White line-art portrait on a black canvas displayed on a wooden easel.

PERFORMER PORTRAIT PAINTINGS
IN THE WILDE CAT CLUB

$5,000

A collection of 100 acoustic panels creatively disguised as elegant velvet canvases. The panels feature performer portraits by regionally-acclaimed artist Nathan Verwey.


By sponsoring one of these remarkable pieces of functional art, you can select from a curated list of artists who have graced the stage of Thalian Hall since 1858. Selection choices will be honored in the order of pledges received.

Email Susan Stein about a Performer Portrait Painting

Wilde Cat Club - Portrait Paintings Performer List
CONSIDER WHICH PERFORMER YOU MAY WANT TO SPONSOR!

* bold indicates the performer has already been reserved for a portrait

Below is a description of each performer whose portrait is still available to sponsor!

  • Maurice Barrymore

    Maurice Barrymore was an Indian-born British stage actor. He is the patriarch of the Barrymore acting family, and the great grandfather to the actress and talk show host Drew Barrymore.

  • Charles Blondin

    Charles Blondin was a French tightrope walker and acrobat. He toured the United States and was known for crossing the 1,100 ft Niagara Gorge on a tightrope.

  • Junius Brutus Booth

    Junius Brutus Booth was a famous stage actor and a father to Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth, who would go on to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. 

  • Garrett Brown

    Garrett Brown is an American inventor, best known as the creator of the Steadicam. Brown's invention allows camera operators to film while walking without the normal shaking and jostles of a handheld camera.

  • William Jennings Bryan

    William Jennings Bryan was an American lawyer, orator, and politician. He was a dominant force in the Democratic Party, running three times as the party's nominee for President of the United States in the 1896, 1900, and 1908 elections

  • Lady Bunny

    Lady Bunny, previously known as Bunny Hickory Dickory Dock, is an American drag queen, nightclub DJ, actor, comedian, and event organizer. She is the founder of the annual Wigstock event, as well as an occasional television and radio personality. 

  • Barbara Cook

    Barbara Cook was an American actress and singer who first came to prominence in the 1950s as the lead in the original Broadway musicals Plain and Fancy, Candide and The Music Man among others, winning a Tony Award for the last.

  • Dairy Cow

    This is a dairy cow who appeared in dairy shows that graced the Thalian Hall stage in the 1930's. 

  • Scarlett Dailey

    Scarlett Dailey is an entertainer residing in the Raleigh, North Carolina area. She began the art of female impersonation in 1980 and has performed in 22 states and won over 75 titles. 

  • Henry Darrow

    Henry Darrow was an American character actor of stage and film known for his role as Manolito "Mano" Montoya on the 1960s television series The High Chaparral. In film, Darrow played the corrupt and vengeful Trooper Hancock in The Hitcher.

  • Rosa D’ Erina

    Rosa D'Erina born Rose Anna O'Toole and known as the "Irish prima donna", was an Irish soprano, pianist and organist. She was the "vocalist by command to the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Irish court.

  • Corey Feldman

    Corey Feldman is an American actor, musician, and activist who became a prominent 1980's child star in films.

  • Cristo Fernández

    Cristóbal Fernández is a Mexican actor. He was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. He has acted in a handful of famous shows and movies such as Ted Lasso and the Venom series.

  • Kim Fields

    Kim Fields is an American actress and director. She first gained fame as a child actress on the television series Good Times, and rose to greater prominence for her role as Dorothy "Tootie" Ramsey in the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, as well as its spin-off The Facts of Life.

  • Fisk Jubilee Singers c.1917

    The Fisk Jubilee Singers are an African-American a cappella ensemble, consisting of students at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. The first group was organized in 1871 to tour and raise funds for college.

  • Edwin Forrest

    Edwin Forrest was a nineteenth-century American Shakespearean actor. His feud with the British actor William Macready was the cause of the deadly Astor Place Riot of 1849.

  • Dr. William Friday

    Dr. William Clyde Friday was an American educator who served as the head of the University of North Carolina system from 1956 to 1986.

  • Loie Fuller

    Loie Fuller was an American dancer and a pioneer of modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques.

  • Arsenio Hall

    Arsenio Hall is an American actor, comedian, producer, and talk show host. He is best known for hosting The Arsenio Hall Show, a late-night syndicated talk show that ran from 1989–1994 and again from 2013–2014. Hall was the first Black late-night TV host.

  • The Ink Spots c.1991

    The Ink Spots were an American vocal pop group who gained international fame in the 1930s and 1940s. Their unique musical style predated the rhythm and blues and rock and roll musical genres, and the subgenre doo-wop.

  • Joshua Jackson

    Joshua Jackson is an American-Canadian actor born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He's known for his roles as Pacey Witter in Dawson's Creek, Peter Bishop in Fringe, and Christopher Duntsch in Dr. Death.

  • Fanny Janauschek

    Fanny Janauschek was a Czech-born American stage actress who is known for playing the same double role for several decades. 

  • Joseph Jefferson

    Joseph Jefferson was an American actor and comedian in the 19th century. Jefferson was famous for playing the character of Rip Van Winkle for 40 years of his life.

  • Randy Jones

    Randy Jones nicknamed "Junkman", is an American former professional baseball left-handed pitcher. He pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres and New York Mets. Jones won the Cy Young Award with San Diego in 1976.

  • Margaret Kerry

    Margaret Kerry was an American actress, dancer, and radio host best known as the live-action reference model and pantomime inspiration for Tinker Bell in Disney’s 1953 animated classic Peter Pan.

  • Betty LaVette

    Bettye LaVette is an American soul singer who made her first record at sixteen, but achieved only intermittent fame until 2005, when her album I've Got My Own Hell to Raise was released to widespread critical acclaim, and was named on many critics' "Best of 2005" lists

  • Nick Nolte

    Nick Nolte is an American actor and producer who has starred in dramas and romances. He's won a Golden Globe and has been nominated for three Academy Awards and a Primetime Emmy.

  • Dean Norris

    Dean Norris is an American actor with over 154 film and television credits. He's best known for his role as DEA agent Hank Schrader, Walter White's brother-in-law, on the AMC drama series Breaking Bad (2008–2013). 

  • Tyrone Power Sr.

    Frederick Tyrone Edmond Power Sr. was an English-born American stage and screen actor, known professionally as Tyrone Power. He is now usually referred to as Tyrone Power Sr. to differentiate him from his son, actor Tyrone Power III.

  • Thomas Edison Projectoscope

    This is the projectoscope that Thomas Edison invented. It was installed in 1897 which presented Thalian Hall with the opportunity to show films. 

  • Jason Robards

    Jason Robards was an American actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, he gained a reputation as an interpreter of the works of playwright Eugene O'Neill.

  • Gamble Rogers

    Gamble Rogers was an American folk artist, musician, and storyteller known for the recurring theme in his songs and stories about characters and places in a fictional Florida county. He was a 1998 inductee into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame

  • Ira Sachs

    Ira Sachs is an American filmmaker. Sachs started his career directing short films such as Vaudeville and Lady before making his feature film debut with The Delta. Sachs later won acclaim for his dramatic independent films Forty Shades of Blue, Keep the Lights On, Love Is Strange, Little Men, and Passages.

  • Dee Snider

    Daniel "Dee" Snider is an American singer, songwriter, and radio host who rose to fame as the frontman of the heavy metal band Twisted Sister. Born in 1955, Snider has been active in the music industry from the 1970s to the present day.

  • General Tom Thumb - Charles S. Stratton

    Charles Sherwood Stratton, better known by his stage name "General Tom Thumb", was an American with dwarfism who achieved great fame as a performer under circus pioneer P. T. Barnum.

  • John L. Sullivan

    John Lawrence Sullivan, known simply as John L. among his admirers, and dubbed the "Boston Strong Boy" by the press, was an American boxer. He is recognized as the first heavyweight champion of gloved boxing, de facto reigning from February 7, 1882, to September 7, 1892.

  • William Howard Taft

    William Howard Taft served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices.

  • John Tesh

    John Tesh is an American musician and radio and television presenter. He wrote the NBA on NBC basketball theme "Roundball Rock", and hosts the Intelligence for Your Life radio show. In addition, since 2014, he has hosted Intelligence for Your Life TV with his wife, Connie Sellecca.

  • Ethel Waters   

    As a performing artist of the early twentieth century, Waters was a famous blues singer and actress on both stage and screen. She is the second African-American actor to be nominated for an Academy Award and the first to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.

  • John Waters

    John Waters Jis an American filmmaker, actor, writer, artist, and photographer. He  gained notoriety in the 1970s for his transgressive and audacious “trash films” like Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble. His work is known for its shock value and repulsive imagery.

  • Michelle Williams

    Michelle Williams is an American actress known for her roles in independent filmssuch as Blue Valentine and Manchester by the Sea. she has received various accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for five Academy Awards and a Tony.

  • Teddy Wilson

    Theodore Shaw Wilson was an American jazz pianist. Described by critic Scott Yanow as "the definitive swing pianist", Wilson's piano style was gentle, elegant, and virtuosic.

  • James Woods

    James Woods is an American actor. Known for fast-talking, intense roles on screen and stage, he has received numerous accolades, including three Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.

  • Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax

    Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, known as the Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and the Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was a senior British Conservative politician of the 1930s

Maude Adams

Alvin Ailey Dance

Marian Anderson

Maya Angelou

Chet Atkins

Maurice Barrymore

Charles Blondin

Edwin Booth

Junius Brutus Booth

Garrett Brown

William Jennings Bryan

"Bossy" The Cow

Sandra Bullock

Lady Bunny

Frank Capra Jr.

Dixie Carter

Jessica Chastain

The Chicks

The Coasters c.1992/1997

William “Buffalo Bill” Cody

Judy Collins

Barbara Cook

Dairy Cow

Michael Cross

Scarlett Dailey

Charlie Daniels

Henry Darrow

Charles Dickens Jr.

Frederick Douglass

The Drifters c.1997/2023/2025

Rosa D’ Erina

Corey Feldman

Cristo Fernández

Kim Fields

Fisk Jubilee Singers c.1917

Mary Verdi Fletcher

Edwin Forrest

Dr. William Friday

Loie Fuller

Gilbert and Sullivan

Dizzy Gillespie

Lesley Gore

Andy Griffith

Arsenio Hall

Richie Havens

Pat Hingle

Hal Holbrook

Katie Holmes

Kim Hunter

The Ink Spots c.1991

Joshua Jackson

Fanny Janauschek

Caterina Jarboro

Joseph Jefferson

Sissieretta Jones

Randy Jones

Michael Jordan

Garrison Keillor

Margaret Kerry

Stephen King

Betty LaVette

Linda Lavin

Taj Mahal

Charo

Agnes Morehead

Joe Namath

Nick Nolte

Dean Norris

Paul Taylor Dance Company

The Platters c.1994/1997

Tyrone Power III


Tyrone Power Sr.

Thomas Edison Projectoscope

Mysterious Miss Red

Charles Nelson Reilly

Tony Rivenbark

Jason Robards

Julia Roberts

Gamble Rogers

Isabella Rossellini

Mark Ruffalo

Lillian Russell

Ira Sachs

Michael Shannon

Dee Snider

John Phillip Sousa

Ruth St. Denis

General Tom Thumb - Charles S. Stratton

John L. Sullivan

Hilary Swank

William Howard Taft

John Tesh

James Van Der Beek

Dr. Booker T. Washington

Ethel Waters

John Waters

Doc Watson

Thomas Wiggins/“Blind Tom”

Oscar Wilde

Michelle Williams

Teddy Wilson

James Woods

Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax

Peter Yarrow

Ziegfeld Follies

7/27/2026