Catch a Peek Behind Yaddo's Closed Gate

Saratoga Springs, NY (May 27, 2011) - Renowned actor and director Blair Brown will direct and appear in a short program of readings highlighting some of the more entertaining stories from the Yaddo archives at the June 14th Summer Benefit.

Blair Brown

Richard Easton

John Kelly

One of Broadway’s finest actors, Richard Easton, has been enlisted to help Brown bring to life selected anecdotes, secrets, and notes by and about some of the more than 6,000 artists who have enjoyed working residencies at Yaddo since 1926. Yaddo performance and visual artist John Kelly will narrate the program.

Brown is best known for the television series The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd and for her performance on Broadway in Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen. Other Broadway roles include The Dead, Arcadia, Richard Forman’s version of The Threepenny Opera, and The Secret Rapture. She has narrated more than 60 audio books and documentary films. Her film credits include Dogville, Altered States, Continental Divide, Strapless, Stealing Home, and A Flash of Green. Currently, Brown is directing and acting in the sci-fi cult hit Fringe for J.J. Adams.

Easton won Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Awards in 2001 for his performance in The Invention of Love and in 2008 was inducted into the Broadway Hall of Fame. He has performed in a number of other stage productions, as well as various film roles, including Henry V, Dead Again, Finding Forester, and Revolutionary Road. He has had television guest appearances on L.A. Law, Frasier, and Ed and played the title role in the PBS Emmy Award-winning series Ben Franklin.

Kelly has been accalimed by audiences and critics alike for his mixed media dance theater works, vocal concerts, and exhibitions. He has created more than 30 character-driven performance pieces, focused on historical figures ranging from Egon Schiele, Caravaggio, Antonin Artaud, and Joni Mitchell, to Jean Cocteau, as well as topics such as the Berlin Wall, the Troubadours, the AIDS epidemic, gender blurring, and Exdpressionistic film. Varying degrees of autobiography have infused his work.

Thanks to the generosity of the Capital Region community and the hard work of the organizing committees, the event’s expenses are traditionally kept to a minimum, allowing more than 90 percent of the benefit proceeds to go directly to Yaddo’s artists’ residency program. Committee chairs are Tamie Ehinger, Claudia Olsen, and Anne Palamountain.

A special feature of this year’s fundraiser will be a silent auction, open to everyone in attendance and offering a select group of unique items for bid, including dinner for 10 in the Mansion, a Yaddo Stakes package, a behind the scenes look at the Polo Grounds, a SPAC package, and a party at The Mansion Inn of Saratoga. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., the program begins at 8 p.m., and a party will follow the performance. Silent auction bids will be accepted prior to the programs and up until 10 p.m.

Individual reservations are $150 (Patron), $175 (Special Patron), and $200 (Honorary Patron). Sponsorships with special incentives, including an invitation to a pre-event cocktail reception in a private area of the Yaddo Mansion, start at $600. Click here to see the sponsorship benefits. To purchase reservations online now, click here for a link to a secure page. For additional information, contact Lynn Farenell (lfarenell@yaddo.org or 518.584.0746).