Show tunes, food and drink are the fundamental ingredients for the Maple Valley Creative Arts Council benefit at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 16, at the Lake Wilderness Lodge.
Arts Council president Mary Jane Glaser said the non-profit organization had the opportunity to use the Lodge for a fundraising event and they didn’t get to use it early this year to bring in money for Tahoma Schools music programs due to the renovations going on at the historic building.
“We decided we didn’t want to have this opportunity go to waste,” Glaser said. “We started working on ideas for our fundraising event. We wanted it to be a celebration of the arts. We wanted as many people as we could to be seated at tables.”
City Parks and Recreation Department staff told Glaser that the Arts Council could have 200 people maximum in the Lodge for the benefit.
“We knew that we wanted people in our own community to be able to have an evening’s entertainment,” Glaser said. “We’ve recently been acquainted in the past year with Susanna Fuller, who has been a member of the community for many years. She has a fabulous singing voice and is a terrific entertainer.”
While Glaser was chatting with Fuller, she discovered the singer does a tribute to Sarah Brightman (who helped make ‘Phantom of the Opera’ famous), and inspiration struck.
“I thought, ‘That would be great,'” Glaser said. “We could have an Andrew Lloyd Webber evening with songs from ‘Phantom of the Opera’ and cats and other musicals people know.”
Fuller is also bringing along the Cascade Jazz trio to perform at the event.
With the site and the entertainment in place, Glaser said, she pondered “What’s the evening going to be like?”
“Whenever we have an artist reception, people love it when Dave Hall agrees to do a wine tasting, so he has agreed to be our wine steward for the evening,” she said. “Then I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have hors d’oeuvres paired with the wines. Everyone is sitting at tables with their family and friends, making it like a party within a party.”
Glaser’s brother owns a pastry business in Seattle, so, she enlisted him to make desserts that can be paired with the wines Hall selects.
“This seems like it’s going to be a great party and a great time, so, I wondered where am I going to go for hors d’oeuvres,” she said.
She contacted Tanya Amador who agreed to provide the food.
“I also put out an e-mail to our membership and many talented members of our arts council will be donating pieces for our silent auction,” Glaser said. “I’m really looking forward to it.”
What Glaser is most pleased about is how the arts community in Maple Valley has come together for the benefit.
“What makes me feel really good about all of the plans that we’re making is that it’s such a collaborative effort,” she said. “The arts council gave the Maple Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra the seed money to get started so it’s so nice that they volunteered to assist us on our benefit. And, of course, the Lodge is such a beautiful setting, so it will be a wonderful tonight.”
Tickets, if there are any left at this point, are $50 a pair or $30 apiece. Glaser hopes that the evening will raise $4,000 but that “might be too lofty of a goal.”
“I’m hoping that people will come and learn a little bit more about the arts council,” she said. “Perhaps we will find people who would like to donate and become sponsors.”
