The Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society is commonly home to farmers’ markets and livestock shows. But on Tuesday evening, the main hall transformed into a gala for celebrated actors and longtime seasonal Vineyarders Tony Shalhoub and Brooke Adams, winners of this year’s Martha’s Vineyard Arts Icon Awards from Circuit Arts.
Previously bestowed upon documentarian Dawn Porter and film producer Geralyn Dreyfous, the award honors creators whose impacts are felt both on the Island and across the greater arts world. Ms. Adams is best known for her roles in Days of Heaven, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Dead Zone. Mr. Shalhoub is known for his film and television work in Monk, Galaxy Quest, Big Night, Men In Black, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
The couple, married since 1992, are also longtime supporters of both Circuit Arts and the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse, which merged this year. They have performed many times on the playhouse stage. The playhouse greenroom, where performers relax pre-show, bears their name.
The evening in their honor doubled as a fundraiser for Circuit Arts.
“Your presence here tonight says something important,” playhouse director Brooke Hardman-Ditchfield told the crowd. “It says that you believe creativity matters, that community matters, and that the places where both of those things flourish deserves support.”
“And we’re here this evening to celebrate two remarkable artists, whose lives and careers remind us exactly why the arts are worth championing,” she added.
Though the gala was originally planned for an outdoor tent at the Grange Hall, torrential rain necessitated a last-minute switch to the Agricultural Hall. The three-course dinner and hors d’oeuvres were catered by Quitsa Kitchen, as were the stars’ signature cocktails. Mr. Shalhoub’s, named for his 1996 film Big Night, combined Campari, sweet vermouth, Prosecco and an orange twist. Ms. Adams’s, named for Days of Heaven, was a mocktail with elderflower syrup, seltzer and lime.
With guests seated for dinner, and in lieu of an elaborate introduction, author and film producer Tamara Weiss took the microphone to call up the people who know the honorees best: themselves.
“It seems only fitting to hand over this whole introduction thing to them,” she said.
Ms. Adams explained that when she met Mr. Shalhoub 37 years ago on the set of The Heidi Chronicles on Broadway, she wasn’t looking for love — and at the time she was the far bigger star.
“I had no real desire to get married,” she said. “I just wanted to have an affair with another leading man.”
But before long, they were married and raising their daughter, Josie Adams, whom Ms. Adams adopted as a single woman before meeting Mr. Shalhoub. Ms. Adams became a stay-at-home mom while Mr. Shalhoub’s star began to rise on the television show Wings.
Ms. Adams acknowledged it was a hard transition.
“I would be on the red carpet with him, and I would be asked, miss, could you just step aside?” she recalled. “It was bittersweet, I’d say.”
But time, she said, and her love for Mr. Shalhoub, helped her conquer the feeling.
“Finally, he really won me over because he’s a great husband, a great father, a great grandfather, everybody’s favorite guy,” she said. “I finally gave up my bitterness a little bit.”
When Mr. Shalhoub took the stage, he said Ms. Adams had been visiting the Vineyard long before the two met. She was the person to introduce him to the Island, and in retrospect, this introduction was pivotal.
“I realize now, it was a test,” he said. “She was testing me, because she loved it so much. If I didn’t take to it, if it didn’t click with me, that was a deal breaker, and I would get kicked to the curb.”
But take to the Island, he did. The couple made a home here, and a community.
“The truth is, all of my friends are here in this room,” he said.
For Mr. Shalhoub, both Ms. Adams and the Vineyard, with its rich network of artists, have helped him realize his worth as a performer and as a person. He expressed gratitude to the Island’s painters, filmmakers, dancers and oyster shuckers — “the most valued of them all,” he said.
“I’m blessed to be connected to [Ms. Adams], to be connected to you, to be connected to Circuit Arts, and of course, this beautiful Island,” he said.
The evening concluded with a live auction to benefit Circuit Arts that brought in just under $40,000. Prizes on offer included center-court Celtics tickets, a dinner with Mr. Shalhoub and Ms. Adams and an original song from singer-songwriter Carly Simon.
Ms. Hardman-Ditchfield said the evening was a testament to all the ways in which Circuit Arts nourishes Island life.
“Circuit Arts is, and always has been, more than movies, more than theatre, more than music,” she said. “It’s connection, it’s shared experience, it’s belonging. It’s that feeling of walking into a theatre and gathering here at the Ag Hall, knowing that you’re part of something larger than yourself. That doesn’t happen by accident.”
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