A Gala of Stars

As Yogi Berra might say: It’s deja vu all over again. Last Saturday not one but two gala fund-raisers were staged with overlapping themes. And both coincidentally had to do with the 1950s — at least in part with one gala and exclusively with the other.

“I had no idea,” said Peter Senkbeil, chair of theater arts at Concordia University, which held its annual event, “A Gala of Stars,” at its arena, using the ’50s for its theme. “Maybe it’s like the old saying, ‘Great minds think alike.’ ”

“I wasn’t aware of that,” said Ruth Ann Evans, co-chair, with Linda Elftmann and Valerie Imhof, of Orange County’s Pacific Symphony’s annual black-tie gala, dubbed “California Dreams,” at the Hyatt Regency in Jamboree Center.

“Our gala was set in the late ’50s and also the ’60s. This was a really fun time for California, centered around the Beach Boys and those beach movies. This was one of the most colorful periods of time in the years many of us have been here.”

LaVeda Carter, executive director of Concordia’s Foundation operations and staff coordinator for “Gala of Stars,” said it was a “natural evolution to move on to the next decade from last year’s gala,” which focused on ’40s big-band music.

According to Evans, Pacific Symphony chose California to take a break from “traveling the globe,” as it were. “In past galas, we focused on other cities, such as New Orleans and Vienna, or other countries, such as Russia and Spain,” she said. “This time, we thought we should celebrate our own culture, living our California dreams.”

Senkbeil, the faculty adviser who oversaw the entertainment portion of “A Gala of Stars,” said that Concordia’s arena was transformed into the ’50s through music, dance, clothing and set design. “Of course, our songs were rock ’n’ roll ’50s and our cast of 19, all Concordia students, was dressed in ’50s style,” he said, “with the girls in poodle skirts and the boys either clean-cut or ‘greasers’ in black leather jackets with slicked-back hair.”

Even the storyline Houston and Blaney fashioned from the songs was reminiscent of “Grease:” Boy meets girl in high school, boy dates girl, boy loses girl — but do boy and girl really love each other?

The dances the young cast performed were, according to Senkbeil, “Something you’d find in an (early) Elvis movie.” The arena was awash in black, white and pink, a color scheme evoking the ’50s, while the platform was made up to look like two giant stacks of records, as found inside one of those Wurlitzer jukeboxes of the time.

Pacific Symphony evoked its theme through a similar use of decor, costumes and music.

“California is also known for its agriculture,” Evans said, “so we had California oranges, lemons, limes, avocados and artichokes on the tables, along with some native California flowers.

“The men at the gala were dressed in white dinner jackets while the women were in period gowns. The whole atmosphere was elegant yet casual.”

While both Pacific Symphony and Concordia knew about the other’s gala being held the same night, neither saw competition from one another, even with their overlapping themes.

“There was probably no competition,” Evans said. “I only know of a few people who’ve told us they couldn’t make ours because they were going to theirs.”

“I didn’t see us necessarily competing for the same audiences,” Senkbeil said. “We wished them every success and we expected a very successful evening for our event as well.”

Pacific Symphony’s annual gala raises money for its 20-plus educational, youth and community outreach programs that impact more than 250,000 children and adults annually. With somewhat lowered expectations in a “transitional” year between the 25th anniversary of 2004 and the 2006 projected opening of the orchestra’s new concert hall at the expanding Orange County Performing Arts Center, this year’s Gala nonetheless drew more than 450 and netted about $755,000, both figures good enough for second-best to 550 and $ 1 million raised last year.

In addition, it was announced that a gift of $5 million, the largest ever received by Pacific Symphony, came from the Hal and Jeanette Segerstrom Family Foundation to support the orchestra’s Classics Concerts Series for five more years and to endow and name in perpetuity the Principal Pops Conductor’s Chair.



top