SCR’s Benefit Sale Puts Jamaica on Center Stage

Tana Sherwood enjoyed her recent idyll in Jamaica so much that she brought back a slice of the Caribbean life for 600 fellow supporters of South Coast Repertory.

Saturday night, seven SCR guilds staged their end-of-season auction in Costa Mesa’s Town Center Park and on the theater’s main stage. Sherwood was chairman of the event she called “Calypso.”

“Calypso” included live and silent auctions and remarkable fare from 17 local restaurants; nearly $130,000 was realized for the nationally acclaimed SCR. By evening’s end, SCR communications associate Corinne Flocken was referring to the event as “our down-to-the-bare-wall sale” as she watched displays, flower arrangements and even signs carried off by happy bidders.

At sunset, the food was the thing. Piret’s, in South Coast Plaza, brought mussels on a bed of marinated spinach on the half shell. Panache of Fullerton offered a variety of unusual items including a seafood salad with peanut sauce, chicken with coconut sauce and flank steak with black bean sauce.

Alan Greeley of the Golden Truffle in Costa Mesa took the opportunity to introduce his new Jamaican Gourmet Sauce, a concoction of mango, papaya, guava, tamarind, “a peck of purple picante peppers” and blackstrap rum--”like a supercharged A-1 sauce,” he said--to be marketed in October. He served it on conch soup.

An unusual but short-lived wind in the park caused purveyors problems with flying napkins and spilled glasses.

“I’d say it’s a mistral,” ventured Pat Neisser, a travel writer and longtime SCR supporter, “but that’s in Provence, not Jamaica.”

The Sunshine Steel Band provided the music; Sherwood, who seemed to know all the words to all the songs, danced up a hurricane in a red-polka-dotted dress from Laguna Beach designer D.N. Evans’ “Calypso” collection, which Evans had created with the party in mind.

Though “evening resort attire” was generally interpreted as casual, Tim Norr, who assisted display chairman Noddie Weltner, pointed out that some guests looked “like Barbados landowners” in their white suits.

Norr dressed like something out of Miami. Like Don Johnson, in fact.

Sporting Johnson’s now-famous dark glasses, three days’ growth and slouch, Norr modeled the Miami Vice star’s linen jacket, size 40 and autographed, for the auction. Norr also claimed to be wearing authentic Don Johnson shoes, “the ones he wears on ‘Miami Vice.’ ” Possibly inspired by the sight of women inspired by Norr, SCR trustee Charles Wheeler bought the coat.

Round-trip fare on Air Jamaica and a vacation for two at the Plantation Inn went to the chairman of last year’s auction, Sherene Ross. Sam Perricone will get to sample a case of Black Label Bacardi Rum blend before its public debut next year. Ludmilla Montoya, who secured a series of dance lessons, can now learn the reggae. Even auctioneer Mel Giller bid on one item, a collection of lingerie.

Successful bidders for a day of tennis with SCR’s “resident pros”--dramaturge Jerry Patch (he heads the theater’s literary department) and artistic director Martin Benson--were Andy and Olivia Johnson. This foursome, incidentally, won’t have to wait for a court; there’s one on the premises of the Johnsons’ Tustin Hills home. Patch was ranked No. 1 in doubles in his age group--”40,” he said--in Southern California last year. Benson’s uncle is 1930s’ tennis great Don Budge.

The evening continued with a limbo contest, led by the self-styled “prime minister of limbo,” Perry Hernandez.

Acquisitions committee chairman was Melinda Killmer. Also there were All-Guilds chairman Caroline Le Plastrier, who reported that guild meeting times are being changed to accommodate the influx of working women, and SCR co-artistic director David Emmes, who said that a new outreach program is bringing theater training to children in the communities of Santa Ana and Anaheim.

Another topic of conversation: SCR donors Kent and Carol Wilkin had just returned from the Harrah’s car auction in Reno, where Jerry Moore of Houston paid the biggest price in history for an automobile, $6.5 million. Gen. William Lyon of Newport Beach, whose endowment gift helps support SCR’s on-site Young Conservatory Players program, was the last to drop out of the bidding for the 1931 Bugatti Royale limousine--at $6,450,000.