Saints, Sinners to schmooze for Rep

What is it better to be, a sinner, or a saint?

Marla Johnson, founder and chief executive officer of Aristotle.net, has a great answer. She and James Norris (her husband, from whom she is amicably separated) are co-chairmen for Saturday's $400-a-ticket annual Arkansas Repertory Theatre Saints & Sinners gala.

"You know what, I will tell you this, and this I truly believe," she says. "It is really awesome to be 100 percent both, and it can be done!"

Many socialites consider the Arkansas Repertory Theatre's black-tie gala the most fun fundraiser on the calendar, and when it goes off again at the Wally Allen Ballroom in the Statehouse Convention Center it will continue a tradition now in its fourth decade. Last year, male gymnasts in singlets tumbled over one another in a writhing routine, and showgirls with exposed garters and midriffs and decolletage catwalked the stage. So, what this year? Burlesque?

"No!" says Rafael Castanera, the production's designer. "But I think the whole thing is designed to be an evening of surprises."

Which is why he's cagey -- stage-cagey -- about the performance.

As are Johnson and Norris, though as co-chairmen and not theater folk they can't help but furtively hint, such as when Norris says, "This show, the emphasis is on the sinners part of Saints & Sinners. It's passion, it's red."

"Nicole Capri writes the production every year. She says she thinks this is her sexiest show yet."

Rawrrr!

At about 10 times the base admission price for a mainstage Rep performance, these tickets are a unique marketing experience, Johnson says. "In my experience selling luxury properties, what you do is you are marketing to a very small [group]. You are marketing heavily, and well, to a very small group. It ends up being very B2B, not B2C [business to business, not business to consumer]."

Johnson says she and Norris' fundraising goal is $400,000. If they hit it, that'll amount to about 12 percent of the theater's budget.

Norris is in a purgatorial predicament, it appears. He's a five-year veteran of the nonprofit's board of directors and a first-time gala chairman, but he's also now the executive director of The Weekend Theater, just a few blocks west. Is that wrong? Not at all, he says. Firstly, both nonprofit theaters knew on the front end about his role with the other. Secondly, he says, The Weekend Theater's entire yearly budget will be raised three or four times over Saturday night.

They aren't competitors.

"Really, Broadway [Celebrity Attractions], the guys who do the [touring shows], those are the guys we consider to be Coke and Pepsi for the Rep. Like, when they came and sat down for an extended run of Wicked last season, it killed the Rep's opening musical Pal Joey. World premiere. Workshopped in New York and brought to Arkansas. It totally didn't get any attention at all and ended up not meeting goals."

What the Rep is calling the 31st annual Saints & Sinners hasn't always been eschatological in theme. Well, some years there was no event. And Ruth Shepherd and Charlotte Brown, who spearheaded the very first fundraiser, called it That's Entertainment -- Un, Deux, Trois.

"We produce Saints & Sinners like one of our mainstage shows," says Castanera, production manager at the Rep. "I always talk about it like it's our Macy's parade. Years before, I did some costumes for a float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. One of the organizers, she said, they'd do the parade on Thursday, they'd take the weekend off, and pretty much on Monday they would reconvene and say, 'OK, what will we do next year?'"

Meanwhile, of the gala-goers each year, maybe most have seen the production before. While the fundraising goals only rise, the surprises and excitement must be mined from deeper within the collective creative.

"We trimmed here and there," Johnson says. As one of the co-chairmen, she received a "giant download" outlining expenses and offering suggestions for how the production budget should be spent. She promised that no decision was made to trim costs on the food, which is prepared and presented by the staff at the Little Rock Marriott next door.

"We've increased our goals in every category, but ... there will be a massive push for people to specifically give to our education efforts."

Last year, Capri, the Rep's education director, told the crowd about the theater's next big thing: "We want to create a year-long program with a conservatory environment, where we're teaching young people about singing and dancing and performing, even a brand new film department." It's part of the Rep's expansion just across Main Street into the building anchoring what's been dubbed the Creative Corridor.

Right now the theater hosts several 14-day Summer Musical Theater Intensives (SMTI, or "Smitty") for young artists. Of the 600 who audition, about 25 percent get invited. One of its alums is now a lead in the national touring production of The Book of Mormon.

Youth education, Capri says, is "the passion of the Rep."

Johnson's also proud of the auction items, one of which is a stay in Nashville, Tenn., and a contract to collaborate with a hit songwriter, then record the song at a big Nashville studio with a top producer and recording engineer. The songwriter is Arkansan Kenny Lamb, whom Johnson calls a friend.

Johnson's leaned on several of her friends to build the live auction tranche. It's the reward for living life like a saint, which Johnson's done, mostly.

"It's all about loving people and taking care of people and wanting the best for other people," Johnson says. "And then, the sinner part is -- it's good to not follow everybody's rules."

Weekend on 01/29/2015