DMTC-U in September

This was the first time we ever attempted anything like this: a dinner catered by Cracchiolo's of Woodland (pasta, chicken, & salad), plus a fundraising auction! Roughly 150 people showed up, including many DMTC Season Ticket holders. The evening brought in roughly $15,000, more than expected, in part, because the two Mercedes Benz automobiles donated to the theater (specifically for the auction), met their respective reserve amounts during bidding. The cars thus sold, yielding a cool $5,100 to the theater.

Since June, DMTC had been falling progressively into deeper trouble regarding money; in part, because of large gaps between income-raising shows during the summer, in part because of exorbitant July air-conditioning expenses - the worst heat wave in ten years - but mostly from the sheer, dead weight of so much debt incurred during the building of the theater. We needed an infusion of income beyond what the regular season could be expected to provide.

This fundraiser, then, was ultimately about helping pay for the building we now occupy, and the money we raised Saturday was sufficient to extricate ourselves from our current hole. That's not to say we won't slip into holes again: we'll have to continue to be creative regarding use of the facility to stay ahead of creditors. There are plans afoot (not yet fixed) to stabilize DMTC's debt in the future, so emergencies are fewer. Nevertheless, if Saturday's experience was any clue, we should be able to prevail, no matter what happens. We really do have lots of community support, and that, after all, is more precious than gold.

The committee in charge of the evening was primarily directed by YPT parents: Bonnie, Mary, Jeni, Michael, and Poppy, among others. I missed the organizational meeting on Wednesday, so when I showed up at the theater, I knew little of the plans underway, and focused instead on cleaning bathrooms, and some sweeping.

People started showing up early, though (apparently it is de rigeur for people to show up early at auctions in order to scan the merchandise - who knew?). I was hurriedly sent out to collect tickets. I didn't know where the tickets were, or how to do the job, and for a few minutes, I was very, very confused, but Arthur came over to help, and with more help by Wyatt Floerke and Rachel Fader, we were able to overcome the difficulties. Nevertheless, I never did get changed into my evening clothes, and so I felt a bit raggedy among all the nicely-dressed people.

I suspect I wasn't alone in feeling stressed, though. Since no one had ever done this sort of thing before, many people, YPT teenagers included, often had to improvise solutions to novel problems that arose during the evening (bussing tables, for example: who knew that we had to have a plan for that?)

I think this may have been the first time we ever served wine and beer at DMTC!

The buffet dinner was served (and everyone sat at tables) in front of the theater. Objects for auction were placed on tables in the DMTC lobby. The weather was breezy as the evening cooled off and people meandered among the merchandise. Michael Elfant did an excellent job of MC'ing during the early part of the show, when YPT performers sang snippets of songs. David Nachmanoff (who will be in concert at DMTC on September 9th) set aside his recent bronchitis to sing two rousing folk songs (it will be a great concert next Saturday!) DMTC Main Stage performers like Ryan Adame, Brad Bong, Marguerite Morris, Andy Hyun, and Lenore Sebastian all sung. Later, Steve Isaacson MC'ed during the live bidding.

The bidding posed a few amusing problems. For example, during live bidding, Sarah Rudy bid $400 for one of the Mercedes automobiles, then $2,200, and then Steve pretended to acknowledge a $2,600 bid from her (and she's not even close to being old enough to drive). Her dad felt obliged to warn her about participating!

I noticed that everyone was quite shrewd about their bids - there were no wild excesses, or runaway bidding (dang!) As a result, a lot of people got real steals at the auction.

A very pleasant time was had by all! We'll have to do this more often!