Let the bidding begin! Patrons made this year's Curtains Up! Gala the most successful ever. Gala photos by Joni Shimabukuru.
Amy Palomino performs a number from Cabaret.
The Gerdings enjoying the evening.
Tanner Halton from Halton Company and guests posing with a caricature.
Megan Ward and Kelsey Tyler getting ready for Commission! Commisssion!
Member Call Board
Give our Regards to Broadway:
Most Successful Curtains Up! Gala in PCS History
On a beautiful Friday evening in mid-May, Portland’s finest gathered once again for the annual PCS Curtains Up! Gala. This is our annual fundraising shin-dig where we wine and dine our most generous supporters, creating an evening they’ll remember and, with any luck, an evening for the PCS fundraising record books. This year our crack Development team put together a New York-themed event called “Give Our Regards To Broadway!”
The evening began with cocktails and street entertainment outside on NW Davis St. Guests came dressed to the nines and, although we were prepared with a tent for the festivities, the weather was absolutely ideal. As our dignitaries enjoyed signature cocktails and delectable hors d’oeuvres, they oohed and ahhd between sips and swallows at a steel drum band, a tap-dancing Sax player and some of the best break dancing Portland has seen in many moons.
Once everyone was checked in, dinner was served in the Gerding Theater lobby, where tables were adorned with caricatures of the table hosts; similar cartoon images of 200 notable Broadway personalities filled the walls all around the room.
After dinner, on the Main Stage, a true-to-life Broadway review provided a festive backdrop for the main event of the evening, a live auction including 17 amazing items like Dinner for 10 cooked by the award winning chef of Fenouille, a trip to Bali and a week in Tuscany!
Following the auction, guests enjoyed champagne and dessert back in the lobby and made their way home to balance their checkbooks!
We got so many ecstatic reports from our guests, that we know they had a great time, but just how successful was the evening for PCS?
Drum Roll Please…
When everything netted out we had made a WHOPPING $424,000 — an incredible $249,000 over our goal!
THE MOST SUCCESSFUL PCS GALA EVER!
WOW! What a night! A HUGE & HEARTFELT THANK YOU TO EVERYONE who truly made a difference — The generous sponsors, auction purchasers, paddle raisers, attendees, donors, a committed Board of Directors, an amazing committee, incredibly hard working staff and volunteers, superb entertainment, auctioneer and emcee, delicious food and liquor... THANK YOU! And a very special thank you to our dedicated Gala Committee co-chairs, Barbara West and Judy North, who people were starting to think were on staff during the three months leading up to the event!
CURTAIN DOWN!
A Personal Note
from the PCS Development Department
What a season it has been! As the wild ride comes to an end, we hope you all have enjoyed being a part of the journey. We are proud of Portland Center Stage’s accomplishments this season and hope you are too!
The end product you see on stage and throughout the community has many moving parts behind it that make it work and donors are one of the most crucial. The Individuals, Businesses, and Foundations that support Portland Center Stage are the backbone that sustains everything we do.
We could not be where we are now and do the work we do without your incredible passion and commitment to theater. From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
Warmest regards,
Charlie, Jessy, Kavita, Kristan, and Marlene
Grant News
Incredible Support from JAW 2007 Sponsors
Portland Center Stage expresses the deepest gratitude to The Kinsman Foundation. Stepping onto the JAW 2007 stage with an incredible $40,000 grant, The Kinsman Foundation has made a bold and important commitment by underwriting new play development in Portland. Together with the amazing gifts from our other JAW 2007 sponsors, the Festival enjoys a whopping $79,500 of backing before even opening the doors on the kickoff fundraising event, Commission! Commission! It is due in part to this overwhelming support that we are able to make every event at the festival ABSOLUTELY FREE to the public. BRAVO!
…And More Grant News!
We would also like to recognize and thank these additional foundations who have recently awarded grants to the theater:
The Shubert Foundation, the Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust, and the Jackson Foundation, which have made grants totaling $88,500 in support of the theater’s programs and general operations.
The Oregon Community Foundation, which has awarded a $30,000 grant for PCS’s education and community programs. The H.W. Irwin and D.C.H. Irwin Foundation has also made a contribution towards education with its $3,000 grant for Visions & Voices, which brings professional theater artists into local high school classrooms to teach playwriting.