Keen Company Will Honor Kathleen Chalfant at Annual Gala This Month

Keen Company kicks off its 2023–2024 season by honoring legendary actress and passionate advocate Kathleen Chalfant at Keen's 24th Annual Benefit Gala. The event at Manhattan Penthouse (80 Fifth Avenue) on Monday, October 16, 2023, begins at 6pm with cocktails followed by dinner and an evening of backstage stories, musical entertainment, show-stopping performances, and thrilling auction wins. Tickets, which start at $600 and help underwrite Keen's upcoming season, are currently on sale at www.keencompany.org.

The gala event will feature special appearances and performances by two-time Tony Award nominee Kate Baldwin (Hello, Dolly!, Finian's Rainbow) , writer and performer Nick Blaemire (Glory Days; Tick, Tick…BOOM!), performer Sharon Catherine Brown (Dreamgirls), composer and lyricist Adam Gwon (Ordinary Days), award-winning playwright and performer Ellen McLaughlin (Angels in America), Tony-winner Deidre O'Connell (Dana H), performer Kyle Sherman (Ordinary Days), two-time Tony Award nominee  Sarah Stiles (Hand to God, Tootsie), performer and Keen Company Board Member Jason Tam (Be More Chill; A Chorus Line), and more.

Kathleen Chalfant is a legendary actress, passionate advocate, and beloved star of three Keen Company productions (and counting), including last season's acclaimed site specific production of Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. For a career on stage and screen spanning almost five decades, she has been honored with the Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance, the Drama League Distinguished Performance Award, The Kingsley Award for Excellence in Theater, a Tony Award Nomination, and much more. Keen Company is thrilled to celebrate her vast and distinguished career and salute her with the Keen Vision Award.

 

Gala contributions underwrite Keen Company's 24th Season, including intimate Off-Broadway productions, a new musical commission by Adam Gwon, the debut of two emerging directors, resources for mid-career writers, and free theater mentorship for students in all five boroughs of NYC.

Patrons can purchase Gala tickets, make a contribution in honor of Kathleen Chalfant, browse the auction, and more at www.keencompany.org.
 

About the Honoree

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. Her Broadway credits include Angels in America (Tony and Drama Desk nom.), Racing Demon, Dance With Me. She most recently appeared in Here There Are Blueberries with Tectonic Theatre Project, as well as the upcoming film Familiar Touch. Off-Broadway, her credits include The Year of Magical Thinking, 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, A Walk in the Woods (Drama Desk nom.), Tales from Red Vienna, Miss Ovington & Dr. Dubois, Talking Heads (Obie Award), Dead Man's Cell Phone, Nine Armenians (Drama Desk nomination), and Henry V (Callaway Award).