45 Bleecker Street Theatre Becomes The Lynn Redgrave Theatre

During the opening night curtain call for Culture Project’s current production ofShaheed: The Dream and Death of Benazir Bhutto, Allan Buchman, Founder & Artistic Director of The Culture Project, announced that their main stage theater, currently known as 45 Bleecker Street, would be renamed the Lynn Redgrave Theatre.

A naming ceremony and commemorative gala will take place on Monday, June 3, 2013, at Stage 48 (605 West 48th Street,New York City). Honorary Chairs for the evening are Vanessa Redgrave, Liam Neeson, and Ms. Redgrave’s three children Annabel Clark, Ben Clark, and Pema Clark.

“To be entrusted with the preservation of even a small portion of Lynn’s legacy is a glorious honor,” enthused Mr. Buchman. “We hope to infuse her passions in the area of play writing, education, and the joy of acting into all of our endeavors. Certainly, the Redgrave name in theater exemplifies the highest commitment to the theatrical arts in conjunction with a bold advocacy to human rights and social justice that is the defining purpose of Culture Project.”

Lynn Redgrave’s association with Culture Project extends back several years. She appeared in the original run of

Culture Project’s, The Exonerated as Sonia “Sunny Jacobs.”In addition, Culture Project was instrumental in the development of Ms. Redgrave’s third play, Nightingale, presenting a number of developmental public readings of the play.Ms. Redgrave was last seen on the Culture Project stage in 2007 with her sister Vanessa and brother Corin in A Question of Impeachment, a series of evenings exploring the case for the impeachment of former President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Born in London into a family of actors, Redgrave enjoyed a remarkable career on stage, screen, and beyond spanning four decades. She was nominated for three Tony Awards,two Oscars, two Emmys, a Grammy and most recently was the recipient of a 2008 New York Emmy. Film highlights include Georgy Girl, Gods and Monsters, Shine, and Kinsey.

Redgrave was a founding member of The Royal National Theatre and was the author of four plays, Shakespeare For My Father, examining her relationship with Sir Michael Redgrave, The Mandrake Root, loosely based on her mother,the actress Rachel Kempson, and Nightingale, a fictional meditation on the life of her maternal grandmother, Beatrice Kempson, which enjoyed its New York premiere at Manhattan Theatre Club in 2009.

She performed her last work, Rachel and Juliet, at Tucson,Arizona’s Invisible Theatre and Washington, D.C.’s Folger Theatre. She also appeared Off Broadway in MCC Theater’s, Grace, under the direction of Joseph Hardy. She wrote the text for Journal, A Mother and Daughter’s Recovery From Breast Cancer, featuring photographs by her daughter,Annabel Clark, currently in its third printing from Umbrage Editions.

Recent film credits include The Jane Austen Book Club, The White Countess, acting alongside sister Vanessa and her niece, the late Natasha Richardson. Recent television credits include ABC’s Desperate Housewives, Law &Order: Criminal Intent, and Ugly Betty. She can be heard as the voice of Nanny in the animated film series of Me, Eloiseand in the animated feature My Dog Tulip, which was an official selection of the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. She was a prolific “voice on tape” and her last audio book release was Roald Dahl’s The Witches, for which she received a Grammy nomination. Ms. Redgrave was inducted into the Theater Hall in January, 2009. Lynn Redgrave(67) passed away peacefully on Sunday, May 2, 2010 at her home in Connecticut.