VYTal SIGNS

The Party
This was no dress rehearsal for the Valley Youth Theatre’s 15th annual fundraiser as it took over the Herberger Theater Center for the evening to stage its VYTal Affair. Some of the Valley’s finest restaurants served guests in the rotunda while silent auction bidders flashed their cellphones; then community leadership awards were presented to Tina and Justin Shafer, and Bank of Arizona. Talent students featured musical numbers from West Side Story.

The People
AZTV’s Lisa Schneider-Cipriano should win the Tony for dress of the evening as the sequined emcee of the event. Other theater lovers in the audience were Lorna Pederson, Michele Bax, Marc Reid, chair emeritus Hope Ozer, board chair Frank McCune and Producing Artistic Director Bobb Cooper.

The Scene
Following a feast provided by The Capital Grille, Carmella’s Savory Fare, Cibo Urban Pizzeria Café, The Cumare, Hard Rock Café, Maggiano’s Little Italy and others, the Sharks and the Jets battled it out onstage. A live auction item featured a week’s stay at a 13,000 square-foot mansion in Mexico, and the event moved stage right to the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel for an afterparty—the final curtain call for a dramatic evening. -Photos by Haute Photography