Theater News

The Actors Fund Breaks Ground on an Expansion of the Lillian Booth Actors Home

The home is a senior care facility for those who worked in performing arts and entertainment.

A group of supporters gather at the Lillian Booth Actors Home groundbreaking.
A group of supporters gather at the Lillian Booth Actors Home groundbreaking.
(© Jay Brady Photography)

The Lillian Booth Actors Home of the Actors Fund, an acclaimed assisted living and skilled nursing care facility for those who worked in performing arts and entertainment and their immediate families, broke ground yesterday at their Englewood, New Jersey facility. The event kicked off a capital campaign to rebuild, expand, and preserve the Home.

The project, which will add 25,000 square feet of new space that includes new bedrooms, resident amenities, and infrastructure, will also add 45 beds to the residence. It will also incorporate the renovation of over 30,000 square feet of existing resident space including reconstructed bedrooms and resident amenity space. In addition, a new two-story building will house a 20-bed memory care unit and seven assisted living beds as well as a new medical suite, an arts studio, a dining room, a bistro, and a Memory Care Garden.

The project will be funded by both philanthropic support and debt financing. The Shubert Organization and the Dr. Gerald J. & Dorothy R. Friedman Foundation have committed gifts of $2 million each with an additional $1 million committed to the project from the Walt Disney Company.

"With the rebuilding and expansion of our facility, and the increase from 124 to 169 beds, the Home will become financially self-sufficient, eliminating the need for subsidies from the Actors Fund within five years," said Actors Fund President Joe Benincasa in a statement. "This will allow us to allocate future contributions towards a reserve, as well as enhance beautification and expand programming for our residents."

Tony and Grammy Award-winner Billy Porter, Actors' Equity Association President Kate Shindle, Tony Award-winner, and Actors Fund Chairman Brian Stokes Mitchell at the Lillian Booth Actors Home groundbreaking.
Tony and Grammy Award winner Billy Porter, Actors’ Equity Association President Kate Shindle, Tony Award winner, and Actors Fund Chairman Brian Stokes Mitchell at the Lillian Booth Actors Home groundbreaking.
(© Jay Brady Photography)