On August 3rd, Faith Healer, starring Ralph Fiennes and Cherry Jones, offered a special performance to benefit the Actors' Fund of America, and stars such as Billy Porter, Michael Cerveris and Kathy Brier turned out to catch the show.
Brian Friel's Faith Healer, also starring Tony Award-winner Ian McDiarmid, opened at the Booth Theatre on May 4th. Jonathan Kent directs. The show "tells the moving tale of dissolute, charismatic Frank Hardy (Fiennes), his long-time lover (Jones) and his devoted manager (McDiarmid) as they travel the back roads of Scotland and Wales peddling miracles. As the three wrestle with Hardy's genuine but elusive gift for healing, they ask potent questions about who we trust, what we know and why we believe," state press notes.
The Actors' Fund, which was founded in 1882, is a non-profit organization that provides for the social welfare of all entertainment professionals. Some of the many programs The Actors' Fund provides include a nursing home and assisted living care facility; senior and disabled programs; mental health services; chemical dependency services; entertainment industry assistance programs; the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative; the AIDS Initiative; and supportive housing on both coasts.
Visit www.actorsfund.org for more information.
Billy Porter and friends
Kathy Brier and her mother
Michael Cerveris and sister-in-law Angela Reed
Doing her part to conserve energy in the heat wave, Cherry Jones arrived on bicycle to join castmate Ralph Fiennes
Full cast and crew for the benefit
