Living in Westwood, the frequent site of movie shootings, television filming, and premieres, the chances for celebrity encounters is substantially greater than on the average college campus. Yet, even in Los Angeles, encountering a plethora of celebrities at the same time is a very rare feat.
At “ONE NIGHT ONLY…With a Little Help from My Friends,” the first annual benefit gala for the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, the audience can become privy to what the school’s dean, Robert Rosen, called, “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
The event, taking place on Dec. 2 at Royce Hall, will comprise of a play reading follwed by a champagne reception. All proceeds from the gala will go directly toward the theater, film and television programs.
The idea for the fundraiser came from actress Rita Wilson (“Runaway Bride”), who is also a founding member of the School of Theater, Film and Television’s executive board.
“Over the last four years, she’s been talking about a particular methodology for fundraising for various causes,” said Delphine Frost, the gala’s executive producer. “We’ve been talking around and what the difficulty was, in the last year, was getting everybody’s schedules together.”
The event will be hosted by Wilson and her husband, two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks. It is through their efforts and connections that the high caliber cast was compiled for the show, which comprises of 18 actors from various platforms including film, television and theater. The cast list includes A-list names such as Annette Bening (“American Beauty”), Martin Short (“Mars Attacks!”), Alicia Silverstone (“Clueless”), William Shatner (“Boston Legal”).
“What we wanted was a really high profile, really fun event that would attract people as part of a fundraiser for the School of Theatre, Film and Television,” Rosen said. “Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks have had the experience in the past of bringing together some of their friends at a very high level of stardom in the industry to a reading.”
The main event of the night will be an “informal” reading of the Pulitzer prize-winning play, “You Can’t Take it with You,” directed by Oscar-nominated screenwriter and director Nora Ephron (“You’ve Got Mail”).
The play, written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, details the trials and tribulations that ensue when two different, seemingly crazy families meet. Its humorous take on familial relations and its large cast list makes the play well-suited for the event.
“We wanted to have something that’s really fun, with a large enough cast that has equal roles for both men and women,” Frost said. “(The gala) is self-contained in one day and that’s why you want to have comedy, you want to have sort of an over-the-top feel.”
The play’s comedic subject can also be seen as a reprieve in today’s harsh times. According to Rosen, even though the play comes from the 1930s, it still has contemporary relevance.
“It takes place during a time of economic distress, with a mad, kind of idiosyncratic family that’s trying to deal with it,” he said. “It’s truly a comic classic.”
As with every comedic event, there is a large degree of improvisation, especially when an comedy veteran such as Short is in the picture. Yet, it is not only the actors who will need to be fast on their feet on the day of; the production crew involved need to be quick-witted as well.
Lizzie Boulger, a third-year theater student and the assistant stage manager for the event, is one of a handful of theater students who were asked to help set up the show. With rehearsals and set-up not occurring until the day of the show, there’s a certain air of mystery as to what props or costumes the actors might want.
“They might come in and say, “˜We want this many props and we want a tank of snakes,’ or they’ll say, “˜No, we don’t want anything’ so we just have to be able to anticipate,” Boulger said.
Despite that, she feels the gala is especially beneficial to theater students, not just in the funds it will supply but also in the experience of working at such a high profile, professional event.
“To get to do something like this doesn’t come along very often … at my age, in the stage I’m at, the whole process of becoming a stage manager and getting into the industry is really helpful,” she said. “It’s going to be a great experience. I’m really excited about it.”
It may not be a play with elaborate backdrops or costumes, but the draw of the event seems to lie in its improvisational nature, the experience of seeing so many well-known names in one arena and the interaction (plus hilarity) therein.
Boulger said, “How often do you get a cast of all pretty well-known names in one room, on one stage doing a show together?”
The answer? Not often enough.