DTC Announces Nystuen Vahle as Lunt Fontanne Fellow

Dallas Theater Center Resident Acting Company member Sally Nystuen Vahle has been selected for the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program.  Vahle is one of ten actors in the United States who will be honored as a 2011 Lunt-Fontanne fellow.  She will spend one week in a rigorous master class led by Academy Award-winning actress Olympia Dukakas at Ten Chimneys.  Vahle was nominated for this honor by Dallas Theater Center.

"Sally Nystuen Vahle is an exceptional artist who has vast experience, ferocious talent, and keen understanding of what an individual actor can bring to a play, a creative process, and an Acting Company to create art that is richer and deeper than its individual parts," says DTC artistic director Kevin Moriarty.  "With each performance, Sally exhibits an ability to inhabit the strongest, earthiest characters with humanity and simplicity, and she does it with a mix of shear emotional bravery and precise technique that is at once daring and awe inspiring."

This is the third year for the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship program, which serves regional theater actors and aims to identify America's top stage actors.  Vahle was selected based on her outstanding contribution to her community and the overall quality of American theater.

"The Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program celebrates the top actors in America's top theatre communities - widely respected for their talent, dedication to craft, and passionate pursuit of excellence, the qualities for which Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were so revered" says Sean Malone, president of the Ten Chimneys Foundation.  "This program celebrates people like Sally Nystuen Vahle - the best of the best, our communities' theatre mentors."

Dallas Theater Center is one of nine Partner Theatres chosen by the Ten Chimneys Foundation to nominate a top actor from its community.  After careful review from the National Advisory Board, ten actors were chosen as the 2011 Lunt-Fontanne Fellows.

"I feel so fortunate to have been nominated and then selected to participate in the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship," says Vahle.  "It is truly an honor---I'm thrilled to represent Texas and the Dallas Theater Center at Ten Chimney's this summer and have the opportunity to collaborate with such a roster of amazing artists--and of course, Ms. Dukakis--an actress whose work I have admired for many years, and from what I have heard from colleagues who have worked with her---a passionate and rigorous acting teacher.  I think that my week immersed in the process of the work will offer me the opportunity to reconnect, artistically, with the fundamentals of the craft of acting---listening, responding, textual analysis. Fully basking in that sort of work as a student will definitely have a positive impact on how I engage myself in future projects!"

Sally Nystuen Vahle and the other Fellows will spend a portion of July 2011 Ten Chimneys, the estate of Broadwat legends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, in Wisconson.  While there, they will study Chekov under the guidance of renowned actress and Chekov expert, Olympia Dukakas.  Vahle will have the opportunity to learn alongside top regional actors from around the country and to explore her abilities in depth to enhance her theatrical experiences and the experiences of those in the Dallas Theater Center community.  She will also receive a cash award. 

"Sally is truly one of the finest artists in Dallas. When we're fortunate to work with her on a project, she makes all of us better," says Moriarty.

Vahle's next role with Dallas Theater Center will be in Cabaret, which runs from April 22 - May 22, 2011.

One of the leading regional theaters in the country, Dallas Theater Center (DTC) performs to an audience of more than 90,000 North Texas residents annually. DTC is a resident company of the AT&T Performing Arts Center and presents its mainstage season at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre. DTC also presents at its former residence, the Kalita Humphreys Theater, the only freestanding theater designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright. DTC engages, entertains and inspires a diverse community by creating experiences that stimulate new ways of thinking and living by consistently producing plays, educational programs and other initiatives that are of the highest quality and reach the broadest possible constituency.

The mission of DTC is to engage, entertain and inspire our diverse community by creating experiences that stimulate new ways of thinking and living.  With the leadership of Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty and Managing Director Mark Hadley, DTC is committed to consistently producing plays, educational programs and other initiatives that are of the highest quality and reach the broadest possible constituency.

The Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program has been created by Ten Chimneys Foundation, and is made possible with the help of a generous lead grant from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. In order to serve as "a continuing resource and powerful inspiration for American theatre," Ten Chimneys Foundation leadership spent years talking to the top artists and producers of American theatre to determine the deepest needs in the industry. One of the most pervasive and significant needs articulated was, "the top stage actors in American theatre, 'the mentors,' need real opportunities to be mentored." Ten Chimneys Foundation realized that it was uniquely positioned to fill this critical need, and began years of extensive planning to do just that. The result was the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program.