Internationally renowned actor, Golden Globe Winner, and multiple Emmy Nominee Matthew Modine and TONY-Award Nominee and Broadway Star Melissa Errico star in a unique dramatic presentation drawn from the passionate letters of Thomas Jefferson and painter/composer/musician Maria Cosway, intertwined with the performance of music mentioned in their correspondance, including works by Sacchini, Hewitt, and rarely performed compositions by Cosway herself.
Featuring performances by Jessica Gould, soprano and Karim Sulayman, tenor with Members of the Clarion Society Orchestra Stage Direction by Erica Gould
A Benefit for Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Protean genius and primary architect of the Doctrine of Separation of Church and State, Jefferson was also an accomplished violinist and four-year resident of Paris before he became our third President. His romance with the married, Italian-born painter/composer/musician Maria Cosway during his post as Minister Plenipotentiary to France leaves a trove of letters which render the soundscape of the French Revolution with startling precision. This performance will combine a theatrical presentation of excerpts from their passionate correspondence, which continued for forty years, interwoven with performances of the music they heard. Repertoire will include selections from Sacchini’s opera Dardanus, songs by James Hewitt, and rare compositions by Cosway herself. More Between Heaven and Earth is part of a larger artistic endeavor to "reclaim the Founding Fathers from the Tea Party." A portion of the proceeds from the performance will be donated to Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
DATE:
Saturday, December 17th, 2011
TIME:
8:00pm
LOCATION:
The AbiGail Adams Smith Auditorium
417 East 61st Street Between 1st and York Avenues
TICKETS:
$100 front seating, $50 rear seating, $35 students with ID
To reserve tickets, please go to http://www.salonsanctuary.org
In addition to being an internationally renowned actor, Matthew Modine is also a filmmaker, writer, and photographer. He has worked with many of the film industry’s most acclaimed directors on films which include, Birdy, Full Metal Jacket, Married to the Mob, and Shortcuts and more recently Showtime's Weeds. He has been nominated for multiple Emmys and is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award, Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup and Golden Lion for his work as an actor. Last year he starred as the iconic Atticus Finch in a theatrical adaptation of Harper Lee’s classic novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, at the Hartford Stage, which proved to be the most successful hit production in Hartford Stage's 45-year history. He most recently was seen in the Broadway revival of The Miracle Worker. He is currently filming the The Dark Knight Rises.
An activist and a passionate environmentalist, his passion for protecting our natural environment began while studying oceanography in college. Matthew is the founder of Bicycle For A Day (BFAD), a global initiative focused on promoting the use of bicycles for transportation, to improve ones personal health, to reduce dependence on foreign oil and to reduce the poisonous effects carbon emissions have on our environment. In 1994, Matthew created what has become a practice throughout the entire motion picture industry. He created a budget that demonstrated how a single agency could save millions of sheets of paper and cut their paper cost and shipping budgets in half - by simply double-siding scripts. He encouraged the famous William Morris Agency to take this step and all the film industry followed suite. Double-sided printing of scripts has resulted in a savings of an estimated 13 millions sheets of paper each year, or 208,000,000 sheets since 1994.
Melissa Errico Called "divine," "the voice of enchantment," and "one of the most valuable assets of the musical theater" by The New York Times, Melissa has starred in seven Broadway musicals, including Amour, composed by multi-Oscar-winning composer Michel Legrand (Yentl), for which she was nominated for a TONY Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, High Society, Anna Karenina, Dracula, and the 2009-2010 Broadway revival of White Christmas. Melissa's career began as Cosette in Les Miserables when she was only 18, for which she took a leave of absence from Yale University and returned to graduate with high honors and an art history/philosophy degree. That year, she went on to star as Eliza Doolittle in Fair Lady on Broadway, a role she reprised opposite John Lithgow at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in 2003. In 2002, Melissa starred with Raul Esparza in The Sondheim Celebration's Sunday In The Park With George at The Kennedy Center, for which Stephen Sondheim wrote some new lyrics for her interpretation of Dot. She has also appeared opposite Jeremy Irons in Camelot at the Hollywood Bowl, a performance she reprised with Jeremy Irons in the summer of 2011 for one-night only on Broadway at The Shubert Theater. In 2010, Melissa was nominated for Best Actress in a Play at the Drama Desk Awards for her work in the title role of George Bernard Shaw's Candida, and during the summer of 2011, Melissa co-starred with Alec Baldwin in Gift Of The Gorgon by Peter Shaffer. Her film credits include Frequency, Life Or Something Like It (opposite Angelina Jolie), and the independent film Patrimony. She has been a series regular on Darren Starr's CBS show Central Park West and appeared in numerous network guest star roles, including on Six Degrees and Miss Match.
