Some Enchanted Evening
Some Enchanted Evening
by Kate Berenson
(Slideshow)
This annual PME fundraiser holds a special place in my heart. What began as a showcase for some of our very talented soloists 13 years ago has morphed into a real production, complete with some staging and props and even acting. For me, it is a personal experience. As far back as I can remember I wanted to be reborn as Julie Andrews, so this show it is an opportunity to sing the material I love best and flounce around (in character, as opposed to my usual flouncing). And every year, it turns out that I am not the only one. My incredibly talented PME peers are all out there channeling their favorite Broadway star or creating their own. Give someone a feather boa and whoa, Nellie!
What's really cool is that all of this flouncing helps to support the group. The fundraiser is the largest addition to our bottom line every season, about 20% of our total operating budget.
For the last three years, I've had the honor of being the chair of the event. Now, anyone who has ever said "yes" to such a weighty responsibility has, at some point, wondered WHAT they were THINKING and OUCH, my arm really hurts from all that twisting and HONOR-SCHMONOR, this is much harder than my REAL job and they could NEVER afford to pay me for the time I'm putting in. They (those other committee chairs), do not, however, have the most astoundingly talented and enthusiastic and organized-times-pi of all committees to make all the ducks line up. I do. Let's start with Jacquie Hale, PME's executive director extraordinaire. She is privy to every little detail, the hiccups and the all-out meltdowns and calmly jumps in and fixes them. Next on the list is our amazing administrator, Penny Dedel, who just joined us this year and has already created systems that make everyone's job immeasurably easier. Plus she has a great sense of humor. I LOVE that. Darlis Wood, a paragon of patience, is chair of the auction committee. Her job is to chase down the many donations and write them up for the displays and for the all-important catalog (which was beautifully designed by our own Angie Doctor). We had over 70 great items this year, mostly donated by PME members (anyone interested in a tour of the Highland ER with Dr. Gene Hern? Personally, I think he's much cuter than McDreamy and Gene's's a real doctor….); there was some major bidding going on! There's Alexis Jensen who, apart from an incredible singing voice both in the show and during the intermission, brought brilliant catering, décor and other ideas to the table, literally. Mari Marjarmaa was the brains behind the Silent Auction checkout, and also did signage and talked her wonderful husband, Kurt, into bar-tending (again). And Emily Brockman is the creative wonder behind the fundraiser cuisine, once again developing a fabulous menu of items specific to our theme, organizing the folks to prepare them as well as the folks in the kitchen to plate those beautiful trays of goodies almost too pretty to eat. My dear friend and singing partner, Kim Keeton, was, as always, a spectacular program liaison. While we were hammering out the details of the party, she was writing intros for the program and working with Lynne Morrow and Dick Grant to present the best possible show. My heartfelt thanks to you all. A special nod to Susie Shoaf, whose spirit was ever-present and greatly appreciated, and to Corinne Springarn for her organizational wizardry and always gracious presence at the welcome table.
And wow, what a show. We had some wonderful new faces up there: Polly Ikonen singing a bittersweet Sondheim (is there any other kind?) duet with Doug Boyd, new soprano Monica Williams blowing the walls down with Summertime, Cindy Lau and the Pips (doing actual choreography!) singing Midnight Train to Georgia (personally, I think Cindy's a shoo-in for American Idol), and some amazing small groups (Greg Lee's great New York Afternoon chart and a vocal rendition of Vivaldi's Spring) and an all-time favorite: Boy from New York City featuring Kathie Longinotti. Angie and Alexis delivered powerful performances of love and loss and Kim brought down the house with "Boy from …" Our Queen of Rock and Soul, Becca Burrington, sang beautifully in Occitan and for fun, Christina D'Allance sang Autumn Leaves in French which was completely charming. Peggy Rock took us to Paris in her solo, looking very much like Jackie O in her costume, this after doing a duet about Ohio with Gretchen Nicholson that was hysterical. Not to be outdone in the hysterical department, we had a version of Brush up your Shakespeare performed by Jim Hale and Larry Rose, complete with a soft shoe, (OK, that's a real stretch, but we forgave them) and last, but certainly not least, Istanbul (not Constantinople) featuring Gene Hern and Eric Freeman. The motorized kiddie cars were GREAT, not to mention the red fez hats. High Maintenance, the women's quartet that includes Angie, Lark Coryell, Kim and me, tackled Rhapsody of New York, a challenging, vocal marathon that requires expansive ranges up to three octaves, something like a dozen key changes and allows only five actual breaths in the entire seven minutes of singing. Doing this chart with only four voices is pretty much insane, but adrenaline is a wonderful thing.
We closed the show with Lusty Month of May from Camelot. I played/sang Guenevere. By the end of the song I was envisioning a much-younger Robert Goulet galloping up and whisking me off the stage and taking a much-younger me off to his castle in the Berkeley Hills. Instead, I went downstairs with my PME homies, had a glass of delicious Hafner Chardonnay and bid adieu to a lovely and supportive audience with arms full of silent auction goodies and, we hope, wonderful memories of another great PME fundraiser. It was some enchanted evening.
For more pictures check out the slideshow here: PME 2007 Fundraiser
