BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND FOR 2 BENEFIT PERFORMANCES!
The Year of Magical Thinking
A Play by Joan Didion, Based on Her Memoir
Conception and Direction by Jonathan Silverstein
Starring Kathleen Chalfant
January 10 and 17, 2023 at 7pm
The Players Club on Gramercy Park
Get Tickets Now
After a critically acclaimed, sold-out run last fall, Keen Company is thrilled to bring back Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking for two benefit performances at New York City’s historic Players Club! Obie and Drama Desk Award-winner Kathleen Chalfant gives a “more than magical” one-woman performance (Theatrely) in this intimate production, conceived and directed by Jonathan Silverstein.
Adapted from the best-selling memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking recounts Didion’s journey of loss, perseverance, and ultimately hope, using her signature wit to draw an intimate portrait of the resilience of the human heart. Run time is approximately 90 minutes, without an intermission.
Thank you to Sally and Robert Huxley for sponsoring this fundraiser event.
The Year of Magical Thinking is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc.
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 in this program.
January 10, 7pm
Benefit performance of The Year of Magical Thinking, a peek inside the historic Players Club, plus an intimate cocktails and hors d'oeuvres reception with Kathleen Chalfant
January 17, 7pm
Benefit performance of The Year of Magical Thinking, plus a peek inside the historic Players Club.
Performance Venue
The Players Club
16 Gramercy Park South
New York, NY 10003
Show Schedule
Performance is followed by cocktails and hors d'oeuvres with Kathleen Chalfant
COVID SAFETY
A negative COVID test will need to be submitted to attend this performance.
Masks are required for all patrons.
This benefit performance takes place at the beautiful Players Club through the generosity of Sally and Robert Huxley. The Players Club is a private social club founded in New York City by the noted 19th-century Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth. In 1888, Booth purchased an 1847 mansion at 16 Gramercy Park, reserved an upper floor for his residence, and turned the rest into a clubhouse. The clubhouse was named a National Historic Landmark in 1963 and is the oldest New York City membership club still in its original home. Purchase a ticket to Keen’s fundraiser event and get a peek inside this exclusive address!
Are you keen on Keen Company?
Your ticket to this special fundraising event underwrites Keen Company’s 23rd Season including two Off-Broadway productions, the Keen Playwrights Lab fostering mid-career writers, and our Keen Teens program providing free theater education to students in all five boroughs of NYC.
Can’t make the event? Celebrate from afar! Donate now to Keen Company and support theater that connects.
“This Keen Company production goes small, and in doing so, gets the play sublimely right.
Rejecting the distancing formality of a traditional theater setting, it is being performed around the city in living rooms and community spaces whose seating capacity ranges from 12 to 35. Its star is the esteemed Off Broadway actor Kathleen Chalfant, in what may be her best-matched role.”
“Kathleen Chalfant is absolutely remarkable in her nuance, stamina, and ability to create an entire world while sitting in an armchair.
The Year of Magical Thinking transcends time and space and challenges the capacity of human connection. Here we are, in conversation with Chalfant, Didion, the walls of this home, the atmosphere of this city. Our own evening of magical thinking."
“Conceived and helmed by Keen's artistic director, Jonathan Silverstein, this staging makes Didion’s harrowing journey more immediate.”
“★★★★ Many a play and performance vie for the title of ‘transformative.’ This one truly is.”
Cast + creative
Jonathan Silverstein (Director)
Joan Didion (Playwright)
Kathleen Chalfant (Joan)
Costume Designer: Jennifer Paar
Lighting Designer: Anshuman Bhatia
Line Producer: Corinne Woods
Stage Manager: Arthur Atkinson
General Manager: Reed Ridgley
Assistant Stage Manager: Sloane Fischer
Pre-Production Line Producer: Henry Lombino
House Manager: Melody Munitz