JackCentral

Sunday, Feb. 24, Flagstaff community members walked down their own red carpet to party the night away in their faux “TinselTown.” Theatrikos Theatre Company celebrated its  annual “A Night At The Oscars.” The event started 13 years ago as a small group of friends using the Oscars as an excuse to throw a party and has grown into not only one of Flagstaff’s important social events of the year, but a great fundraiser for the building of Theatrikos’ different programs.
Lynn Spence, the managing director of Theatrikos, said, “It started out as mainly an excuse to get dressed up and have a party at the playhouse while watching the Academy Awards. Each year more and more people started showing up until we outgrew the space a few years ago,” she said. This is the first year that the event has been held at the Orpheum — a fitting venue for an event that grows in popularity every year. The excitement of the change in atmosphere was consistent with the excitement of the event as a whole.
This year, the affair had a special buzz around it because the entertainers and drama lovers were ecstatic about the end of the writers’ strike.
“Not only can we continue on with our 13th annual Oscar Night event, but all of the members of the Writers Guild of America can start working again, and be fairly compensated,” Spence said. “I think Americans learned a lot from this strike.”
Spence’s daughter Hanna, a member of Theatrikos, age 17, attended the event last year and was excited to again participate in the production this year.
“Faux Oscar night in Flag is really great,” Hanna said. “The people that go are crazy, and everyone gets all dressed up.”
Her favorite part of the event is the fact that it is a lot like the Oscars on TV.
“Everything’s very realistic and classy,” she said.
Hanna said her mother works very hard to make this event what it is.
“She is usually awake at 6 a.m. and is still working until like 10 or 11 at night. She also has constant meetings. It’s a ton of work to keep it all together,” Hanna said.
But Spence is definitely not alone on the planning for this event.
“There’s an Oscar committee that works on it,” Hanna explained. “They like it because they get to play with it and make the show the way they want it.”
If you missed the event this year, keep a lookout for it next year.
Linda Sutera, a Theatrikos board member and one of the planners for the event, said, “Why watch the Oscars at home alone when you can enjoy the festivities along with your fellow community members? Plus, the event raises money for a great cause.”
The Oscar event is one of Theatrikos’ great fundraisers of the year, benefiting Theatrikids Theatre Program, PEACE project, and the production of six main stage productions.
Besides, as Hanna put it, it’s a great excuse to get dressed up.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 6:22 pm and is filed under A&E. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.