Please join us on October 7th for a night at the zoo, honoring our long time collaborator Ron West with Open Fist Theatre’s 2023 Excellence in Arts Award
The evening will feature dinner, dancing and watching elephants, as we celebrate our 33rd Season and raise money for the Season ahead.
INDIVIDUAL TICKETS
$250 — VIP Ticket with VIP Cocktail Hour
$150 — Gala Ticket
SPONSORSHIPS & CONTRIBUTIONS
Can’t make it but would still like to support the Open Fist Theatre Company’s 34th Season?
Please consider a fully tax-deductible sponsorship or contribution.
For more info email Ina Shumaker at oftgala2020@gmail.com.
TABLES
For more information on Table purchases email gala committee at oftgala2020@gmail.com.
Schedule
6 pm – 7 pm. VIP Cocktail hour
• Party buses will take our VIPs from the parking lot to the elephant pavilion
• Sip our Signature Cocktail “Dramatic Paws” as you connect with friends
• Animal care staff will be on hand to answer
questions about these extraordinary pachyderms
• Party buses will return at 7 pm to shuttle guests to the Treetops venue
7 pm – 10 pm Dinner at Treetops
• Party buses will shuttle our guests to and from the parking lot to the
“Treetops” venue.
• Silent Auction
• Dinner
• Presentation of 2023 Excellence in Arts Award — Ron West
• Paddle Raise for the 2024 Season
• Dessert & Dancing
What to know before you go:
The LA Zoo Parking Lot is located at 5333 Zoo Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90027, in Griffith Park, at the intersection of the Golden State (5) and Ventura (134) Freeways.
Park in the free lot, in front of the Zoo Entrance
Event check in will be next to the Membership booth on the left-hand side.
Attire: Zoo Chic. Comfortable footwear recommended.
TABLES (all tables seat 10)
$10,000
(Maximum 3)
• VIP Cocktail hour for all guests. Dinner and Dancing at Treetops.
• Dine with Open Fist Artistic Director Martha Demson, Playwright Tom Jacobson, or Guest of Honor Ron West.
• Tickets for all guests to Open Fist Theatre productions of BLOOD AT THE ROOT by Dominique Morisseau, and BOTH: A Hard Day’s Silent Night.
• Admission for all guests to a THIS WEEK THIS WEEK show of their choice.
• Season Tickets to the 2024 Season.
$5,000
(Max 2)
• VIP Cocktail hour for all guests.
• Dinner and Dancing at Treetops.
• Dine with Open Fist Associate Directors Amanda Weier or James Fowler.
• Tickets for all guests to Open Fist Theatre productions of BLOOD AT THE ROOT by Dominique Morisseau, and BOTH:A Hard Day’s Silent Night.
• Admission for all guests to a THIS WEEK THIS WEEK show of their choice.
• Tickets to the 2024 Season.
$2,500
$1,500
• Tickets for all guests to a THIS WEEK THIS WEEK show of their choice.
Honoree – Ron West
Over the past 27 years, this year’s Excellence in Arts award recipient, Ron West, has been busy, writing and directing for Second City in various cities around the country; directing at numerous regional theatres, including Portland Center Stage, Chicago Shakespeare Theater and the Goodman Theater; writing numerous plays, short films and musicals; recurring as Dr. Strudwick on 3rd Rock from the Sun and as Mr Fletch on Malcolm in the Middle; and serving as creative consultant on 145 episodes of Whose Line is it Anyway? Yet, busy though he was, Ron’s resumé features a steady stream of acting, writing and directing credits with the Open Fist.
Ron performed in our productions of Christopher Durang’s Titanic, Dario Fo’s We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay!, Allen Boretz and John Murray’s Room Service, our annual holiday extravaganza BOTH: A Hard Day’s Silent NIght, and his own musical adaptation of King Lear called deLEARious. Ron directed Buddy Jack (his unforgettable adaption of the film Billy Jack); The Andrea & Hep Show #1, #2,and #3; Boris Vian’s The Knacker’s ABC; Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors; and Barbara Wallace & Thomas R. Wolfe’s Early and Often. And he wrote and directed some of our most popular comedies and original musicals: Sex, Death and Other Annoyances, deLEARious, FoodSexWorkSleepGod, Welcome to your Alternative Reality, and Neil Simon’s Musical Fools. And for the past year and a half, Ron has served as the director and editor in chief of THIS WEEK THIS WEEK, Open Fist Theatre Company’s weekly riff on SNL, featuring topical sketches ripped from the week’s headlines. It is hard to imagine an Open Fist without the genius, humor and goodwill of the multi-talented “Dr. West”.
Open Fist Theatre Company 2024 Season
The Bauhaus Trilogy, a world premiere theatrical event, written by Tom Jacobson and directed by Artistic Director Martha Demson. Five Art Center students are put on probation for a failure to collaborate and think critically in their respective disciplines of environmental design, music, fine art, graphic design and theatre. To retain their positions at the school, they are assigned a project to research and present a history of the Bauhaus. They opt to give their presentation as a play (in 3 distinct Projects) using each of their artistic disciplines to recreate the dramatic history in real time. Will they learn the lessons of the Bauhaus and remain at the Art Center, or not?
Romeo and Juliet — Following his reimagining of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, set in the antebellum south, Associate Artistic Director James Fowler returns to direct Shakespeare’s beloved Romeo & Juliet, set in the Armenian community of Glendale in the 1920s.
THIS WEEK THIS WEEK — A little Daily Show, a little SNL, THIS WEEK THIS WEEK is Open Fist Theatre Company’s weekly comic newscast, featuring a revolving cast of actors and special guest stars at every performance. Created and directed by Second City’s Ron West, this is L.A.’s premier topical sketch show, with a hilarious group of talented performers presenting each week’s top news stories as only they can.
BOTH: A Hard Day’s Silent Night — A retelling of the Nativity Story through gospel arrangements of Beatles songs. Open Fist Theatre Company’s annual holiday tradition benefits local and international children’s charities, as we use the occasion to spotlight the most vulnerable among us.