Upcoming Events
2nd Annual Broadway Softball Yankee Stadium, 6/14, New York
Worst Audition Ever, 6/18, New York
Sardi’s Lunch with Audra McDonald & Norm Lewis, 6/21, New York
The Lion King, Special Performance, 6/21, Greenville, NC
Rock of Ages, Special Performance, 6/26, New York
CelebriTEE Golf and Tennis Outing, 7/9, Tenafly, NJ
..........................................................................
AFHDC & Artspace Team Up For Affordable Housing in LA
 At the beginning of June, The Actors Fund Housing Development Corporation (AFHDC) and the Minneapolis–based Artspace formalized a new partnership to help create affordable artist housing as part of Los Angeles’s Broadway Arts Center. For the past year-and-a-half, AFHDC and Artspace have been part of the team of organizations working to revitalize LA’s historic downtown, helping to, among other things, oversee an important affordable housing/commercial market study, the preliminary results of which have shown the viability of the Broadway Arts Center project.And further illustrating the viability of this project, the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs announced on June 12 that the Broadway Arts Center will receive a $470,000 grant from ArtPlace—a new national grantmaking consortium dedicated to transforming communities with strategic investments in the arts. On hand for the announcement—which included three other grantees in Downtown LA—were Keith McNutt, Actors Fund; Olga Garay-English, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs; Jessica Wethington-McLean, Bringing Back Broadway and Council Member José Huizar, Scott Weiner, Actors Fund Housing Development Corporation; Teri Deaver, Artspace; Tim Halbur, Artplace; Travis Preston, California Institute of the Arts; and Aileen Adams, Office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Photo credit: Scott Appel.
For more information on this exciting new partnership read our press releases, and to view the results of the study, click here.
..........................................................................
The Actors Fund helps...
Kathleen
“I probably would have been wherever they put you—6 feet under or something by now…So I really love the place…! I wish every doctor was like this.”
When Kathleen, an IATSE Local 306 Broadway usher, had difficulty breathing she ended up in the emergency room where she was misdiagnosed with a sore throat. Friends brought her to the Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic, where she was correctly diagnosed with asthma and provided with the care she needed. Read Kathleen’s story.
..........................................................................
Five Questions for...
Jason Alexander
“When the arts are dismissed as expendable, it is tantamount to saying that humanity is expendable.”
Congratulations to Tony Award® winning actor Jason Alexander who received the Julie Harris Award at our June 10 Tony Awards® Viewing Party in Los Angeles! Jason took a little time to share his dream role (Sweeney Todd), his passionate support for the arts and The Fund, and his musical tastes as a self-proclaimed “cast album junkie.” Read the interview.
..........................................................................
Faces of The Fund:
The Health Services Team
Our Health Services Team works hard at keeping our community healthy. In 2011, the Team logged:
• 1,400 visits to the Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic
• 174 visits for free health care at The Performing Artists’ Medical Clinic in Los Angeles
• 350,000 visitors to AHIRC.org for assistance in accessing affordable health insurance
• 2,000+ people counseled nationally on affordable health insurance options
• And more!
Meet the Team on our Blog.
Healthy artists means healthy arts! Join The Actors Fund and you’ll not only help artists in need, you’ll also get access to the best seats in the house, receive our Marquee newsletter, with real stories on how your donations help our community, plus the latest on our exciting events. In New York, call Judy Fish at 212.221.7300 ext. 127 or email jfish@actorsfund.org. In Los Angeles, call Meg at 323.330.2434 or email mthomas@actorsfund.org.
..........................................................................
STARRRS Teach in NYC Public Schools
 “My students tapped into an artistic appreciation they didn't even know they had.”
--Samantha Fisher, NYC Public School Teacher, PS 141, Brooklyn
Samantha Fisher, a teacher with 17 years experience working with emotionally disturbed kids, shared this brief video clip of one of her students talking about how excited he was to learn from our STARRRS teachers using improv and dance techniques that were new to him.
Our STARRRS (Substitute Teachers for the Arts and the 3 R’s) program is an innovative collaboration between The Actors Fund Work Program (AWP) and the New York City Board of Education. AWP members are trained and licensed as substitute teachers in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, and Staten Island, where they enter schools and provide highly energized and creative experiences for kids all over the city!
Thanks to your support, STARRRS are teaching in NYC Public Schools! Watch the video.
..........................................................................
What’s In Store?
Looking for a good summer read? In My Father Was a Bit Player, Joan Cunningham writes with beautiful clarity and graceful humor about her extraordinary childhood, including her recruitment to attend Shirley Temple’s fifth birthday party; how she came to witness the legendary back lot burning of Atlanta, and what it was like to cheer her own dad’s larger than-life appearances on the big screen as a bit player in ’30s and ’40s Hollywood (in films like Gold Diggers of 1937, Kid Galahad and Tom, Dick and Harry, in which he played Ginger Rogers’s father). Joan is a member of The Friar’s Club and The Actors Fund, and royalties from the sale of the book benefit The Fund! Visit our online Store to purchase. Or upload the book to your Kindle!
Look for our featured items in each issue of enews. Our Store is THE online hub for tickets to our legendary Special Performances and many unique gifts—and proceeds help in our industry in need! Now that’s being a real arts supporter!
Shop now to support The Fund.
..........................................................................
Worst Audition Ever at Joe’s Pub
 Q: What happens when you combine a group of actors...their most humiliating audition stories...and cocktails...LOTS of cocktails?
A: Join us at Joe’s Pub on Monday, June 18 for this special benefit! Directed by Kristin Hanggi (Rock of Ages), Worst Audition Ever is an evening of comedy where real artists (actors, directors, dancers and more) tell their real stories about the all too familiar audition process. Completely cathartic—mutually hilarious—and not to be missed! Click here to purchase.
..........................................................................
Photocall
 THANK YOU Bloomingdale’s, for hosting two very special In-Store Shopping Benefits for The Fund! On June 7, Fund fans hit Bloomingdale’s NYC flagship store to shop (10% of purchases went to The Fund), then stuck around for performances by STEPHANIE J. BLOCK (currently starring in Anything Goes) and Grammy-Award winner BILLY STRITCH hosted by MAC Award winner JIM CARUSO, followed by a private Cocktail Reception. View photos.
 In LA, shoppers at Bloomingdale’s Century City met Emmy Award winning actress MITZI GAYNOR and her friends at our Los Angeles shopping benefit event! Thanks Mitzi and Bloomingdale’s, everyone who made the LA event a success! View Photos.
Fans of The Fund gathered for our 16th Annual Tony Viewing Party at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 10. Hosted by Scott Bakula, this year’s star-studded benefit honored Jason Alexander with the Julie Harris Award—presented by longtime friend Annie Potts—and included appearances by Bryan Cranston, Bryan Batt, Lorna Luft, and others! View Photos.
 Led on both coasts by Captain Amy (aka Jean Luc) Picar, our team walked for the EIF Revlon Run/Walk to fight women’s cancers in May. Together we raised nearly $30K to help find a cure! Go Team Actors Fund!
View photos of our NY and LA teams.
The company of Wicked donated a gravity-defying Special Performance on
May 6. View Photos.
PhotoCredit: Jay Brady Photography
Stars shined bright as we honored Trustee David Steiner and Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara with our Medal of Honor, and Harry Belafonte with The Lee Strasberg Artistic Achievement Award on May 21 at the New York Marriott Marquis.
View Photos.
PhotoCredit: Lyn HughesPhotography
|
