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.
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























