Benefit Re-Broadcast of THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING Starring Kathleen Chalfant to be Presented by Keen Company

Keen Company will continue the 2020-'21 Season with the benefit re-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. This presentation, a video on demand revival of the original livestream which aired on March 13th, is available Thursday May 13th at 9am EST to Sunday May 16th at midnight EST.

Fundraiser tickets are just $25 and include an access to a pre-recorded talkback with Kathleen Chalfant and are available at www.keencompany.org. This presentation of The Year of Magical Thinking is a video on demand revival of the original live stream which aired to much acclaim on March 13th, 2021 and runs approximately 90 minutes with no intermission. The video presentation as well as the pre-recorded talkback are closed captioned. Text can be turned on using the CC icon on the bottom right on the screen. All ticket buyers will have access to The Year of Magical Thinking from Thursday May 13th at 9am EST to Sunday May 16th at midnight EST. Patrons will be emailed a private web link and password with their confirmation. The webpage and video on demand will be active from Thursday March 13th at 9am EST to Sunday March 16th at midnight EST.

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.

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.