2026 Master Teacher
Phylicia Rashad

““I look forward to returning to Ten Chimneys; working with seasoned professionals, exploring possibilities.” ~Phylicia Rashad, 2026 LFFP Master Teacher

Phylicia Rashad is a legendary actor and acclaimed stage director, celebrated for her excellence in television, film, and Broadway. She is best known for her iconic role as Claire Huxtable on The Cosby Show and has earned multiple Emmy nominations for her performance as Carol Clarke in NBC's This Is Us. Her film credits include The Beekeeper, Creed (I, II, and III), Just Wright, and Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls, Good Deeds, A Fall From Grace, and Ruth and Boas.

On Broadway, Ms. Rashad’s portrayal of Lena Younger in A Raisin in the Sun garnered her a Tony and Drama Desk Award for Best Actress. She also performed in Skeleton Crew (Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Supporting Actress), August: Osage County, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and received a Tony nomination for her role as Aunt Ester in August Wilson’s Gem of The Ocean. In 2016, she was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame and received the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Leading Actress for her performance in Tarell Alvin McCraney's Head of Passes.

Ms. Rashad’s directing credits include Branden Jacobs Jenkins’ Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning Purpose, Immediate Family, Blues for An Alabama Sky, and six plays from August Wilson’s Century Cycle.

Academically esteemed, Ms. Rashad graduated Magna Cum Laude from Howard University. She has served as the Inaugural Dean of the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard and has been the Brand Ambassador for the National Trust for Historic Preservation's African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund since 2017. In 2023, she became Howard University’s inaugural holder of the Toni Morrison Endowed Chair in Arts and Humanities. As a performing arts educator, Ms. Rashad has conducted Master Classes at prestigious universities and is the first recipient of the Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre at Fordham University.

Master Teachers 2009-2025

Every year, Ten Chimneys selects and collaborates with a Master Teacher for the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program – a luminary stage actor whose talent, generosity, ability to teach, and dedication to mentoring are deeply admired by stage actors and the entire theater community. The Master Teacher for each year is a key collaborator in the program, working with Ten Chimneys staff to develop the curriculum, content, and focus of the artistic elements of the experience. During the first two years of the program, the top regional theater actors in the U.S. spent the artistic portion of their Ten Chimneys immersion delving into Shakespeare – with the late actress Lynn Redgrave in 2009 and renowned Shakespearean Barry Edelstein in 2010. In 2011, they explored Chekhov with the late actress Olympia Dukakis, and in 2012, the Lunt-Fontanne Fellows focused on American musical theater with Broadway legend Joel Grey. The 2013 program explored spontaneity on stage and was led by American icon, Alan Alda, and in 2014 the Fellows studied works related to the Lunts’ and their illustrious friends with David Hyde Pierce. In 2015 we welcomed Phylicia Rashad who led the class in roles that were “against type” and differentiated from the characters they typically were cast in. The 2016 program was led by Jason Alexander and focused on the physicalization of choice – the powerful collaboration of mind and body in building a performance. Our 2017 Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Class with Master Teacher Alfred Molina focused on developing fresh ways into character work through text analysis and casting against type. 2018’s Fellows led by Stephen McKinley Henderson concentrated on fortifying each actor with justified reality; reflecting that they are coming from an experience to an experience, to do something immediate, important, and compelling. In 2019 and 2022, Tyne Daly used poetry as a medium to focus on renewable energy. In 2023, Director Jerry Zaks worked with the actors on comedic timing. Stephen McKinley Henderson returned in 2024 to share his expertise with our Fellows on “acting against type.” 2025 Marsha Mason worked with actors on Chekhov's, The Cherry Orchard and how it lends itself as a backdrop to societal issues of today. Sadly, the Fellowship did not occur in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”