The Actors Fund and Doyle Auctioneers & Appraisers have teamed up for “an auction event without precedent,” featuring a diverse array of rare and one-of-a-kind memorabilia from stars of Hollywood, Broadway, and beyond. This “landmark live auction,” set for Wednesday, April 28, will allow collectors and fans around the world to participate digitally, with live online bidding through BidLive!
The Actors Fund, the nonprofit that serves as a “safety net” for workers in the performing arts and entertainment industry, has provided more than $20 million in emergency financial assistance to more than 15,800 performers nationwide during the first year of the pandemic.
To continue supporting those still sidelined by the pandemic, The Actors Fund will receive all proceeds from items sold at the auction as well as all proceeds from donations by the auction’s online viewers. Additionally, the organization will reap 100 percent of sales from auctioned items in a collection of donated goods specially curated by the auction’s third partner and driving force behind the event, stage and screen star Christine Baranski.
“I asked my friends and colleagues of stage and screen to lend support to this meaningful auction, and the response has been extraordinary,” Baranski says in an official release. “Our colleagues in the performing arts need our support during this incredibly difficult time of crisis. The Actors Fund has provided a much-needed lifeline to our industry, and their work is nothing short of miraculous. I know I’m excited to see what Dolly Parton, Cher, Julie Andrews, Bruce Springsteen, and over 20-plus incredible stage and screen legends are pulling out of their closet!”
Some of the many highlights up for bid include an autographed pair of black-and-brown boots that Lin-Manuel Miranda wore in Hamilton; iconic glasses from Elton John; the leather suit Alan Cumming wore when he won a Tony in 1998 for Cabaret; Bob Mackie dresses from Carol Burnett; an autographed, limited leather-bound copy of the Downton Abbey screenplay; original drawings by Oscar- and Tony-winning costume designer Cecil Beaton, including a hat design from My Fair Lady and an ensemble for Barbra Streisand’s character in On A Clear Day You Can See Forever; gowns Baranski wore to the Golden Globes, the Emmys, and the Kennedy Center Honors; and celebrated dresses worn over the past decade by Tina Fey, Bette Midler, and Glenn Close. –Doug Rule
The “Stage & Screen” Live Online Auction is Wednesday, April 28, starting at 10 a.m. Visit www.doyle.com for more information including an interactive auction catalog.
Michael Shayan isn't himself the first time we meet, right before a performance of his solo show Avaaz at the Olney Theatre Center. Garbed in a gorgeous golden caftan, Shayan is, in that moment, wafting through the audience as Roya, Queen of Gays.
"The pre-show is so fun because I go around in character as my mother," Shayan says when we finally meet for a video chat about the one-person show, in which he portrays his larger-than-life Iranian-Jewish mom, Roya.
For the audience, that portrayal, in all its loving and scrutinizing detail, begins with the pre-show greeting. "I'm her, and I'm welcoming you into my home for this party," Shayan says. "That element has always been part of the show because I want it to feel like you're really being welcomed into a party. I want the play to feel like a party."
"There's nothing calculated about the way that I operate," Julio Torres told Metro Weekly in 2019 to discuss Los Espookys, the HBO comedy series, which the former Saturday Night Live writer created with co-stars Ana Fabrega and Fred Armisen. "I think we just do things the way that we know how and like to do them. And in my case, I feel like I don't know how to do it any other way."
Torres' singular comic voice and vision -- highly conceptual, sardonic yet heartfelt, and shaped by his experience as the queer Salvadoran immigrant son of an artist -- registers in all he does. The humorous threads connecting his signature SNL sketches, live standup, and Los Espookys are unmistakable in his new film Problemista, Torres' feature filmmaking debut.
Two men meet at an automat in Greenwich Village. Seated alone at separate tables, spaced not too far apart, one is eating a sandwich, although, apparently, both men have more than a quick nosh in mind. This little luncheonette, we learn, is a known cruising spot for gay men.
The men who seek men know it, and so do the cops who frequently raid the place, according to the older of the two gentlemen, Chauncey, dynamically portrayed by Michael Russotto in 1st Stage's moving production of The Nance, directed by Nick Olcott.
With careful discretion, Chauncey arranges an assignation for later with the younger man, Ned, a whippersnapper fresh from Buffalo played with aw-shucks joie de vivre by Patrick Joy.
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