Arts & Society

Jade Floyd • October 18, 2012

Gala season is upon us. Time to break out our checkbooks, dust off the gowns and take in (or out) that tux at the tailor. Year after year, organizations across the District scurry to prepare their signature events for the masses. Months of planning lead up to the big day as patrons anticipate historic events like the Lombardi Ball, Fight for Children’s Fight Night, its sister event Knock Out Abuse, and more. Hosting organizations look forward not only to increasing awareness about their causes and attracting potential donors but also to raising large amounts of money in only a few hours, which can sustain an organization for months.

Fashion for Paws is a true powerhouse among Washington galas, which is held in the spring each year. The gala raised $70,000 when it was first held in 2007. Fast forward five years and more than $720,000 was raised at its 2012 event, for which more than 1,700 tickets were sold. Created to support the Washington Humane Society, Fashion for Paws began as fun way to engage Washington’s animal lovers and increase awareness about animal cruelty and welfare. Today, the event is one of the nation’s leading gala events supporting an animal welfare organization. “We are re-engineering to better serve our mission and growth,” says Tara de Nicolas, executive director of Fashion for Paws. “We are thrilled with how far we’ve come in such a short time, but we also realize we have to continue to tweak and innovate if we want to keep this momentum.”

Yet with glitzy events left and right, organizations often fail to capitalize on partnerships, acquire sponsorships to cover costs and secure high-profile donors to make their events thrive. Many organizations see small returns once overhead costs, such as catering, entertainment and alcohol, are paid for. The 2012 Fashion for Paws event garnered more than $417,000 in-kind for event production, catering, alcohol, lighting, entertainment, sound and staging. “As a small non-profit, we would never be able to host an event like Fashion for Paws without the support of our in-kind sponsors like Syzygy Events, Design Cuisine, Digital Lighting, Edge Floral Event Designers and more,” says de Nicolas.
D.C.-based Fair Chance, an organization that offers free services to community-based organizations who positively impacting the lives of children and families in Washington will host its fourth annual butterfly this October. Money raised enables Fair Chance to support 10 new small-to-medium sized youth-serving non-profits each year, investing 350 hours of support for each organization – a $50,000 combined value. Working along alongside each organization, they embark on an intensive one-year partnership that strengthens the entire organization.

“We cover the costs of our partnership program giving each neighborhood nonprofit their own fair chance to reach their potential,” said Brett Norton, Director of Development. “In turn, a stronger organization, built to last, is able to open their doors a little wider for D.C. children and youth and keep the lights on for those that need them most.”

The Butterfly Bash is a celebration of ten years of service by Fair Chance with 35 corporate sponsors and a 163 member host committee who together work to make the gala event its most profitable fundraising event of the year. “In one night, you have the chance to drive multiple goals – to educate and inspire a large group of people, engage a sizable group of volunteers working together on the event, and it raise essential resources from individuals and corporations,” says Brett Norton.

Gary Tischler • October 17, 2012

Accents, the way words or dozens of them are said, can carry across the ocean in our times, and so can entire paragraphs, plays, speeches and stories. That’s what Rory Nolan does sort of talking about the Galway-based Druid Theatre Company and “DruidMurphy,” a trilogy of plays by Tom Murphy, whom some folks call Ireland’s greatest playwright.

“I wouldn’t argue the point, that’s what he is, our greatest living playwright,” Nolan says. “I know he certainly ranks right up there with Brian Friel, and then there’s Enda Walsh and Martin McDonagh, but talking just for myself, there’s none better at getting at the real heart and soul of Irish people.”

This is the Druid Theatre Company’s second visit to Washington, and it starts out tonight at the Eisenhower Theater with Murphy’s “Conversations on a Homecoming” at 7:30 p.m., followed tomorrow with his scathing, ground-breaking debut, “A Whistle in the Dark,” followed on Friday, Oct. 19, with the epic “Famine,” which is about what many historians see as Ireland’s very own holocaust, the 1846 potato crop famine which resulted in thousands of deaths and a mass emigration of Irish people to the United States. The theme of exile and Irish emigration runs through the whole three-play cycle which will be performed consecutively on Saturday, Oct. 20, beginning with “Conversations on a Homecoming” at 1:01 p.m.

The Druid Theatre Company starts out tonight with Murphy’s “Conversations on a Homecoming” at 7:30 p.m., followed tomorrow with his scathing, ground breaking debut, “A Whistle in the Dark,” and ends Friday, Oct. 19, with the epic “Famine,” which is about what many historians see as Ireland’s very own holocaust, the 1846 potato crop famine which resulted in thousands of deaths and a mass emigration of Irish people to the United States.

Nolan, speaking from Dublin, has a rolling little lilt to his speech, instantly recognizable, like a song, but, like Murphy, a venerable cultural figure in Ireland, he has no truck for Irish clichés and sentimentality that is characteristic of the Irish in America, if not at home.

“Murphy is straight ahead,” Nolan, who has parts in all three plays says. “It’s the truth, reality of the characters, there’s not of that blarney. His characters are angry about their lot in life. They speak in unromantic terms. There’s an edge in everything they say.”

“The Gigli Concert,” a lengthy play that rode on a whirlwind of words, received a highly praised production at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre several years ago, and McDonagh has become a popular mainstream playwright in America, while the work of Walsh received productions of his work by the visiting Druid company at the Kennedy Center two years ago in addition to seeing productions of plays like “The New Electric Ballroom” at the Studio Theatre.

“This will be the first really substantive exposure of his work in the states,” Nolan says. “It’s powerful stuff, grand. Murphy likes to write about exile, departures, the effects of that, and when it happened on such a scale as the aftermath of the great famine. Well, that’s a subject that’s major and serious.”

Druid was founded in Galway in 1975 by Galway University graduates Garry Hynes (who is directing the three plays), Mick Lally and Marie Mullen.

“The Druid style is natural,” Nolan said. “It’s evocative and sharp. It’s a great opportunity for an actor to be working here. They take on challenging and new ways of doing things. It’s not just the big plays, the established playwrights. They do a great job with encouraging and working with new writers, and young actors, too.”

LAST CALL FOR MUST-SEES

THE FOURTH VELOCITYDC DANCE FESTIVAL

The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Sidney Harman Hall is the place to be this weekend if you love dance. The fourth annual VelocityDC Dance Festival will be staged Oct. 18 through 21 with performances at 8 p.m, Oct. 18, 19 and 20; at 2 p.m. Oct. 20 and 21.

Dance-supportive institutions like the Washington Performing Arts Society, the Shakespeare Theatre Company and Dance/Metro DC haves organized this three-day festival which features world-class artists and dance companies presenting a gala format of movement and music, hip-hop and spoken word works.

Included is a Ramp!-to-Velocity series of events 90 minutes before curtain times. Among the performers and companies are the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, El Teatro de Danza Comtemporanca El Salvador, The Washington Ballet Studio Company, Farafina Kan, the Dissonance Dance Theater, the CityDance Conservatory, Step Afrika! and the Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble among many others.

‘FLY’ AT FORD’S THEATRE

There’s still a little time to see the ground-breaking “Fly,” a new play by Ricaredo Khan and Trey, which tells the saga of the experience of the Tuskegee Airmen, four World War II African-American military pioneers who proved themselves as officers and pilot-warriors. The play—inventively staged—combines live action, video footage and “Tap Griot.” The Ford’s Theatre season opener will be performed through October 21.

THEATER FOR FOODIES

The Round House Theater in Bethesda has opened “I Love to Eat” by James Still, a one-man tour-de-farce that features Nick Olcott as the culinary maestro James Beard, running through Nov. 4.

JOPLIN STILL REIGNS, AND SO DOES MOLLY IVINS

Texas women still rock and rock out at Arena Stage which has Kathleen Turner as the brave, rambunctious journalist Molly Ivins in “Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins” through Oct. 28 and Mary Bridget Davies bringing down the house as the 1960s white blues blazing star Janis Joplin in “One Night With Janis Joplin” through Nov. 4.

THE DROODS ARE BACK

Artistic director Robert McNamara is dipping into the ultra violence of the Droogs made famous by Anthony Burgess’s novel and Stanley Kubrick’s movie of the same name with a stage production of “A Clockwork Orange” at the H Street Playhouse through Nov. 19.

THE LOCALS SHINE IN ‘THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR’

Veteran Washington super-talents are on stages in Michael Kahn’s production of Nicholas Gogol’s comedy, “The Government Inspector,” including Rich Foucheux, Nancy Robinette, Derek Smith, David Sbin, Sarah Marshall, Hugh Nees Craig Wallace and, of course, Floyd King. “The Government Inspector” continues through Oct. 28.

Mary Bird •

For ten years, the Dress for Success, Washington, D.C., affiliate has assisted more than 10,000 women to gain the tools not only to land the job but to keep the job. Supporters gath- ered at Hotel Palomar Oct. 10, as achievers paid tribute. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., cleared her schedule to speak of her involvement and pride that in America we help women to move up the ladder in contrast to the opposition to educating women in the less-developed world. The nonprofit provides professional clothing for women to succeed in the workforce and the mentoring to “dress from the inside.” [gallery ids="101025,135816,135812" nav="thumbs"]