| Step Into Time: La Belle Époque celebrates TimeLine's 10th Anniversary and raises
more than $50,000 to benefit the company
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Five of TimeLine's six founding company members were on hand to celebrate the 10th Anniversary: (from left to right) Nick Bowling, Pat Hofmann, PJ Powers, Juliet Hart and Kevin Hagan.
Performer Cassie Wooley with Sean Sullivan as "The Prince of Wales" and Kelli Morgan as "Mistinguette" were among the "celebrities" and "socialites" from the era who attended.
Step Into Time co-chairs Meredith Banta (from left), Nancy Knapp and John Sirek.
Cassie Wooley (from left), Michael Kingston and Rebecca Finnegan performed La Belle Époque Cabaret.
Marti Berkowitz (from left), TimeLine Associate Artist Terry Hamilton, TimeLine Board President Gloria Friedman and Andrea Mitchell.
Don Seale (from left), TimeLine Board Vice President Cindy Giacchetti and Mark Bogart.
TimeLine Artistic Director PJ Powers (from left), Gladys Wolff and TimeLine Managing Director Brian Voelker.
TimeLine Company member David Parkes (from left), Chicago playwright Brett Neveu, TimeLine Associate Artist Charles Cooper and TimeLine Company member Juliet Hart.
TimeLine founding Company member Pat Hofmann (left) with Lara Goetsch, TimeLine Company member and Director of Marketing and Communications.
TimeLine Artistic Director PJ Powers (from left) with Jean Forman Shorr and TimeLine Board member Beth Zeigler.
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TimeLine celebrated the milestone of our 10th Anniversary with “Step Into Time: La Belle Époque” on Saturday evening, March 24, 2007, and we are thrilled to report that we raised $50,000 in the process! The event at Maxim’s: The Nancy Goldberg International Center, 24 E. Goethe St. in Chicago’s Gold Coast, was attended by nearly 200 of our supporters and friends.
“We celebrated 10 years of making history in style with a memorable night,” said TimeLine Artistic Director PJ Powers. “It all came together so beautifully, and I was particularly thrilled to experience all the enthusiasm in the room from our supporters and the joy of toasting this special organization and the people who have helped us get from where we started to where we are today. Now we look to the future, and this event made clear that there is much more history to make at TimeLine!”
Guests were invited to “step back in time” as TimeLine replicated the glamorous revelry of a night out at the famous Parisian restaurant Maxim’s, circa 1890 – 1910, the height of the era knows as La Belle Époque (“The Beautiful Era”).
The evening featured volunteers elaborately costumed by designers Lindsey Pate and Alex Wren Meadows as “celebrities” and “socialites” from the era: French cabaret stars Jane Avril, La Belle Otero, La Goulue, Mistinguett and Yvette Guilbert; Nobel Prize-winning scientist Marie Curie, poet Arthur Rimbaud and Edward VII, the Prince of Wales.
Jewell Events Catering prepared the French-inspired hors d’oeuvres, buffet dinner and dessert buffet. Grey Goose Vodka sponsored the evening’s signature drink, the French Martini. Kronenbourg 1664, France’s #1 beer, also sponsored and was the evening’s featured beer.
Entertainment included Matt Krause followed by Davenport’s regular George Howe on piano as guests arrived. Later guests were treated to La Belle Époque Cabaret, a selection of songs inspired by French cabaret, performed by Rebecca Finnegan, Michael Kingston and Cassie Wooley, music directed and accompanied on piano by Doug Peck and directed by TimeLine Company member Nick Bowling.
The evening’s live auction raised more than $5,000 through four prizes: A dinner/hotel/theatre package for the Opening Night of The Color Purple presented by Oprah Winfrey in Chicago; an exclusive documentary weekend at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival; a dinner party for six cooked and hosted by Powers; and a “TimeLine Ultimate Access” package, offering an exclusive insider’s view of the full development of a TimeLine production directed by Bowling, from casting to Opening Night.
The raffle, which boasted a week-long vacation trip to Maui as the grand prize plus 60 additional prize packages, raised nearly $10,000. Read the complete list of live auction prizes and raffle prizes.
Major sponsors of Step Into Time: La Belle Époque included Hudson Highland Group, Inc.; Humana, Inc.; LaSalle Bank; Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP; and the McCormick Tribune Foundation.
Step Into Time co-chairs were Meredith Banta, Rick Gray, Nancy Knapp and John Sirek.
Special guests included five of the six founding company members: Nick Bowling, Kevin Hagan, Juliet Hart, PJ Powers and Pat Tiedemann. The sixth, Brock Goldberg, no longer lives in Chicago and did not attend.
The event was also covered in the Wednesday, March 28 edition of the Chicago Sun-Times!
You can download a PDF of the event program book to read more about "Step Into Time: La Belle Époque."
TimeLine extends our profound thanks to everyone who attended, donated to, volunteered for and helped organize this extraordinary celebration. And if you missed this one, never fear, we're sure there will be more chances to "Step Into Time" in the future!
Photo Credits: All photos by Ryan Robinson, except top of founding company members, which is by Lara Goetsch.
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