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Peters to discuss life of Broadway legends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne
By Gabriel Miller
Library Communications
Posted 9/23/2004
MADISON, Wis. -- Margot Peters, author and former professor of English at UW-Whitewater, will explore the interaction between artists and their milieu in a lecture titled "Genius and Place: Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, and Life at Ten Chimneys" on Thursday, Sept. 30 at 4:30 p.m. in 126 Memorial Library.
When Broadway legends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne took a break from New York City theater life, they would retire to Ten Chimneys, their estate in Genesee Depot, Wis. Throughout their careers, Ten Chimneys served as a quiet refuge where plays could be written, reworked and honed before the fall theater season. It was also a place where the Lunts would entertain a long list of theater friends, including Noel Coward, Helen Hayes, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, among others. Recently dedicated as a national landmark, Ten Chimneys remains a model of the communal artistic collaboration.
Peters is the author of Design for Living: Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, as well as several other biographies, including Unquiet Soul: a Biography of Charlotte Bronte, Bernard Shaw and the Actresses, Mrs. Pat: the Life of Mrs. Patrick Campbell, and May Sarton. In addition to these books, she has written numerous essays on George Bernard Shaw, Charlotte Bronte, women's studies, biography and detective fiction. Her lecture is sponsored by the Friends of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries.
