Theater-Group Party Has a Halloween Cast

Dressing in costume comes naturally for members of Stop-Gap, a stage company that uses theater to address social problems.

So it was no surprise that most of the 200 supporters of the organization at Friday’s Halloween gala sported theatrical masks. The $100-per-person dinner and auction at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point raised about $15,000 for the Santa Ana-based theater group.

Masked Revelers

Guests in elaborate feathered masks and sparkling evening wear mingled amid bouquets of gold and black balloons.

David Stary-Sheets wore what looked like a steer’s skull but what his wife Susan disclosed was “a deer’s pelvis with horns attached.” Halloween is the couple’s favorite holiday because it allows them to show off a few of the more than 100 masks in their collection.

Marcia Jager, board president, made a dramatic entrance in a floor-length green velvet cape.

“My grandmother made it for my mother when my mother went off to college in the ‘40s,” said Jager, who attended with her husband, Fred.

Don Laffoon, executive director and co-founder of Stop-Gap, sported his trademark red patent leather shoes and a black cape with one black and one white rubber bat perched on each shoulder.

“A bat out of hell and a bat out of heaven,” joked Laffoon, whose wife, Grace, wore an elegant black face mask.

Theatrical Dinner

In keeping with Halloween, organizers decorated each table with a pumpkin sprayed with black high-gloss paint and adorned with gold ribbons.

“In this economy we tried to keep things simple,” said Lynne Vodra, event chairwoman, who attended with her husband, Don.

Dinner was anything but simple. The fare included California field salad with vinaigrette dressing, chicken stuffed with spinach and wild mushrooms covered with a tomato basil sauce and swan profiterole swimming in chocolate sauce.

After the meal, guests got to see how Stop-Gap works. Besides staging plays, the group holds educational and therapeutic workshops for battered women, substance abusers, abused children, hospital patients and others.

Laffoon led two improvisational workshops with former Stop-Gap participants, one of them a 15-year-old boy who has cystic fibrosis. The boy played a doctor counseling a depressed CF patient: “As you grow older, you learn to deal with it,” he told his “patient,” obviously speaking from experience.

Three graduates of a shelter for battered women acted out various scenes in which they confronted abusive ex-husbands.

“This program allows people to practice new ways of relating to people in a very safe environment,” said Victoria Bryan, managing director and Stop-Gap co-founder. The theater company has expanded to Los Angeles and Riverside counties.

In addition, awards to Stop-Gap supporters and volunteers were given to Marilyn Zahm and Warren Gay, Paula Sherman, and the McDonnell Douglas Employee Committee Fund. Guests included Jay Amestoy, Fernando Astran, Woody and Diana Dike, Roger and Sharon Embrey, Sheriff Brad Gates, Mike and Kelly Hayde, Tak Ishida and Sandra Russell-Ishida, George and Pat Kessinger, Catherine Kimbrough, Jack Miller, Roger and Eileen Ohanesian, Dale and Sharon Paisley, Linda Sowell and Ruben and Wendy Valdillez.