Black-tie event!

Last Saturday I attended the re-opening gala for the Mark Taper Forum-- a theater that is part of the Los Angeles Civic Center in downtown L.A. It was an invite-only affair primarily for large donors to the theater. However, my sister is an employee and she received an invite for her and a few guests. And I was lucky to be one of the guests.

There was a special dinner before the show held on the plaza in front of the Taper for the donors. The entire plaza area was surrounded with huge temporary walls of greenery and cloth so it was almost impossible for someone to look into the area and see the VIP guests. While waiting for the doors to open for the non-dinner attendees, I saw Laurence Fishburn standing outside the doors smoking a cigarette. I pulled out my camera and joked with my friends about asking him to take a picture of us (not with him, just of us alone ;).

After we entered the theater, I had so much fun looking at all of the people in their fancy dresses and tuxedos. It was crowded and was difficult to move around. While waiting for people to move up the stairs, I looked over and saw Angela Bassett waiting to move down the stairs. She saw me notice her so I gave her a friendly smile and she smiled back. She looked just as gorgeous in real-life as she does in the movies.

While we were taking a quick self-guided tour of the newly renovated theater during the intermission, we saw Ron Rifkin, Victor Garber, and Joel Grey hanging out with each other. I also saw Robert Sean Leonard who plays Dr. Wilson on 'House' which was a bit of a thrill since I love that show and think that he is a great actor. I also saw Ed Begley Jr. who my sister remembers as 'that guy who sells earth-friendly detergent at the farmers market.'

The play showing at the theater was 'The House of Blue Leaves'. It starred a bunch of people that we recognized from television shows-- John Pankow (Mad About You), Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle), Kate Burton (Grey's Anatomy), and Diedrich Bader (the Drew Carey show).

After the play, they had an after-event reception with drinks on the plaza. Dame Edna was holding court with some children from one of the sponsored charities at the reception, and Tony Shalhoub (Monk) was there joking around and taking pictures with Dame Edna.

As we were leaving the gala over the Red Carpet, a woman asked my friend to take a picture of her and her mother with their camera. Standing behind the woman was Zachary Quinto, the actor who plays Sylar on Heroes. Seeing him was a bit of a surprise. He looked much taller in real life than I had imagined.

The next morning I was buzzing from the fun of the evening. I felt a little bit like Cinderella at the ball that night... and now, two days later, I'm back to my regular world of blue jeans and t-shirts. *sigh*