More Holiday Cheer From The Lillian Booth Actors Home

Residents and guests enjoy the Holiday performance in the The Lillian Booth Actors Home's MusiCares Salon. Photo by Karissa Krenz.

The Holiday festivities at The Actors Fund’s Lillian Booth Actors Home continued on December 15th, when more than 90 family members and friends joined residents for the annual Holiday Party. There was fabulous food, as well as entertainment by American Guild of Variety Artists members Betsy DiLellio, Darryl Reuben Hall, Kelly Briscoe and Ron Brooks. The party wrapped up after performances by a few of the residents, which included a sing-along that featured some of the song suggestions we’ve received from you over the past few weeks.

Additionally, two of the day’s visitors were from The Wall Street Journal – writer Lizzie Simon and photographer Claudio Papapietro – who filed a wonderful on The Home, which appeared in the paper on December 23rd. Download a pdf from our website here.

A wonderful time was had by all – check out the video below for some of the sights and sounds from the party!

The Lillian Booth Actors Home of The Actors Fund is a state-of-the-art an assisted living and skilled nursing facility  in Englewood, NJ, for everyone who has dedicated their lives to performing arts and entertainment. Click here to learn more about The Home and its services.

Howard McGillin Brings A Little Phantom To The Lillian Booth Actors Home

Howard McGillin with Lillian Booth Actors Home resident Jennie Shulman

It’s been an especially eventful December at the Lillian Booth Actors Home (more to come next week!). On December 5th, John Erman (our fabulous Actors Fund supporter who donates his time and talent to make special monthly visits by celebrities and entertainment legends possible) and Tony and Drama Desk Award nominee Howard McGillin stopped by The Home to spend some time with the residents. Set to be seen as Frank Crawley in the upcoming production of Rebecca at the Broadhurst Theatre, Howard spoke about his life in the industry, which includes his record-setting run as the longest running Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. He also treated the residents to a few show-stopping tunes, accompanied by pianist Joseph Thalken.

Howard with resident Gordon Connell

And just in case you want to see the show Howard dedicated so much of his career to, The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway is about to become the first production ever to hit 10,000 performances on February 11, 2012. Amazingly, that record-setting event will benefit The Actors Fund! Don’t miss it – visit our website for tickets.

The Actors Fund’s Lillian Booth Actors Home is an assisted living and skilled nursing care facility that provides a comfortable living environment on six acres of property in Englewood, New Jersey. Click here to learn more about The Home and its services.

Don’t Miss December’s Special Performances Curtain Speeches: Andrew Rannells in The Book of Mormon and Joel Grey in Anything Goes

The last few weeks have been jam-packed with incredible events benefiting The Actors Fund. From events in Los Angeles (a Musical Monday with Betty Buckley and a reading of It’s a Wonderful Life at the Geffen Playhouse) to New York (performances of The Visit starring Chita Rivera and John Cullum and Meredith Willson’s Miracle on 34th Street) our minds are absolutely spinning at the amount of amazing talent – including actors, musicians, directors, dressers, make-up artists, stage managers, company managers, theatre managers, press agents, and many others – who are donating their time throughout the busy holiday season to support The Fund.

The Book of Mormon cast with Actors Fund Trustee Bebe Neuwirth before the December 7th Special Performance. Photo by Jay Brady.

This past week also featured two fabulous Actors Fund Special Performances, the amazingly electric shows that have been a popular part of the entertainment community for more than 80 years. Each year, Broadway companies in New York and on the road add an additional performance to one of their already exhausting eight-show weeks. Everyone involved – actors, musicians, crew, ushers, and more – generously donate their time so that all proceeds go to support The Actors Fund.

On December 7th, The Book of Mormon – the Tony-winning can’t-get-tickets-to-it show – finally had a chance to give its Special Performance, as the original date in September fell victim to the wrath of Hurricane Irene. An excited audience packed the Eugene O’Neill Theatre a Wednesday at 1pm, and in a single matinee the show’s team raised $250,000 to support The Fund’s programs and services! Andrew Rannells (Elder Price), followed the curtain call with this heartfelt curtain speech:

The company of Anything Goes. Photo by Jay Brady.

A few days later, the Roundabout Theatre Company‘s production of Anything Goes gave a spectacular Sunday night performance to a sold-out house, featuring the ailing Sutton Foster’s understudy Kristen Beth Williams. After the show, Tony and Oscar–winning legend Joel Grey gave one of the most incredible Actors Fund curtain speeches to date, kicking off with a little Cabaret treat. He went on to talk about his amazing Actors Fund Special Performance history (which began with Cabraret in the 1960s), then read an emotional text from Sutton Foster, who had so wished she could be there, which thanked Kristen for stepping in with her wonderful interpretation of Reno Sweeney.

The Fund would like to thank the actors, musicians, stage managers, theater managers, company managements, and the many others that are part of both of these wonderful shows – and all of the productions that offer Special Performances – for donating their time so that all proceeds go to The Actors Fund.

We can’t wait for January’s upcoming Special Performances of Follies (January 15) and Relatively Speaking (January 29), and are looking forward to the many, many more to come! To purchase tickets to these or any of our upcoming events benefiting The Fund, visit our website.

The Latest Actors Fund Podcast Is Now Available – Finanical Wellness Part 1: Organizing Expenses

The fifth installment in The Actors Fund‘s ongoing Podcast Series begins a conversation about financial wellness, specifically money management. This eleven-minute video offers a few steps that will help you organize your expenses in order to better understand and manage your cash flow. Knowing traditional budgets are not always flexible enough for those in the entertainment and performing arts industry, creating a good template for a basic month of expenditures is a tremendously helpful tool to have in order to plan for a financial cushion to help you through the dry spells. There’s even a budget outflow worksheet you can download to get you on your way to developing a positive, healthy relationship with money. After all, taking care of your money is just a regular part of taking care of yourself.

This episode features SAG and Actors’ Equity member Nancy Johnston, who you’ve seen on Broadway in The Secret Garden, The Music Man, and Elf, as well nationally in countless regional theatre productions and as Hold Me Touch Me in The Producers First National Tour. “The Actors Fund pulled me out of the fire on three occasions,” says Nancy. “Whenever I’m in a show and the time comes to raise money for The Fund, I always volunteer to spearhead those campaigns. And when Tim Pinckney called me about this project, I said, ‘Oh yes, what hoop can I jump through for you!’ It comes right back — it’s paying it forward.”

The rest of The Actors Fund Podcast Series is available on our website. And check back for our next installment!

The Actors Fund would like to extend special thanks to those individuals who graciously donated their time and resources to this series. Chaim Cantor, President of the New York Chapter of the IATSE Local 600 Cinematographers Union, who recruited the fabulous crew: Peter Barrow, Desirée Oritz, Glynis Burke, Annette Lian-Williams, Russell Costanzo, Mitch Jacobsen, and Alyssa Trumper. The Fund also thanks scriptwriter and WGA member Halayne Eherneberg, as well our fabulous SAG actors: Diedre Goodwin, Michael Iannucci, Nancy Johnston, and Michael McCoy. Visit http://www.actorsfund.org to learn more about the series and to view the latest podcast.