Ten Chimneys :
Rekindling the Soul of American Theater

Bolz Center alumnus Sean Malone
helps revive a historic retreat in the heart of Wisconsin.

Ten Chimneys, the historic Wisconsin home of renowned Broadway stage actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, was rescued from commercial redevelopment in 1996. For decades, Ten Chimneys was a fertile creative retreat for such guests as Helen Hayes, Nöel Coward, Laurence Olivier, Alexander Woollcott, Katharine Hepburn, Carol Channing and many more. As Channing once said, "Ten Chimneys is to performers what the Vatican is to Catholics."

Bolz Center alumnus Sean Malone , Vice President of Administration and Development for the Ten Chimneys Foundation, is leading a capital campaign to renovate the estate's aging buildings and to support a series of programming initiatives. The organization is seeking to re-establish this Midwestern retreat as the heart, mind, and soul of American theater it once was.

That effort has met with increasing support and enthusiasm from actors, producers, academics, and preservationists, witnessed by the recent US postal stamp commemorating Lunt and Fontanne, and the estate's recent feature on the Save America's Treasures web site. Save America's Treasures is a public-private partnership of the White House Millennium Council and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.