BENEFIT BROADCASTS
Support Keen Company with a series of all-star benefit broadcasts including: Howard Koch’s legendary adaptation of War of the Worlds made popular by Orson Welles, Keen Company’s Holiday Variety Hour, Lucille Fletcher’s Sorry, Wrong Number which was once called "the greatest single radio script ever written”, and The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion!
Tickets to all fundraiser events support Keen Company’s Hear/Now audio theater season, as well as Keen’s Playwrights Lab for mid-career writers, and Keen Teens which serves students in all five boroughs of NYC. Keen to give a little more? Donate now.
Hear/Now Season Members receive a special discount every benefit broadcast! Members can log-in to their membership profiles here to purchase discounted tickets. Aren’t a member yet? It’s not too late to join!
WAR OF THE WORLDS: The 1938 Script
By Howard Koch
Directed by Jonathan Silverstein
Original Music by Paul Brill
Available from 10/30-11/1 on Broadway On Demand
Starring Jason Tam
Featuring Arnie Burton, Morgan Siobhan Green, Dan Domingues, Courtney Thomas, and Khiry Walker
Original Music by Paul Brill
With Live Foley Effects by Nick Abeel
Join Keen Company for a benefit broadcast of the legendary War of the Worlds popularized by Orson Welles! Howard Koch’s adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic novel was made infamous during its original broadcast, sounding so realistic it incited mass hysteria across America and elevated “fake news” to an art form. Listen as a news station reports sinister machines and mysterious creatures making their way towards New York City, during Keen’s starry live performance of one of the most famous radio plays in history.
MEET THE CAST
INTERVIEW WITH HISTORIAN Enjoy an interview with Frank Beacham - a writer, director, and Orson Welles historian - who sat down with Keen Company Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein to discuss War of the Worlds and radio drama. Watch here!
KEEN COMPANY’S
HOLIDAY VARIETY HOUR
Premieres Tuesday December 15th at 6:30pm EST
Join us for Keen Company’s Holiday Variety Hour, a festive fundraiser event paying loving homage to 70s variety shows!
The evening will feature a full roster of Keen alumni and Broadway stars singing songs, telling stories, and sharing holiday recipes. (You might also catch a hilarious glimpse of Team Keen attempting to put together their infamous annual holiday video.)
It’s a little bit of winter cheer, from our family to yours!
Watching this benefit broadcast is free. However, patrons are welcome to donate as part of Keen Company’s 31 Days of Giving challenge and help the company raise $31,000 by December 31st.
No gift is too small this holiday season!
MEET THE CAST
With Special Appearances by:
Heidi Armbruster, Marc delaCruz, Chris Dwan, Kevin Kilner, Jay Mazyck, Jodie Markell, Lauren Molina, Paul Niebanck, Pamela Sabaugh, George Salazar, Sheldon Woodley
SORRY, WRONG NUMBER
by Lucille Fletcher
directed by Jonathan Silverstein
Thursday February 18th at 7pm EST
Starring Four-Time Academy Award Nominee Marsha Mason
Featuring Heidi Armbruster, Chuck Cooper, Jasminn Johnson, and Matt Saldivar
With Live Foley Effects by Nick Abeel
Sorry, Wrong Number begins with a simple phone call, and follows the progression of one frantic night as Mrs. Elbert Stevenson accidentally overhears a murder plot while home alone and confined to her bed. Will anyone believe her, or will time run out to call for help? Listen as the suspense grows, and hear why Sorry, Wrong Number is renowned as one of the most thrilling radio scripts ever written.
Inspired by the original broadcast which aired in 1943, Keen Company has crafted a transportive hour of classic radio. Join our enigmatic host, voiced by Dan Domingues, for a night of songs and suspense. The evening will begin with Lauren Molina, Marc delaCruz, and Sarah Lynn Marion serenading patrons with standards from the Great American Songbook. Then suspense will build with the reading of Lucille Fletcher’s masterpiece Sorry, Wrong Number. Afterwards, a live video talkback will connect the audience with the cast and creatives.
MEET THE CAST
With Special Opening Act Performances by:
THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING
by Joan Didion
Starring Kathleen Chalfant
Directed by Jonathan Silverstein
Original Broadcast: Saturday March 13th at 7pm EST
Video On Demand Revival: May 13th - May 16th
Join Keen Company for a benefit broadcast of The Year of Magical Thinking starring Obie and Drama Desk Award winner Kathleen Chalfant in a one-woman tour de force performance.
Adapted from Joan Didion's best-selling memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking explores the author's poignant journey of grief following tragic personal events. Written with Didion’s trademark style of cool wit and clever observation, The Year of Magical Thinking is an intimate look at the resilience of the human heart.
Year of Magical Thinking will be a video reading performance. The one-woman show will run approximately 90 minutes with no intermission. The video presentation of Year of Magical Thinking will be closed captioned. Text can be turned on using the CC icon on the bottom right.
MEET THE STAR
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. BROADWAY: Angels in America (Tony and Drama Desk nom.), Racing Demon, Dance With Me. OFF-BROADWAY: 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), Henry V (Callaway Award).
We wish to express our gratitude to the Performers’ Unions: ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION, AMERICAN GUILD OF MUSICAL ARTISTS, AMERICAN GUILD OF VARIETY ARTISTS, SAG-AFTRA through Theatre Authority, Inc. for their cooperation in permitting the Artists to appear on this program.