Kathleen Chalfant to Star in Keen Co's Benefit Broadcast of THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING

Keen Company is continuing its 2020-'21 Season with the benefit broadcast of The Year of Magical Thinking adapted from Joan Didion's best-selling memoir and starring Kathleen Chalfant in a one-woman tour de force performance.

"I am thrilled and honored to be reunited with Kathleen Chalfant on this beautiful play. Working with Kathleen for A Walk in the Woods was a highlight of my career and she is a brilliant match for Joan Didion's moving text. Didion's words are clear-eyed, inspiring and resonate on this one-year anniversary of the pandemic. We will be coming to you remotely, yet this intimate reading of Didion's play will make you feel you're in conversation with Chalfant and Didion," said Silverstein.

This one-night only event will feature an exclusive talkback after the show with artists. Benefit tickets are only $25 and are available at www.keencompany.org.

Tickets to this and all fundraiser events this season will support Keen Company's Hear/Now audio theater season, as well as Keen's Playwrights Lab for mid-career writers, and Keen Teens which serves students in all five boroughs of NYC.

Adapted from Joan Didion's award-winning best-selling memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking explores the author's poignant journey of grief following concurrent and tragic personal events. Written with Didion's trademark style of cool wit and clever observation, along with a heartbreaking personal story, The Year of Magical Thinking is a moving and theatrical look at the extraordinary resilience of the human heart.

The Year of Magical Thinking will be a live streamed video performance. The one-woman show will run approximately 90 minutes with no intermission. All ticket buyers will have access to The Year of Magical Thinking on Saturday March 13th at 7pm EST when the event premieres, through to Wednesday March 17th at 7pm EST.

In a career spanning more than five decades, Kathleen Chalfant's performances on stage, screen and television have garnered her praise and acclaim from critics and audiences alike. Perhaps best known for her shattering portrayal of Vivian Bearing, a scholar battling cancer, in Wit, she received the Obie, the Drama Desk, the Lucille Lortel, the Outer Critics Circle, the Ovation, Connecticut Critics Circle, the Garland and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards for her work. Broadway credits include Angels in America (Tony and Drama Desk nom.), Racing Demon, Dance With Me. Her Off-Broadway credits include A Woman of the World, Wit (Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, Connecticut Critics Circle, Obie Awards), For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday, Keen Company's revival of A Walk in the Woods (Drama Desk nomination), Tales from Red Vienna, Miss Ovington & Dr. Du Bois, Talking Heads (Obie Award), Dead Man's Cell Phone, Nine Armenians (Drama Desk nomination), Henry V (Callaway Award). Other NY credits: The Vagina Monologues, Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Endgame, Sister Mary Ignatius..., The Investigation of the Murder in El Salvador. Film: Isn't it Delicious?, R.I.P.D., The Bath, In Bed With Ulysses, Lillian, Duplicity, The People Speak, Lackawanna Blues, Perfect Stranger, Dark Water, Kinsey, Laramie Project, Random Hearts, A Price Below Rubies, Murder and Murder. Select TV: Recurring on "The Affair," "The Strain," "The Americans," "House of Cards," "Rescue Me," "The Book of Daniel," "The Guardian," "Law and Order" "One Life to Live"; "Madam Secretary," "High Maintenance," "Elementary," "Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight" (HBO), "Georgia O'Keeffe" (Lifetime), "Voices from the White House" (PBS). Awards: 1996 OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence, 2004 Lortel Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance, 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award from the League of Professional Women. 2018 OBIE Award for Lifetime Achievement. She has received the Drama League and Sidney Kingsley Awards for her body of work and hold an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from Cooper Union.

The Year of Magical Thinking is part of a series of all-star benefit broadcasts, including Howard Koch's legendary adaptation of War of the Worlds which aired in October 2020 starring Jason Tam, Keen Company's Holiday Variety Hour which aired in December 2020 featuring Keen alumni, and Sorry, Wrong Number by Lucille Fletcher which aired earlier in February and starred Marsha Mason.

Keen Company is an award-winning Off-Broadway theater creating story-driven work that provokes identification, reflection, and emotional connection. In intimate productions of plays and musicals, the company tells stories about the decisive moments that change us. Keen also runs a developmental new work initiative for mid-career playwrights and a unique educational outreach program for teens in all five boroughs of NYC.

As part of Keen Company's 21st Season, the company will be producing a year of audio theater. Hear/Now welcomes patrons into a theater of their imagination - now through June 2021 - featuring the world premiere of new audio plays by Pearl Cleage, Kate Cortesi, finkle, James Anthony Tyler, and musical team Melissa Li & Kit Yan.

All new audio plays will be released completely free for patrons on Keen Company's website as well as through popular podcast platforms. For early access and exclusive perks, support Keen Company by joining as a season member. Membership levels start at just $1 a month and bonus content, including talkbacks with playwrights and artists, panels with experts, behind the scenes interviews, digital programs, opening night premiere parties, and more. Look for Hear/Now on your podcast app and learn more about membership packages at www.keencompany.org.

Up next at Keen Company will be the World Premiere of Digging in the Dark by Pearl Cleage (Blues for an Alabama Sky), an audio piece premiering February 26th. You can also join the company every Monday night at 6:30pm for Keen After Hours, a free interview show chatting with stars of stage and screen. Episodes stream live on the Keen Company website, as well as our Facebook and YouTube pages.

For more information on The Year of Magical Thinking or any of Keen's programs, visit KeenCompany.org.