I have a great event to write about this week, but first, let me remind everyone about the Sweetheart Wine Walk from 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday on Main Street. It is crazy busy downtown with all the businesses gearing up for their wine-tasting sites.
Jeremy and Sarah Annillo, owners of Sorci’s Italian Café and Enoteca, are busy coordinating the wines with business owners and helping with final details for the event.
And my phone is ringing off the hook with calls to order wine walk tickets. I love the orders for groups of eight or 12 coming to enjoy a night out together. And then there are the calls from men who freely admit they are buying the tickets to make points with their sweeties. I just laugh and tell them to keep their eyes open as they walk through the stores because there are lots of gift ideas that could earn them even more points.
As for the great event I went to Saturday night, it was at the Petersen Brother’s Old Dieringer Gymnasium and involved Sumner Rotary and Ascension Theatre Productions. It was a fundraiser for Sumner’s YMCA that is slated to begin construction in 2012.
It has been truly amazing to see this project take root and grow and the local partnerships that have been forged.
I have loved listening to Petra Karr work on this project the last few months as she wrote an original script for an old time radio show spoof after reading Sumner’s History (by Amy Ryan) and some of the old Sumner Herald newspapers. The story line is entertaining, includes well-known Sumner families and culminates in the Sumner Valentine’s Day box lunch social. The narration by Matt Griffis (he was great in Forever Plaid at the Cannery) was a hoot, and the sound effects, sing a-longs and audience signs held up directing us to clap, boo or sigh, were perfect.
And though I really liked the whole cast, I have to admit I was partial to our own downtown volunteer coordinator and business owner Theresa Freemont of Northwest Bodyworks. To hear her using different accents for her character parts had me laughing hysterically every time she spoke. One had a Scottish ring to it and the other I have no idea where it originated from. But when you combined it with the old-fashioned wig and shawl she put on, she was hilariously believable.
So if you’re interested in seeing the play yourself, it’s called “Love Conquers All” and there are encore performances at 7 p.m. Feb. 19, 20, 26 and 27 at the Dieringer gymnansium.
For more information, visit www.atheatrepro.com.
And if you’re interested in the wine walk, you can purchase tickets at Spartan Agency, 253-863-6122; call me at 253-720-9846; or can purchase them the day of the event when we open the registration booth at 3 p.m. in the drive-through lanes at Bank of America. Come join the fun and spend some time in Sumner with your sweetie.
