When folks gather for this week’s Friend Raiser for Rising Youth Theatre, they’ll be surrounded by retro flair from hula hoops to gymnasium risers. Their fundraiser with a friendly twist takes place Thurs, Aug. 23 from 6-8pm at The Duce in Phoenix, a joint named for the produce once processed there.
I’m told the event, with $12 tickets online or $15 tickets at the door, will feature performances by Rock Steady Crew and minibosses, and that Rising Youth Theatre will get 10% of proceeds in the eats department. Also that the party, complete with nifty games, is fit for all ages.
It’s a fun chance to introduce your kids to vinyl seating, hand-operated kitchen appliances, aluminum bathroom doors and t-shirts for bands that never claim to move like Jagger. Plus retro bikes and motorcycles, a one-time boxing ring and oodles of quaint objects like cookbooks sporting women with beehive hairdos.
The Heard Museum chose gala over grunge (grunge good, mind you) for its annual fundraiser taking place Sat., Oct. 20 at 6pm. The Moondance Gala features “an evening of elegance and glamour” with performance by Mogollon. Leave the hula hoops, even those covered in bling, at home that night as the museum honors Senator Jon and Caryll Kyl.
Come Sat., Nov. 3, you can get your neon on with the Phoenix Art Museum, which is presenting its annual black tie dinner dance. Those of you who’ve still got glow-in-the-dark necklaces from your last Jimmy Buffet concert in the freezer should leave them there. The pARTy starts at 6:30pm that night, and neon will be one of the star attractions.
Bernadette Peters, who needs no neon to glow, is coming to town with music director Marvin Laird to perform at this year’s ARTrageous event benefiting arts education and outreach programs for Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts and Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. The Sat., Dec. 1 shindig starts at 5pm, and the concert is scheduled for 8:30pm.
The Children’s Museum of Phoenix presents its inaugural Kid at Heart gala Sat., April 6, 2013 at 6pm. I’m told to expect a whimsical circus with a “Cirque de Musée” theme. So maybe, just maybe, I can whip out the old hula hoops after all.
— Lynn
Note: If you actually remember seeing Jimmy Buffet do a concert in a freezer, you’ve got more than neon on the brain. My apologies to folks like Grammar Girl who flaunt the fine print of finessing the English language.
Coming up: Spinning a yarn, Prime time for poets
Stage Mom Musings 