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Thanks To Everyone Who Helped Make Our 2012 Gala A Success!
Thanks to The Actors Fund’s 2012 Gala honorees Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara, Harry Belafonte and David Steiner! Photo by Lyn Hughes Photography.
Everyone in The Actors Fund family is still riding high from Monday night’s incredibly wonderful Gala, during which we honored David Steiner and Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara with our Medal of Honor, and Harry Belafonte with The Lee Strasberg Artistic Achievement Award. We’ll be posting video highlights of the evening soon, so keep an eye out for updates!
We are incredibly grateful to the many, many people who contributed to the evening’s success: Angela Lansbury, for opening the evening; Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and Douglas Steiner for honoring Medal of Honor awardee David Steiner; the Tony nominated star of End of the Rainbow Michael Cumpsty for making a special appeal for donations with some help from his co-star and co-nominee Tracie Bennett; Annette Bening for her amazing Actors Fund PSA; comic treasures Julie Halston, Charles Busch, Jason Alexander, Phyllis Newman & Lewis J. Stadlen, Ben Stiller, and Oscar winner Christopher Plummer for their hilarious and thoughtful tributes to Stiller & Meara; and Carmen deLavallade, Marge Champion, Tyne Daly, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Drum Circle and Judith Clurman’s Essential Voices USA, and The Honorable David Dinkins for their moving tributes to Harry Belafonte. Extra-special thanks go to our producers Abby Schroeder and Michael Kerker for putting on such a wonderfully moving and entertaining show!
And finally, we thank our honorees for their dedication to the entertainment industry, their commitment of social justice, and their support of The Actors Fund. We’ll also be posting their not-to-be-missed acceptance speeches, but in the meantime, here’s a bit of Stiller & Meara on Friday’s Morning Joe – we’re grateful they took some time to speak out for The Fund!
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.
Annette Bening Honored By Variety’s Power of Women For Her Work With The Fund
Annette Bening and Dreamworks' Stacey Snider were among Variety's Power of Women honorees.
Congratulations to Annette for being honored for her work with The Actors Fund at Variety’s third annual Power of Women luncheon last Friday. Annette, joined by her husband Warren Beatty, represented us at the event at the Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire in Los Angeles. Over 450 guests attended the luncheon, celebrating women in entertainment and the charities they support. (Other honorees included Mary J. Blige, Eva Longoria, Lea Michele, Stacey Snider, and Olivia Wilde).
Angela Lansbury introduces Annette Bening at the 3rd Annual Variety's Power of Women event, September 23, 2011 in Los Angeles.
Angela Lansbury was on hand to introduce Annette who delivered a riveting speech to guests. Thanks to Annette’s participation, The Fund received a full page ad that appeared on the morning of the event! Thanks for the support, Annette and Angela!
Read the article in Variety.
Download a pdf of our full page Variety ad.
View pictures and video of Annette and Angela at the event.
Curtain Call: The Julie Harris Award for Lifetime Achievement
It’s not too late to grab tickets for this weekend’s Tony Awards Party at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles, which will honor the incredible actor Hal Holbrook with The Actors Fund‘s Julie Harris Award for Lifetime Achievement. The gathering not only features the official Tony live feed–of course!–but also a special program hosted by Marilu Henner and featuring Sean Penn, who will present Mr. Holbrook with his award.
Be sure to view Marilu Henner’s appearance on Good Day LA, during which she talked up the Tony Party (skip to 2:10 to hear her promo The Fund!), and check out these photos of previous Julie Harris Award honorees from our archives.
2006 Julie Harris Award Winner Liza Minnelli
2005 Julie Harris Award Winner Stockard Channing (with Joanne Worley, Elaine Stritch and Jason Graee)
2004 Julie Harris Award Winner James Earl Jones (with Henry Winkler, Joanne Worley and Jason Alexander)
2009 Julie Harris Award Winner Chita Rivera (with daughter Lisa Mordente and Tippi Hedren)
2008 Julie Harris Award Winner Tommy Tune (with Carol Channing and Florence Henderson)
2010 Julie Harris Award Winner Brian Stokes Mitchell (with Annette Bening and Tommy Tune). Credit Bill Dow.
2007 Julie Harris Award Winner Jerry Herman, right (with composer and lyricist Jeff Marx, left)
The Actors Fund’s 2011 Gala Honors Bebe Neuwirth, Al Pacino, and Michael J. Stengel & Marriott International
Honorees Michael J. Stengel, Al Pacino and Bebe Neuwirth. Photo by Lyn Hughes.
On Monday night, stars, supporters and friends of The Actors Fund gathered at New York’s Marriott Marquis for the 2011 Actors Fund Gala. The evening celebrated this year’s two Medal of Honor winners, Bebe Neuwirth and Michael J. Stengel & Marriott International, as well as Al Pacino, recipient of the Lee Strasberg Artistic Achievement Award. Wonderfully, the event raised more than $1,000,000 to support The Actors Fund’s programs and services.
Check out the video below for a peek at the evening’s highlights!
Actors Fund Trustee Annette Bening, on Affordable Housing for Artists
[This article, by Annette Bening, appeared in our Fall 2010 issue of Marquee, The Newsletter of The Actors Fund. Ms. Bening recently joined The Actors Fund’s Board of Trustees. Click here to read this issue of Marquee, which outlines the full scope of The Fund’s supportive, affordable and senior housing initiatives.]
Annette Bening, The Actors Fund Trustee
Dear Friends,
Decent, affordable housing for working professionals, colleagues with special needs and seniors is essential. The Actors Fund is focused on building more opportunities for people who need housing. This issue of Marquee is devoted to all our housing programs and services, and I’d like to tell you why I want to help my colleagues in this way.
Working actors and others in show business need decent housing because earnings are low. Most people earn about $23,000 a year and have to live in urban areas with high costs of living. They also need access to good public transportation so they can get to and from auditions, evening performances and off-hour sessions and film shoots. Working in the arts, hours are seldom regular.
Also, seniors need a suitable place to retire for similar reasons.
Pensions are often modest, savings difficult to accumulate because
of the ups and downs of the business, and then there’s lifestyle —
it’s great to retire in a place with others who devoted their careers
to performing arts and entertainment.
A measure of our humanity is how we care for the ill among us.
We should be proud of how we help at our four residences — and
how the healthy and working join with the ill and disabled to build
community. The Actors Fund is devoted to caring for one another
and dedicated to collaborating with government, foundations,
individuals, unions and guilds, trade associations — everyone who
shares our commitment to supporting the Arts by helping the Artist.
Thank you for your support, and for your continued or future
support. Visit us online at actorsfund.org and make a tax-deductible
donation today.
Annette Bening, Trustee of The Actors Fund
The Actors Fund Blog 
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