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.
Ask Wilson Cruz and Anthony Rapp to name their favorite Star Trek series and character, and you fundamentally get the same answer.
"There are episodes of every series that are great," says Rapp, who stars as Lt. Cmdr. Paul Stamets on Star Trek Discovery, the ship's genius of an engineer. "But the one I think that had the biggest impact for me, because I saw the shows as a kid, was the original series -- and Leonard Nimoy as Spock."
"I was going to say Spock!" interjects Cruz, who co-stars on Discovery as the ship's deeply empathetic doctor, Hugh Culber. "So now I'm going to give my second favorite answer: Next Generation. I really see a lot of Dr. Beverly Crusher and Guinan, Whoopi Goldberg's character, in Dr. Culber. So those two characters are my favorite."
Once upon a time, Signature Theatre would attract theatergoers by the hundreds this time of year with the lure of "summer hummer"-themed shows, in which top-notch entertainers get a little closer and more personal with patrons, packed into the organization's intimate spaces in Shirlington.
Two years after the pandemic put a damper on all that, the company has announced a more diverse, as well as dispersed, summer season, kicking off with the free off-site "Signature Theatre Under the Stars" concert featuring powerhouse vocalist Kanysha Williams accompanied by Mark G. Meadows and his band The Movement.
There's never a bad time to visit the estate of Marjorie Merriweather Post, the 25 acres of gardens and surrounding woodlands in the hilly and leafy Van Ness area of Upper Northwest D.C.
Hillwood has been preserved essentially as it appeared during Post's lifetime in the mid- to late-20th century, with her many notable French furnishings and objects, collections of haute couture and fashion fineries, and also what is billed as the foremost collection of Russian imperial art in the U.S. -- plus an enchanting Japanese-style formal garden, a rose garden, a French parterre, and a greenhouse full of exotic orchids.
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