As Director of Special Events for Music Hall, I get to create and produce this evening. By "create," I mean chose the theme (and have it approved by our President and Artistic Director), design the gala portion and produce the gala on the night of. The fundraiser has two basic elements; Gala and Show. I am the GALAura. ;)
There is so much involved in throwing a gala benefit... auctions, seating, committee meetings, menus, volunteers, fire breathers, jugglers and stilt walkers, flowers, linens and such, but I pride myself on the twist I give it - the ability to make it different than all the other events around town AND there are a lot of events around town. The biggest key is keeping the costs down, yet having it look and feel rich and sophisticated.
For the last 6 seasons we have had some wonderful themes - Hollywood, Ziegfeld
Follies, Mad Men, Cotton Club and last year’s salute to James Bond & Austin
Powers. (See previous blogs for pictures).This year our theme is Circus. I had seen "Water for Elephants" and though I hated (yet it was well acted) Chistoph Waltz's character, the movie hit me to the core. I wanted to do a vintage Circus.
The first thing I had to do was get the idea approved by 'the Boss,"
which wasn't easy. The Circus has so many elements and being that it is a black-tie
fundraiser the risk is of running the fine line between sophisticated and a
child's birthday party, not that there is anything wrong with a child having a
circus themed birthday party, it just isn't the look we want. 
After 6 months, I got the go forward and the ideas flourished. Right now in
the midst of it all I am creating costumes for my volunteers -"Bally
Girls." The Bally Girls were a girls who sang and danced in the circus
spectacles and were 'generally useful' throughout the entire performance. Use
of this term probably came from the employment of real ballet girls and dancers
in the great circus spectacles of 1880 to 1910. Later day bally broads remained
with the show for many seasons working in a featured act, and often, married to
a staff member of the show. http://circushof.com/glossary.htmlOur "Bally Girls" will seat guests, help with the auctions and appear in the opening of the show.
Here is the progress so far...
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| The finished product! This photo is by Scott Lipiec |
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