Actor Many Beth Fisher Named One of Eleven Inaugural Fellows

CHICAGO ACTOR Mary Beth Fisher

NAMED ONE OF ELEVEN INAUGURAL LUNT-FONTANNE FELLOWS

 

Ten Chimneys Foundation, the National Historic Landmark estate of Broadway legends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, has chosen Mary Beth Fisher as one of its eleven inaugural fellows to participate in the LUNT-FONTANNE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM, a groundbreaking national program to serve regional theater actors and the future of American Theater.  Fisher, who was nominated by Goodman Theatre, will receive a cash fellowship and participate in an intensive week-long master class and retreat at Ten Chimneys with a world-renowned and respected master teacher; acclaimed actress Lynn Redgrave will be the first master teacher in the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program.  In addition to a prolific, award-winning career on Broadway, in London, and in film and television, Ms. Redgrave was named in honor of Lynn Fontanne – making her a particularly meaningful choice to launch this important program. 

Eleven of the most prestigious and accomplished regional theaters in the country were invited to nominate multiple actors for consideration to be named LUNT-FONTANNE FELLOWS.  All of the actors who were nominated for this honor: have 20-plus years of experience as professional actors; are widely considered among the top actors in their community; and are widely respected by audiences, directors, and fellow actors for their talent, dedication to craft, attention to detail, and passionate pursuit of excellence – the qualities for which Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were so revered.  With the guidance of a National Advisory Council, Ten Chimneys Foundation selected the "best of the best" from these nominees to be the inaugural Lunt-Fontanne Fellows.

 About Mary Beth Fisher

 In a wide variety of roles over the past two decades, Mary Beth Fisher has graced Chicago's stages including the Goodman (Frank's Home, The Clean House, Heartbreak House, Dinner with Friends, The Rose Tattoo, The Guys, Design for Living, Light Up the Sky, The Night of the Iguana, Marvin's Room, Spinning into Butter and Boy Gets Girl); Court Theatre (Arcadia, What the Butler Saw, The Glass Menagerie, Travesties and The Importance of Being Earnest), Steppenwolf (Dead Man's Cell Phone, The Dresser and The Memory of Water); Writers' Theatre (My Own Stranger); Northlight Theatre (Away); and About Face Theatre (The Little Dog Laughed, Theatre District).  New York credits include The Night of the Iguana at Roundabout Theatre Company; Boy Gets Girl, The Radical Mystique and By the Sea… at Manhattan Theatre Club and Extremeties at Westside Arts. At Boston's Huntington Theatre, she recently completed a run of Richard Nelson's How Shakespeare Won the West. Television and film credits include Without a Trace, Numbers, Prison Break, NYPD Blue, Profiler, To Have and to Hold, Turks, Early Edition and the award-winning short film Safe Storage.

For Goodman Theatre's nomination, Associate Producer Steve Scott wrote, "In a community overflowing with actors of exceptional talent, Mary Beth Fisher is without peer.  She brings a fierce intelligence, a meticulous craft, and an amazing emotional breadth and depth to each of her roles, and these qualities have made her a genuine treasure in the world of Chicago theater.  Although she has appeared on virtually every stage in our city (and has worked with a whole fleet of regional and New York companies), much of her most distinctive work has been at Goodman Theatre, where she has shone in an astonishing variety of roles: the trashy sister in Marvin's Room, a dizzy socialite in Heartbreak House, the uptight doctor in Sarah Ruhl's The Clean House, the beleaguered wife in Dinner with Friends.  Her most celebrated work at the Goodman has come in her collaborations with playwright Rebecca Gilman; her unique blend of rueful irony, passionate intelligence, and emotional honesty led to indelible portrayals of the central heroines in the premiere productions of Spinning into Butter and Boy Gets Girl.  Above all, Mary Beth is an ensemble player in the best sense of that term: a compassionate mentor for younger actors, an energetic and upbeat collaborator in the rehearsal room, and a consummate professional in every aspect of her work and her life.  For all of us who have had the good fortune of working with and knowing Mary Beth, she is that rarity: a theater artist at the top of her game whose skill and artistry are matched by her offstage generosity and great good spirit.  She brings honor and honesty to every endeavor with which she is associated, and we are thrilled to count her among our family of artists."

Other inaugural LUNT-FONTANNE FELLOWS include: Suzanne Bouchard, Seattle Repertory Theatre (Seattle); Dan Donohue: Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Ashland); Lee Ernst: Milwaukee Repertory Theater (Milwaukee); Jon Gentry: Arizona Theatre Company (Phoenix and Tucson); Donald Griffin: ALLIANCE THEATRE (Atlanta); Francis Guinan: Steppenwolf Theatre Company (Chicago); Naomi Jacobson:  Arena Stage (Washington, D.C.); Kim Staunton: Denver Center Theatre Company (Denver); Todd Waite: Alley Theatre (Houston); and Jack Willis: American Conservatory Theatre (San Francisco).

About Ten Chimneys Foundation

Ten Chimneys is the home and retreat of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, widely considered the greatest acting couple in American theatre history.  (The estate is fully restored to its original glory.  With all of its contents and personal mementos in place, it looks just as it did in the 1930s and '40s, when friends like Helen Hayes, Noël Coward, Katherine Hepburn, and countless others visited the Lunts summer after summer.)  For much of the 20^th century, Ten Chimneys was the center of the theatrical universe – an important place for the luckiest of artists to retreat, rejuvenate, and collaborate.  The Lunts were known for their dedication to the "next generation" of actors.  They reveled in mentoring young actors.  Legends such as Laurence Olivier, Uta Hagen, Montgomery Clift, and Julie Harris proudly considered themselves protégés of the Lunts.  The Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program continues that tradition of mentorship – as Ten Chimneys reassumes its historic role as a powerful resource and inspiration for American theatre.

 

 

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