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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.

Lynn Redgrave to Return as Lunt-Fontanne Master Teacher

October 12, 2009

Lynn Redgrave was such a powerfully insightful leader for the inaugural year of the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program that Ten Chimneys Foundation invited her to return in 2010 to work with a new class of the country’s top regional theatre actors. Ms. Redgrave enthusiastically agreed.


“I am honored to return to Ten Chimneys in 2010,” said Lynn Redgrave. “What Ten Chimneys Foundation is accomplishing with this program is just wonderful. This kind of opportunity simply hasn’t existed before, anywhere. And it’s so important; it’s so meaningful. I am proud and excited to be a part of the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program.”

Following two years as the inaugural Master Teacher (2009-2010), Lynn Redgrave will serve as a bridge to the third year of the program by working with the next Master Teacher and guiding the 2011 process.

With Ms. Redgrave confirmed as the 2010 Master Teacher – this fall, Ten Chimneys Foundation will select and invite ten of the most prestigious and accomplished regional theatres in the country to serve as Partner Theatres for the second year of this groundbreaking national program to serve regional theatre actors and the future of American theatre. This winter, each Partner Theatre will be invited to nominate the “master actors” of their communities, to be considered for recognition as Lunt-Fontanne Fellows. (The same process was undertaken for the highly successful inaugural year of the program.)


Defining what it takes to become a Lunt-Fontanne Fellow developed out of the question: Where do the mentors go to be mentored? “There are actors in great theatre cities across the country who are the master actors of their communities,” explained Sean Malone , President of Ten Chimneys Foundation. “They have over twenty years of experience as professional actors and are widely respected by audiences, directors, and fellow actors for their talent, dedication to craft, and passionate pursuit of excellence – the qualities for which Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were so revered. These remarkable artists have few, if any, opportunities to be protégé rather than mentor. They are the best of the best, their communities’ theatre mentors. These are the actors who will be named Lunt-Fontanne Fellows every year.”

The selected 2010 Lunt-Fontanne Fellows will be announced in the spring of 2010. The nine-day retreat and master class with Lynn Redgrave will take place July 10-18, 2010 – and will focus on Shakespeare. (The program has been lengthened from the inaugural year, to give Ms. Redgrave and the Lunt-Fontanne Fellows even more time to retreat and to delve into their work together.)

“Lynn Redgrave was an extraordinary teacher and leader,” said Mr. Malone. “Her talent, and generosity, and intellect, and intuition created an experience that is already having a ripple effect on American theatre. I am thrilled beyond words that the 2010 Partner Theatres will have the opportunity to send their communities’ top actors to have the same experience this inaugural class of Fellows has had.”


“Lynn Redgrave is astounding. She is completely open, utterly gracious, and un-judgmental about the work that she sees. She has given some of the most insightful notes that I have ever experienced in my life. She can say to an actor in one line something that will completely and utterly change their point of view, and completely and utterly change their performance.”
– Mary Beth Fisher, 2009 Lunt-Fontanne Fellow, nominated by Chicago ’s Goodman Theatre, Chicago


“This week has been more than inspirational; it’s been transformational. Honestly, I look at my career, and – really – my life, now, as ‘before Ten Chimneys’ and ‘after Ten Chimneys.’”
– Naomi Jacobson, 2009 Lunt-Fontanne Fellow, nominated by Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS AVAILABLE You can view “video highlight reels” of Lynn Redgrave and the 2009 inaugural Lunt-Fontanne Fellows, including reflections on their experiences and excerpts from the Concluding Presentation, when Lynn and the Fellows treated a live audience to a behind-the-scenes look at the master class process. The videos are available at http://www.tenchimneys.org/videos or http://www.youtube.com/user/tenchimneys.

The Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program was created by Ten Chimneys Foundation, with a generous lead grant from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation.

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