Homeless at Home on Stage for Benefit

For those of you who think the fund-raising world (whirl; whirlpool; whirligig) has gone about as far as it can go, some fast impressions:

* Despite his modest denials, Police Chief Bill Kolender can indeed get yuks when he tells a joke.

* Those who thought the recent tax cuts would decimate the number and variety of fund-raisers have been proven guilty of prophetic license.

* There were few fashionable faces with which to share an obligatory, post-curtain “Darling, wasn’t it lovely ?” at Monday’s “Homeless for the Homeless,” but, darlings, it really was lovely.

* There is more to be told “All about Eve” in 1988, and much of it involves a potato sack.

* When Ernest Hemingway told F. Scott Fitzgerald that the rich differ from the rest of us primarily in the size of their bank accounts, he might have covered himself by making a related comment about the poor.

It would have required nothing less than a heart of rusty iron to remain untouched by the third annual “Homeless for the Homeless,” given at the Lyceum Theatre by some of the residents of the YWCA’s Night Shelter as a benefit for themselves.

Polished and professional it wasn’t--Broadway it certainly wasn’t--but charming, endearing and surprisingly witty it most definitely was.

More than 20 women, whose combined life stories frankly would make a rather depressing recitation of the misfortunes to which mortal flesh is heir, stood up and bravely recited those stories and somehow translated them into a fresh breeze of hope that repeatedly brought an audience of about 200 to its feet. The medium was by no means a simple narrative, though; this was a vaudeville of skits, song and dance.

The show was produced by a unique partnership of YWCA shelter residents and volunteers from the San Diego Police Department’s Central Division, with Kolender sharing executive producer status with Y board President Vicky Pion. Proceeds will go to meet the most basic of human needs, such as new identification papers, clothing appropriate for job interviews and bus tokens to take job seekers to those interviews.

Y staffers said the fulfillment of these simple needs has made differences in the lives of previous “Homeless for the Homeless” performers, about one-third of whom have left the streets and returned to mainstream society.

Noted performing arts patron Darlene Davies was among the more familiar faces at the cocktail reception and VIP “Green Room” get-together with the performers that preceded the show. Like so many (indeed, it seemed, all ) of the event’s supporters, she seemed like a proud parent waiting for her offspring to make good on the boards.

“This show matters,” said Davies, as the costumed performers, most looking nervous but excited, crowded into the green room. “You can’t get any more basic than what these women have known. They have nowhere to go, many of them live on the edge. It’s a courageous thing for them to be in the show.”

Police Sgt. Tom Packer, coordinator of the department’s volunteer programs at the YWCA, looked and sounded like another proud parent.

“The ladies really worked hard, and this is their night to shine,” he said. “People have the attitude that the homeless are homeless because they want to be. We hope to show tonight that this isn’t true. This show helps these women regain their self-esteem and turn their lives around.”

Plenty of the potential proof of the pudding was present at the preshow smoker. Performer Joel Simoneaux, smiling behind her sad clown’s makeup, exuded cheerfulness. “Being in this show makes me feel great, happy, joyful--to do this for the YWCA is the one way I can pay them back for helping me,” she said.

Performer Rexann Maloy admitted to butterflies but agreed that the show must go on. “I’m nervous, but I have a lot of confidence because I’ve always wanted to be an actress,” she said (this was her first time on the stage). “It’s real exciting for me.”

Just how exciting it was to be was revealed during the first skit, a remarkably tongue-in-chic fashion show in which Maloy wheeled out out a possession-laden shopping cart as an example of mean streets haute couture . She was followed by Jeanevieve (Eve) Oostyke in a modish potato-sack dress, and other homeless dressed as bag ladies and the like. The effect is quite difficult to describe, but the mood was one of poignant high camp, and that certainly is something we don’t experience every day.

The show progressed neatly through individual and ensemble performances, of which the highlight was a mock interview by Mayor Maureen O’Connor (performer Laura Davis convincingly posed as Her Honor), in which a series of women candidly explained how they landed on the street.

It was sometimes hilarious in an almost exalted, surreal fashion, as when Davis asked one woman, “Can you tell me the funniest thing that’s happened to you while living on the streets?” The resulting tale would have made Garrison Keillor jealous. Kolender, after informing the audience that “homeless doesn’t mean helpless,” got a giggle when he told a joke about chicken magnate Colonel Sanders and an unnamed Pope. Channel 10 news anchor Marti Emerald, who has worked with the homeless, served as a sympathetic master of ceremonies, and YWCA residential programs coordinator Jeanne Dorsey gave the show convincing direction. The remarkably divergent audience (dress ranged from jeans to business suits) included many members of the law enforcement community, among them Municipal Court Civil Division Presiding Judge Robert Coates, who is writing a book on the homeless.

“I got involved with the homeless n order to make the court’s work more effective, but it’s a Tar Baby I’ve gotten hold of, and I can’t leave in the middle,” said the enthusiastic judge. “The Y program is the most shining example of the new resources we now have to help homeless women. This is a remarkable community effort.”

Another remarkable community effort--this one with the self-proclaimed aim of reversing the apparent U. S. decline in leadership in the sciences--blossomed April 12 on a smaller stage erected in the ballroom of the Omni San Diego Hotel.

The San Diego Chapter of ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) drew 240 guests to its second annual scholarship luncheon, at which philanthropist Cecil Green was honored as 1988 Scientist of the Year, and at which NASA deputy administrator Dale Myers gave a lengthy address that encouraged his auditors to reach rather literally for the stars.

Proceeds will provide scholarships to graduate students in medicine, engineering and allied fields; two students at the UC San Diego School of Medicine now receive assistance from the San Diego ARCS chapter.

The tables were decorated most appropriately with smallish copies of Rodin’s “The Thinker,” perhaps meant as a hint to the cooks who produced the vichyssoise and chicken lunch, as well as an inspiration to the assembled scientists, students and their supporters.

Luncheon chairman Dottie Georgens outlined her group’s aims rather succinctly. “We don’t have enough American-born graduate students going through higher education and staying in the universities,” she said. “We want our students to stay in school and go on to teach.”

The role model the group selected for both themselves and the students would be hard to top. A graduate of MIT, co-founder of Texas Instruments and discoverer of the Saudi Arabia oil fields, Cecil Green pretty much embodies the ultimate in American scientists. With his late wife, Ida, Green has given many millions to many institutions for scientific and medical research.

Much of that largess has been distributed locally, and such leading scientists and educators as Dr. Charles Edwards of Scripps Clinic, Dean Richard Atkinson of UCSD, and Edward Frieman of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, were on hand to give Green a hand. The audience did, too, after the philanthropist gave a fascinating account of his early professional years.

ARCS President Barbara McColl headed up a guest list that included Jerrie Schmidt, Lois Roon, Karen Bowden, Barbara Arledge, Ann Gonzalez, Laurie Peters, Jean Thompson, Joanne Warren, Betty Simm, Mary Jane Bennett, Karon Luce, Virginia Chasey, Barbara Luce, Carol Keeney and Barbara Doren.

LA JOLLA--The theme of science as the subject of festivities continued that evening with the the fifth annual Whittier Friends Tribute Dinner at La Valencia

Known as the host of one of the calendar’s wittier annual events, the “Catalogue Caper” at Neiman-Marcus, the Whittier Institute made its annual dinner more of a family affair. Special guests were eponymous benefactors N. Paul Whittier and his wife, Lucy, and Urban J. Lewis, head of the institute’s Lutcher Brown Department of Biochemistry. Upcoming (Sept. 17; Bobby Short will entertain) “Catalogue Caper” chairman Judith Harris attended with Dr. Robert Singer.

Institute director Dr. Bill VanderLaan was all smiles as he welcomed the 100 or so guests.

“We’re building--that’s the good news,” he said. “We’re more than doubling our size.”

VanderLaan added that the new space will be devoted both to intensified research and to clinical treatment. Later, he presented N. Paul Whittier with a miniature replica of the 300-year-old Whittier family homestead at Averill, Mass.

Jeanne Jones reprised her annual role as menu architect, this time treating guests to a dinner of garlic prawns, spicy Bombay chicken and a fantasy of fruits and fruit sorbets.