Barry Edelstein, the director of the Public Theater's Shakespeare Initiative, will replace the late Lynn Redgrave as the leader of the 2010 program. Academy Award-winning stage and screen actress Olympia Dukakis will mentor the participants in 2011. The 2010 Lunt-Fontanne Fellows are Stephen Berenson, nominated by Trinity Repertory Company; James Carpenter, of California Shakespeare Theater; Celeste Ciulla, of The Old Globe; Bob Davis, of The Guthrie Theater; Laura Gordon, of Milwaukee Repertory Theater; Andrew Long, of Shakespeare Theatre Company; Peter Pryor, of The Wilma Theater; Jacqueline Williams, of The Goodman Theatre; and Larry Yando, of Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

"Lunt-Fontanne Fellows return to their home communities more inspired, and more inspiring — offering great benefits to other actors, to individual theatres, to students, to communities across the country, and to American theatre as a whole," according to a statement by organizers. "Ultimately, the program does not exist simply to serve actors; the purpose of the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program is to strengthen the ability of actors and theatres to enrich people's lives in communities across the country."

The Lunts (of The Visit, The Great Sebastians, Taming of the Shrew and many other productions from the 1930s through the 1950s) opened Ten Chimneys to many theatre artists, from Laurence Olivier to Julie Harris, "to retreat, rejuvenante and collaborate," according to press notes. The Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program was started by Sean Malone in the spirit of those efforts to nurture promising and established theatre talents.