared with artistic director Laurence Olivier, “The little Redgrave girl [pause] is very, very clever.”

Top of Page

Ten Chimneys News