Page 8 - The Islander - April '22

Page 8, The Islander

Charity newS from page 7
Cancer Alliance Will Host

‘Dance The Night Away’ 2022 Gala

April 1, At The Breakers, Palm Beach

Cancer Alliance of Help & Hope (CAHH) will host Dance from 2021, will put on their Sarama and David Drennen, Gail Worth, and Memorial
the Night Away 2022 Gala at The Breakers, Palm Beach, on dancing shoes again for a Healthcare System.
Friday, April 1, beginning at 6 p.m. This exciting event is special performance. To learn more or to purchase tickets visit www.cahh.org,
presented by Fred Astaire Palm Beach Marketplace Plaza. The female participants email CEO Stanton Collemer at Scollemer@cahh.org or call
Chairs are Janet Levy and Lois Richards. in the Dance the Night (561) 215-7360. Tickets are $675.
For the second year in a row, CAHH has gathered the top Away Dance Competition About Cancer Alliance Of Help & Hope, Inc.
dancers for Palm Beach County’s celebrity dance-off. Dance include Elizabeth DeBrule, The Cancer Alliance of Help & Hope, Inc., based in
the Night Away 2022 Gala is sure to be another sold-out event Sophia Stone, Renee Scott, Palm Beach, Fla. is a charitable organization dedicated
that will raise funds for underprivileged families dealing Gail Gorder Fischer, Trish to improving the quality of life of local children, women
with cancer while they are undergoing chemotherapy and/or Carroll, Sarah Negrin, and and men and their families, who are touched by cancer
radiation treatments. Nancy Maiale. The male by providing need-based financial assistance, information
Fourteen local nonprofessional ballroom dancers will take contestants include Paul resources and access to services and support groups in
private dance lessons from the Fred Astaire Palm Beach to Bert, David Deberard, our community. CAHH seeks to provide respite to those
prepare for the competition and compete for Cancer Alliance’s Max McNamara, receiving a devastating cancer diagnosis. As a 501(c)(3)
2022 Top Female and Male Dancer. David McClymont, and formed in 2003, the organization has helped thousands of
The dancers will be judged by three celebrity judges including Warrington Gillet. cancer patients and their families who live and/or receive
Amando Martin and Mayor Danielle Moore. Tony Dovolani, a Sponsors of the event treatment in Palm Beach County and dispersed over $5.5
professional dancer from the acclaimed TV show Dancing with to date include: Academy million. Cancer Alliance of Help & Hope focuses on assisting
the Stars, will serve as the evening’s master of ceremonies. for Nursing and Health patients with their ordinary living expenses such as rent and
Guests will enjoy cocktails at 6 p.m. followed by the dance Occupations, Chris and Left to right: Chairs are Janet mortgage, utilities, auto and health insurance, car payments,
competition at 7 p.m., with a variety of awards from different Mike Cox, Lois and Ray Levy and Lois Richards. food and other basic necessities.
categories that will be presented during the evening. Bruce Richards, Janet and Mark Photo by Annie Watt For more information, please visit CAHH.org or call
Helander and Lauri Welteroth, the Top Male and Female Dancers Levy, Frances Yu, David Photography (561) 748-7227.

artS & entertainment

Palm Beach Dramaworks Presents

Intimate Apparel By Two-Time Pulitzer Prize-Winner Lynn Nottage Opens

Lynn Nottage’s heartfelt
and heartbreaking Intimate
Apparel, which she wrote
“to honor the legacy of her
great-grandmother,” opens
at Palm Beach Dramaworks
(PBD) on Friday, April 1,
8 p.m. Set at the turn of
the 20th century, the play
tells the story of Esther,
a 35-year-old African-
American seamstress of
exquisite intimate apparel Lynn Nottage Be Boyd Jordan Sobel Jovon Jacobs
who aches to love and
be loved. An unlikely mainstage debuts. Scenic design is by Michael Amico, librettist for the opera
opportunity arises when she costume design is by Brian O’Keefe, lighting design is by Intimate Apparel (score
enters into a correspondence Kirk Bookman, and sound design is by Roger Arnold. by Ricky Ian Gordon),
with a man she’s never met. The journey to writing Intimate Apparel began when which premiered at
The play, which Variety Nottage discovered a photo of her great-grandmother Lincoln Center in
called “note-perfect,” runs while cleaning out the house of her grandmother, who January for a limited
through April 17. was struggling with dementia and moving in with Lynn’s run and was recorded
The production is directed by Be Boyd, making her PBD brother. She told an interviewer, “I’d never seen this for future broadcast by
debut, and features (in alphabetical order) Rita Cole, Jovon woman before. I didn’t even know her name.” She later Great Performances on
Jacobs, Gabrielle Lee, Krystal Mosley, Jordan Sobel, and discovered that her great-grandmother’s name was Ethel PBS. Nottage was also
Gracie Winchester. All but Jacobs are making their PBD Boyce Armstrong. Nottage’s mother had already passed a writer and producer
away, so there was no one left who could provide her with on the Netflix series
family history. All Nottage knew initially was that her She’s Gotta Have It,
great-grandmother had been a seamstress at the turn of the directed by Spike Lee.
20th century. So, she spent hours at the New York Public Her work has been
Library, learning about the world in which Ethel lived. widely produced in
“I wrote Intimate Apparel in part because of my the United States and
desire to get closer to my ancestors,” Nottage told PBD throughout the world, and she is the recipient of a
Producing Artistic Director William Hayes in a 2020 MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship as well as many
interview (available on YouTube). “I wanted to understand other distinguished awards. A native of Brooklyn, Nottage
what it might have been like for a single, black woman at is a graduate of Brown University and the Yale School
the turn of the century to try and forge a life in New York of Drama, and is an associate professor in the Theatre
City despite all the obstacles she probably had to face. Department at Columbia School of the Arts.
I also wanted to write a play for my mother, something “... thoughtful, affecting ... The play offers poignant
that she would have loved to have seen, something that commentary on an era when the cut and color of one’s
Singer Island Liquor Booth was in her gentle, loving spirit.” dress – and of course, skin – determined whom one could
(561) 842-4318 Lynn Nottage is the only woman to have twice received and could not marry, sleep with, even talk to in public.”
the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. She won in 2009 for Ruined –Variety

Liquor • Beer • Wine • Cigars and 2017 for Sweat. Other full-length plays include “... deeply moving ...”
Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Por’Knockers; Mud, –New York Daily News
We are located directly on singer island! River, Stone; Las Meninas; Intimate Apparel; Fabulation, Palm Beach Dramaworks is a professional, nonprofit theatre
or the Re-Education of Undine; By the Way, Meet Vera company founded in 2000 and located in the heart of downtown
1241 Blue Heron Blvd. Stark; Mlima’s Tale; and Clyde’s. She wrote the book for West Palm Beach. Each season, the award-winning company
riviera Beach the musical The Secret Life of Bees (music by Duncan produces five mainstage shows and offers a wide variety of
Ask About Delivery Sheik, lyrics by Susan Birkenhead), and MJ: The Musical,
featuring the songs of Michael Jackson. She is also the Arts & Entertainment on page 9