GENESSEE DEPOT, WISC.: Ten Chimneys Foundation has announced that Jason Alexander will be the master teacher for the 2016 Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program, which will take place June 19–26.
“Ten Chimneys has been fortunate to attract accomplished master class teachers, who much like the Lunts, have all had a deep passion for maintaining the excellence of American theatre,” said president and CEO, Randy Bryant, in a statement. “I’m proud this tradition will continue in 2016 as we welcome Jason Alexander.”
Since its inception in 2009, the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program has gathered top actors from regional theatres to work with a master teacher at Ten Chimneys. This year’s weeklong master workshop will focus on the physicalization of choice. There will be two public programs, including a conversation with Alexander (June 24), and the concluding presentation (June 25), which will feature the work that was explored throughout the master class.
Alexander is an actor, director, producer, and writer. He has appeared on Broadway in the original companies of Merrily We Roll Along, The Rink, Broadway Bound, and Accomplice. Alexander penned the libretto and appeared in Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, for which he won the Tony for best actor in 1989. The production also received a Tony for best musical. He is known for his role on the television sitcom “Seinfeld.” Most recently, he starred in Larry David’s Fish in the Dark on Broadway.
“I am honored and excited to explore with such wonderful artists a method of taking intellectual or instinctually creative ideas and bringing them alive physically to create character, interpretation, and performance,” Alexander said in a statement. ”The joy of an actor’s life and craft is this exciting and never-ending exchange of ideas and experiences. I know I will be coming away from my time at Ten Chimneys as inspired and enriched as I hope my colleagues will, as well.”
Ten Chimneys was founded in 1996 by Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne as a creative retreat. The estate is open to the public as a museum and as a resource for the American theatre.
