Lights Up! Wine, Dine & Shine at Seattle Rep

Friday evening, Ken and I attended the “Lights Up! Wine, Dine & Shine at Seattle Rep” fundraiser to benefit the Seattle Repertory Theatre. We followed a long red carpet to enter the festivities where almost every woman was wearing at least one flashing, lighted ring to denote the purchase of a raffle ticket. Our neighbor, Debbie Killinger, however took the prize for most flashing rings, wearing ten; one on each finger! It was a lovely black-tie party with dinner onstage in the Bagley Wright Theatre. Once we entered the auditorium, the stage looked fantastic with three crystal chandeliers hovering overhead and tall multi-arm candelabras lighting up each table.

We were guests of Seattle Repertory Theatre chairman, Toni Hoffman and her husband, Rod (see photo above). It was great fun to catch up with so many friends including Joan & Bob Cremin, Pat Wallace, Marco, Paul Birkeland, Stacy Lill, Alta & Stan Barer, Deborah & Doug Rosen, Jane & Dave Davis, Elizabeth Rudolf, Jan Hendrickson, Kathleen & Mike Mitrovich, Deb & Larry Doran, Kate & Larry Anderson, Stewart Parker, Debbie Killinger, Sherry & James Raisbeck plus scores of others.

The program included a brief original play, Yosemite, written by Seattle Roosevelt High School sophomore, Maddie Daviss, one of four youth playwrights who took part in Seattle Repertory Theatre’s 2010 Playwriting Project. Her play, performed by four professional equity actors, was charming and very well-received by the gala audience. The evenings’ “Raise the Paddle” was directly targeted to Seattle Rep’s Initiative for Young Audiences and began with a generous $1,000,000 leadership gift from longtime theatre subscriber and patron, Matthew Clapp Jr. His generosity was acknowledged with a standing ovation from all in attendance. Others followed his lead and a total of an additional $130,000 was raised through the “Raise the Paddle”. Including that, a brief auction and ticket sales, the gross raised was $370,000.

The auction included round trip airfare for two people to Puerta Vallarta and a one week stay at Toni & Rod Hoffman’s beautiful, beach front condominium home. The item went well above the published $5,000 value, so Toni and Rod offered a second package on the spot and were able to double the funds raised for the Seattle Rep.

Nothing to do with the theatre, but a cultural phenomenon I noticed Friday night is that several of us have decided at the same time to grow our hair longer. I know I have been doing so and noticed that Pat Wallace, Elizabeth Rudolf and Jan Hendrickson have been doing the same thing. I’m not totally sure what the driving force is on this, but am guessing that we are all trying to look a bit younger once again!