Sunset’s the Backdrop at 2 Fund-Raisers for Arts Center

Looking for a way to cut party costs?

Take a hint from Deborah Fabricant, chairwoman of “A Creole Beach Party” held Friday at the Monarch Bay Club in Dana Point: “I bought used tablecloths at the annual Regal Rents sale and painted them to fit our theme.”

Fabricant picked up 13 of the brightly colored cloths for $5 each from the Santa Ana party rental company, drew carnival masks, balloons and musical instruments on each and, with help from her committee, filled in the designs with water-based semi-gloss house paints.

Spread on an emerald green lawn (“Not tables, this is a beach party,” Fabricant reminded) overlooking the ocean, the cloths were stunning--the effect as elegant as any ballroom scene.

And that is the point. The country’s rocky economy has social planners cutting overhead costs. Economical planning means more money for the charity--in this case, the Center Dance Alliance support group of the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Plastic plates were used. And the food--chicken with curry-peanut sauce, blue crab cakes and blackened beef salad with mango-coconut dressing--served in huge baskets provided the centerpieces.

Decor? Try a bright persimmon sun drowning in a turquoise sea.

“We wanted this to be a mini-fund raiser,” Fabricant said of the $80 per-person affair. “So, we have no silent auction. We just wanted to have a fun summer party and make a little money--about $8,000.”

About 100 guests wearing the prescribed “all white or Creole-casual” party-wear toted folding chairs and blankets for the post-dinner portion of the evening--a zippy serenade by T-Lou’s L.A. Zydeco Band. Guests were invited to dance on a parquet floor set up under a white canopy.

The secret of dancing to Zydeco is “good rhythm,” said T-Lou, an Angeleno who hails from Louisiana. “You can do anything you want.”

“As long as you keep moving,” added Moka, the band’s dance instructor. “Once you stop, the dance is over. To do the Zydeco step, you have to be able to walk and count to four at the same time. The step goes back to an African tribal dance that gave birth to our swing and jitterbug steps.”

This group knows dance. Besides raising funds for the center, members of the Center Dance Alliance provide instructional activities for those interested in dance.

They also cook up food for the dance companies--the Kirov, the American Ballet Theatre, the New York City Ballet, to name a few--who perform in Segerstrom Hall. “We love meeting the dancers at the buffets we set up backstage between performances,” said CDA President Crystal Sims. “We have developed some very nice friendships.”

CDA dues are $100 per year. “Anyone can join,” Sims said. “We are always looking for new members.”

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Sunset Paradiso: A blazing sun also provided the backdrop for the Founders Plus gala--Sunset Paradiso--held Saturday at the posh manse of Linda Irvine Smith and her husband, Harvey. Perched on a cliff overlooking the private cove where Linda and her cousin, Joan Irvine Smith, played as children, the house has a breathtaking 180-degree view of the ocean.

“I grew up using this beach,” said Linda Irvine Smith, the horse-loving daughter of Thelma and Myford Irvine. (Along with framed needlepoint, pictures of jumping horses grace the hallways of the Smith home. Another detail: A powder room door hung with the sign, “Here is the door you have been looking for.”)

When guests weren’t dining on scampi with basil or chicken with mango chutney, they were sipping mango Daiquiries by the pool and rubbing elbows with gala honoree, Elaine Redfield.

Redfield and her late husband, Bill, were to be honored at the party. “Bill and I were so excited about this,” said Redfield, the arts activist who sent the letter to Henry Segerstrom that resulted in the Segerstrom family’s donation of land for the center. (Founder Tom Moon brought a copy of the letter to the party and used it in a tribute to Elaine.)

“This is the first time any organization chose to honor both of us,” Redfield said. “I am so grateful the committee told us about it early. That way, Bill was able to appreciate it. And he really did.”

Founders Plus is an Orange County Performing Arts Center service organization whose membership includes the center’s original founders. Their goal is to promote awareness of the center and donations to its endowment fund, said the group’s chairwoman, Barbara Johannes.

Party guest Christine Rhoades, daughter of developer William Lyon, became a founder in 1979. “I believed the center was a necessity for Orange County,” she said. “I was tired of trucking to Los Angeles for theater. I just couldn’t do it anymore.

“Now, we have a center that is 6 years old. I think that is just great.”

Also among guests was Tom Tomlinson, the center’s new executive director. “I am finding supporters of the center to be a great group of people,” he said. “It is especially nice to be here to meet the people who had the original vision. No center in the country has the communal support that this center does.”

Barbara Glabman was gala chairwomen. Committee members included Shari Esayian, co-chairwoman; and Vesta Curry, Kathryn Wright, Betty Belden-Palmer, Jan Landstrom and Marilyn Lynch.