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 From Montauk to Nashville to Palm Beach
| The view from The Montauk Lake Club. |
The Montauk Playhouse Community Center Foundation hosted a benefit evening on Saturday evening, August 7th, at The Montauk Lake Club. The Master of Ceremonies for the evening was Dick Cavett and the honoree was Montauk resident, Edward Albee. Cavett and Albee are long time Montauk residents as well as friends.
Mr. Albee's career has spanned five decades, has garnered three Pulitzers and has included a repertoire of over 30 plays. The New York premiere of his new play, Me, Myself & I, will begin in September in New York City's Playwright's Horizons. Opening night is September 12th.
Edward Albee has been a member of the Montauk Playhouse Community Center Foundation's Theater Committee for several years. He has been involved in all stages of development for the future performing arts center, including theater design, management and operations planning, and artistic programming.
Written and Photographed by Jill Krementz |
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| Guests sat at tables bearing the titles of Mr. Albee's numerous plays ... |
Edward Albee, longtime Montauk resident and
the evening's honoree, with Dick Cavett, the evening's emcee. |
Brian Michalski and Lily Vonnegut. Mr. Michalski is the director of physical therapy at Executive ER in Beverly Hills. Ms. Vonnegut is my darling daughter and has recently been cast in a Los Angeles production of Slaughterhouse Five. She'll be playing the roles of Lily, Billy Pilgrim's mother and Montana Wildhack. |
Joan Lycke, President of the Montauk Playhouse Community Center Foundation, Dick Cavett, Master of Ceremonies, and Kathleen Beckmann, head of the theater community.
Said Ms. Beckmann: "We've been working towards having a performing arts center. Edward is on that committee and we're getting closer to actually building it." |
| Dick Cavett, Lily Vonnegut, and Edward Albee. |
Rich Garvey, a retired lawyer and part-time resident of Montauk, who is on the finance committee of The Montauk Playhouse Community Center Foundation. There is a team of 20 on the board of directors who have been at this since 1990. Mr. Garvey relayed to me the following history of the site for the Montauk Playhouse.
The Montauk Man was built by Carl Fisher in the 1920s. Fisher made his fortune with the first viable automobile headlight. He sold that company and his next major project was in the creation of Miami Beach as we know it today.
Fisher became one of the wealthiest men in the country. He then set his sights on Montauk, which he began promoting as the Miami Beach of the North.
Regrettably, he leveraged himself to the eyeballs and dredged out Montauk Lake to what is known today as the harbor. |
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Another of his great legacies was the creation of the Montauk Manor, which has a world class hotel. Legend has it the the Prince of Wales stayed there.
Then came a terrible hurricane in Miami, which had a catastrophic effect on Fisher's financing, followed by the depression, which wiped out the rest. In conjunction with the Montauk Manor, Fisher built the Montauk Playhouse, which began as indoor tennis courts.
Over the years, a playhouse and a movie theater were added, although it has just been rotting for decades.
Joan Lycke and others, working with the town of East Hampton, have tried to revive the playhouse, which today is functioning as a recreation center for children and adults. But the balance of the interior needs to be restored as an aquatic center and a 299-seat-theater. |
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Edward Albee talking about his longtime love affair with Montauk where he lives in a house overlooking the ocean.
Mr. Albee is known as a "Montaukian" and can be seen regularly at the post office and the IGA.
"I came to Montauk after I wrote Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, bought a place, and I've continued to live here in all four seasons. because I consider Montauk the great-good place and it's great specialness is that it's not the Hamptons. |
| Martha Rogers and Dick Cavett. As you can see, though she was somewhat coy about it, Ms. Rogers is wearing a diamond ring on her left ring finger. They have been a couple for several years. |
| Edward Albee and David Brandenburg, the artistic director of Hampton's Shakespeare. "We are a non-profit organization that produces theater and educational programs from Montauk to the city. Mr. Albee helped us out a few years ago by participating in some of our fundraising events, so I wanted to be here for him this evening." |
| Joan Hildreth greets Mr. Cavett and Mr. Albee. |
| Rex Lau and Elaine Peterson. Mr. Lau runs the Edward Albee Foundation. Ms. Peterson's husband is on the Friends Committee of the Montauk Playhouse. |
Betsy Pinover Schiff and Edward Schiff. Ms. Schiff is a photographer of gardens and landscapes and will soon have a new book out called New York City Gardens. Mr. Schiff is an attorney. |
| Rex Lau and his wife, Diane Mayo. |
John and Jasanna Britton, both surfers who live in Ditch Plains, one of the best surfing beaches. |
| Susan Saint-Rossy with Dick Cavett. Ms. Saint Rossy is visiting Mr. Cavett and Ms. Rogers in Montauk and she is in the process of moving from Africa to India. |
Joan and Michael Brosnan with their 6-year-old twins, Lian and Grace. Mr. Brosnan is a homebuilder who owns a construction company called Black Dog Builders. |
The 48th Annual Swan Ball was held in the Swan Garden at Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art in Nashville. Co-Chairs were Mrs. Gregory Scott Daily and Mrs. William Moss Wilson. Honorary chair was Mrs. Jane Anderson Dudley.
This is a major social event comprising four days beginning with the Patrons’ Party on a Wednesday, an Underwriters’ Reception at the Mansion at Cheekwood on Thursday, The Committee Chairman’s Party on Friday – all at private homes, followed by the Ball on Saturday.
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| Al Green |
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One of the South’s most prestigious white tie charity events, this year’s Ball was held to coincide with the 50th Anniversary and the opening of Cheekwood’s Chihuly exhibition.
The great Al Green was the headline entertainer; the showcase exquisite jewels were by Verdura. Lynn Wyatt of Houston was honored for her philanthropy and patronage of the arts and the Ball itself was designed by Bronson van Wyck of New York. Van Wyck and his team created a sea of color with hues of orange, magenta, blue and lemon mirroring many of the Chihuly colors.
The dinner menu was created by Executive Chefs Charles and Danielle Kates of Kates Fine Catering. |
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| Ann Stewart Banker, Jean Ann Banker, and Gigi Grimstad |
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| Rob and Jennie McCabe |
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| Kevin Churchwell, Ann Carell, and Gloria Churchwell |
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| Paul and 2010 Auction Chairmen Beth Moore and Mary Gambill with husband Tom |
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| Jean and Denny Bottorff, and Sandra Lipman |
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| Jennifer and Billy Frist |
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| TJ and Betsy Wilt |
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| Tooty Bradford, Robert Gotcher, and Alyne Massey |
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| Barbara and Jack Bovender |
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| Swan Ball Honorary Chair Jane Dudley, 2010 Swan Award recipient Lynn Wyatt of Houston |
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| T.B and Yvette Boyd |
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| John and Laura Chadwick |
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| David and Edie Johnson |
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| Kelley and Lee Beaman |
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| Mimi Van Wyck and Bronson Van Wyck |
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| Beth and Tommy Molteni |
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| Sally Shepherd |
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| Chrissy Hagerty |
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| Gigi and Carl Grimstad |
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| Roger and Frances Briggs |
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| Spook and Jamie Stream |
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| Earl and Janet Bentz |
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| On August 2, 2010, the Alan T Brown Foundation (ATBF) hosted its 22nd Annual John Vanbiesbrouck Celebrity Golf and Tennis Tournament at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, NJ. Honored at this year’s Tournament were two outstanding individuals: Paul Tramontano, Guest of Honor, and Dr. Trevor Dyson-Hudson, recipient of the Standing Tall Award. Mr. Tramontano is Co-Chief Executive Officer of Constellation Wealth Advisors and Dr. Dyson-Hudson is a Clinical Research Scientist with the Kessler Foundation Research Center. Both Honorees have been involved with the Foundation for many years. |
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Beautiful weather made for a successful Tournament. Over 160 participants all enjoyed their time out on the links and tennis courts. Following the Tournament, both longtime and new supporters of the Foundation gathered together at the Awards Dinner in providing funds to support quality of life for the long-term spinally injured community. The night concluded with the introduction of a new initiative in conjunction with ATBF’s Outreach and Peer Mentoring Program: the Transition Care Program, which will provide funds for uninsured SCI patients in their transition from hospital to home.
To learn more about The Alan T Brown Foundation to Cure Paralysis, please visit http://www.atbf.org/ |
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| Dave Anderson checks in |
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| Alan Brown and Jay Fiedler |
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| Jim Thorpe, Sam Katzman, Paul Tramontano, Mike Rosen, and Jimmy |
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| Tennis Participants |
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| John Vanbiesbrouck and family |
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| Bob Clare and Alan Brown |
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| Alan Brown and Sandy Montag |
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| Paul Tramontano and friends |
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| Alan Brown, Paul Tramontano, Fran Brown, and Kate Kaschenbach |
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| Fran Brown, Trevor Dyson-Hudson, Dr. Adam Stein, and Alan Brown |
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| Jamie Clare and Erik Hjeltnes |
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| Gary Spitalnik and Sam Rosen |
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| Abe Eisenstat and Alan Brown |
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| Fran Brown and David Belafonte |
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Down Palm Beach way, Bunny Forman is regarded as a force – in her own very quiet way. This is a case of “still waters run deep” as for much of her life she was the impeccably turned out woman behind the man, her late husband Sam, as they built an empire surrounding the menswear industry.
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| Steven Stolman and Lauren Stewart |
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She was born in Chicago on Easter Sunday, hence the sobriquet Bunny (her given name is Felice, which an opinionated aunt immediately nixed.) “Good thing I wasn’t born on Thanksgiving!” she says.
Now a self-proclaimed “empty nester,” Mrs. Forman has accepted an extraordinary challenge. As chairman of Palm Beach Opera’s Young Artist Campaign, she is leading the effort to raise the funds to bring the company’s annual stable of megawatt young artist-in-residence talent to Palm Beach for the upcoming season.
This steeped-in-operatic-tradition aspect of the company has a quantifiable success rate; their two year alum Irene Roberts just received her first contract from The Met, a definite cause for celebration.
To kick off the 2010-11 campaign, Palm Beach Opera threw a dinner in Bunny’s honor at Pistache, the new French bistro, following a sold-out season preview concert at the Harriet Himmel Theater. On hand: Earl Crittenden, Perry Brown and his wife Troy, Brett and Jennifer Forman, Arlette Gordon, Michael Dixon, Molly Charland and scores more opera lovers who know that Palm Beach, even in the dead of summer, still has quite a pulse. |
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| Molly Charland, Earl Crittenden, and Bunny Forman |
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| David Espinosa and Irene Roberts |
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| Bruce Stasyna and Arlette Gordon |
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| Daniel Biaggi with Jennifer and Brett Forman |
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| Irene Roberts, Graham Fandrei, Wendy Jones, and Bryan Brohman |
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| Perry and Troy Brown |
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