Prayers for Lynn Redgrave

Please keep Lynn Redgrave in your prayers. It has just been announced that she is suffering from an undisclosed illness that requires immediate medical treatment. Trooper that she is, she is still going forth with her Off-Broadway play Nightingale, which starts previews Thursday at Manhattan Theatre Club, but will performs with script in hand.

I met Lynn last month when she spoke at Broadway Blessing and was struck by her warmth and generosity. I’m sure all who heard her were touched by her personal reflections about her life in the theatre, her bout with breast cancer and the faith that sustains. Her recitation of Psalm 23 was unforgettable.

She’s a strong woman. While she was going through chemotherapy for the breast cancer she also was performing Off-Broadway in Talking Heads, not letting that arduous treatment keep her off the stage.

The current condition was diagnosed this week and requires immediate treatment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Side effects of the treatment will make it necessary to rely on the script for performances throughout the run. Her spokesman said she had not had a recurrence of cancer.

Nightingale is a one-woman play she wrote and performs about her maternal grandmother. It opens Nov. 3 and runs through Dec. 13.

Please keep Lynn in your prayers.

(Photo, by Lauren Yarger, is of me, Lynn and Karen Lehman, executive director of the Episcopal Actors’ Guild.)