EtM is proud to announce that a substantial donation has been made to us in memory of Broadway/television/film actress Sloane Shelton, who died at the age of 81 on September 17, 2015 after a long illness.

Sloane’s performing career spanned six decades. She acted with Vanessa Redgrave on Broadway (Tennessee Williams’ Orpheus Descending, directed by Peter Hall). She had numerous memorable film roles, including All the President’s Men, What Lies Beneath, One True Thing, Lean on Me, Running on Empty and All That Jazz. She appeared in soaps and television, and worked onstage in numerous other New York and Broadway productions with Denholm Elliott, Lillian Gish, Eva Le Gallienne, Sylvia Sidney, Christine Ebersole and Hal Holbrook.

On a personal note – I met Sloane in 2002. I had received a playwriting award from the Berrilla Kerr Foundation, and the award ceremony was at the Cherry Lane Theater. Sloane was on the Board of this foundation and introduced herself. I had seen her years before in Orpheus Descending and I was blown away by her sly humor, warmth and graciousness. Several years later, I had the privilege of working with Sloane on a play I had written, Candy & Dorothy, in which she played Catholic activist Dorothy Day. This play was produced in New York in 2006. Sloane’s performance was one of the great gifts of my professional life.

This donation will be used to further the mission of EtM, fostering and promoting the performing arts community of New York City, which Sloane so loved and believed in – because that community was indeed her true religion.

–David Johnston