Getting ready for the big, big party

I've never been behind the scenes for a big, big event. Oh, I take that back. In my college years, I became friends with a guy who worked for a top San Francisco catering company and he'd hire my high school friends and I to help serve hors d'oeuvres and entrees at the gala opening for the San Francisco Opera. It was my first opportunity to be in the same room with notable figures in politics, business, society and entertainment, all dressed up.

Yes, I'm sure Willie Brown was there, and people with names like Getty, Wilsey, Bechtel, Fisher and Feinstein (Dianne was mayor then). The only "celebrity" I remember seeing for sure was Robert Blackwell, the fashion critic who created his annual "Worst Dressed Women List" that kept Hollywood stars and high society grand dames in a perpetual state of terror until he bitchily announced his "winners" each January. That gala night, I remember serving Blackwell something like little stuffed mushrooms. He wore what seemed like a permament sneer, as well as a tuxedo bowtie fashioned out of diamonds — or it could have been rhinestones!

So more than 20 years later, I'm playing a different role in a big gala event, On Broadway, which will take place tonight in a 150-foot tent outside the Lesher Center for the Arts. On Broadway is an annual event, hosted by the Diablo Regional Arts Association, to raise money to help support theater, dance, music, visual arts and community outreach programs at the Lesher Center.

I help handle publicity for DRAA, which is the nonprofit fundraising partner of the Lesher Center. And as I'm getting used to this new role (being on the other side of the media game), I'm also learning a hell of a lot about what it takes to put on an event like this. I'm saying that the organizers have to act like a combination of Florence Ziegfeld and General Patton. The organizers are the staff at the Lesher Center, led by general manager Scott Denison, and at the DRAA, led by executive director Peggy White.

While I quickly slipped out of the Lesher Center yesterday to get my eyesbrows waxed (girls gotta do what they gotta do), Denison was overseeing an army of party supply company employees and Lesher set designers and technical crews. The tent had gone up the day before, and now cables had to be installed — safely of course — to make sure there would be power for the lights, sound and stage effects in the tent, and power for the food preparations to be done by the caterer Barbara Llewellyn.

Through Friday, big trucks arrived carrying tables, a dance floor, box hedges and and crates full of wine glasses and plates.

A classroom in the Bedford Gallery inside the Lesher Center had been transformed into makeshift flower mart. On top of several tables stood nearly 100 round glass vases, each holding a display of white orchids splashed with the color of pomegranate.

Upstairs a cadre of volunteers prepared cards that would identify the groups for each of the dining tables inside the tent. They also put together paddles, with numbers, that would be used during the auction.

As I write this, we have about nine hours until showtime. At approximately 5 p.m. more than 550 guests will begin to arrive, women in gowns and men in tuxes, streaming in through the entrance to the party on Locust Street.

The people who love and support the Lesher Center appreciate that it the cultural jewel in the East Bay suburbs. These supporters are a smart and — very importantly for tonight's event — stylish group of people. They are leaders in business, politics, philanthropy and community organizing. They make up Contra Costa County's counterpart to San Francisco's high society.

So I'm guessing I'll be seeing a lot of women looking fabulous — and men, too, of course. None, I would expect, would wind up on the late Mr. Blackwell's list.

They will mingle and socialize. They will enter their names into raffles to win a $2,500 shopping spree at Tiffany & Co., or an enviable and valuable collection of more than 30 bottles of wine. Not that I'm a big wine expert, but I Googled some of the names in this collection — provided by donations from DRAA supporters — and it sounded like these wines belonged to an oenophile's dream cellar. For example, someone will get to win a Chappellet 2005 Cabernet Franc. Here's what I learned about this winemaker and this particular varietal:

This boutique winery on Napa Valley’s Pritchard Hill has won raves for its Cabernet Franc. "Cabernet Franc vines have been growing in Napa for years, but only now are vintners coaxing out their potential,” writes the Los Angeles Times. “Chappellet Vineyard's Franc vines also yield a remarkably concentrated, vibrant wine — one that consistently shows off the rocky terrain of Pritchard Hill, high above the valley's east side, in its tannic richness and breadth on the palate.”

Auction items also include getaways to the Napa Valley, Umbria, and the Ritz Carlton at Tahoe, as well as tickets to professional sports games, including premium and luxury skybox seats. Perhaps the most desired item? Free and easy parking in downtown Walnut Creek for one year.

All the money raised from these auction items will go to support arts companies and programs at the Lesher Center. One of those programs is Arts Access School Time program. The Diablo Regional Arts Association pays for more than 5,000 school kids a year, from poor, underserved neighborhoods in the Monument Corridor, East Contra Costa and Richmond, to come to the Lesher Center to see a play or a dance performance. For many of these kids, it will be the first time they have been out of their neighborhoods and gone to see a live performance. The teachers say these kids, many of whom are English learners, talk about going to see the play for months.

To get an idea of all the moving parts involved in putting On Broadway together, consider this list of “supplies” needed by the hosts and their star experts. These experts include Barbara Llewellyn of Barbara Llewellyn Catering and Event Planning, interior designer Shannon Kirby, and Kelly Tighe, a New York set designer who frequently creates sets for Lesher Center theater productions.

Anyway ... as I was watching everyone else bustle around controlling all the various moving parts of putting on this big, big show, I got to wondering how many moving parts we are talking about. To give you an idea, here are some numbers I compiled:

1 50-by-150-foot tent

1 black carpet

55 round tables

574 ballroom chairs

22 tall cocktail tables

600 dinner plates

1,200 wine glasses

1,374 orchids

1,600 napkins

42 boxwood hedges

82 mirror balls

1 headliner entertaining (Las Vegas comedienne Rita Rudner)