✨ A FUNDRAISING BENEFIT FOR CELEBRATION THEATRE ✨

Join one of the world's longest-running LGBTQ+ theatres in celebrating our creative heroes during an entertaining afternoon of special appearances and social festivities. Hosted at the campus of our program partner, Los Angeles LGBT Center, our annual gala is a wonderful way you can support our arts & social impact mission. Wear your best garden party chic to mark the first week of spring and celebrate!

   BONI ALVAREZ
   Chuck Rowland Pioneer Award

   for groundbreaking and distinguished achievements 
   in LGBTQ+ playwriting and arts advocacy

   SOCKS WHITMORE
   Vibrant Voice Award

   for emerging theatremakers contributing to 
   queer & intersectional stories

   DAVID TRAN
   "The O'Hara" Appreciation Award

   recognizing a Company volunteer who has 
   gone above & beyond for Celebration

Patrons will enjoy a remarkably entertaining way to honor our own while supporting Celebration Theatre's next main-stage musical, Songs For A New World! We entertain, inspire, and empower with innovative productions that celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. As our rights, safety, and identities come under renewed and vicious attacks across the country, our mission to amplify queer joy, pride, and visibility is as important as ever. You will help us reach our event funding goal of $25,000 with your attendance, silent auction bids, and sharing our gala with others.

Our awards show features special appearances and selections of works from honorees Boni Alvarez and Socks Whitmore made possible by guest artists like Reggie Lee (“Prison Break” “Grimm”), Amanda Kruger (Celebration’s A New Brain), a capella group 8TPS, a sneak peek of Songs For A New World from castmember Kyle Montgomery, and more. Mayor John Erickson of West Hollywood will be on hand to bestow proclamations to our honorees.

After the show, our Courtyard Celebration will include songs from Celebration company artists and alums: Eric B. Anthony (Mannie, B'way Hairspray), Hann Crews, Sade Ayodele, Mitchell Johnson and Jason Bornstein (A New Brain), Tom DeTrinis (Die Mommie Die!), Parnell Damone Marcano, Constance Jewell Lopez (The Color Purple), and Kristyn Evelyn (Songs For A New World).

Our event begins in the beautiful Courtyard with a VIP Hour, including a champagne welcome, Westward Whiskey Tasting, and meet & greet with honorees and talent. Our guests will then move into the Renberg Theatre for our one-hour Awards Show, directed by company member Alli Miller. The event concludes with a Courtyard Celebration with live music, silent auction winners, light bites, and clinking glasses (mocktails, included). Join us for a good cause and a great afternoon soiree!

EVENT SCHEDULE

• 2PM | VIP Hour
• 3PM | Awards Show
• 4PM | Courtyard Celebration

EVENT SPONSORS

Catering by Hugo's Restaurant

Bar Sponsorship by Micky's WeHo

Floral Arrangements by Mark's Garden

VIP Tasting Experience by Westward Whiskey

ABOUT OUR HONOREES

BONI B. ALVAREZ (he/him), the son of Filipino immigrants, hails from East Palo Alto, in the San Francisco Bay Area.  He is a Los Angeles-based playwright-actor who has written over twenty plays, including Sticky Rice; Bloodletting; America Adjacent; Apartment Living; Fixed; Nicky; Dallas Non-Stop; Marabella; Driven; and Ruby, Tragically Rotund.  His plays have been produced at Center Theatre Group/Kirk Douglas Theatre, Echo Theater Company, Coeurage Theatre Company, Skylight Theatre Company, Pork Filled Productions, Theatre Rhinoceros, and Playwrights’ Arena. In Los Angeles, his plays have been developed at Geffen Playhouse; Chalk Rep; Moving Arts; Artists At Play; A Noise Within Theatre; East West Players; Greenway Court Theatre; The Blank; The Vagrancy; and EST/LA.  Nationally, his plays have been developed at Miami New Drama; San Diego Rep; Second Generation (2g, NYC); InterAct Theatre (Philadelphia); Playwrights Foundation (San Francisco); and Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  He earned an MFA in Acting from the American Repertory Theatre/Moscow Art Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the USC School of Dramatic Arts, where he is currently on faculty.  He is a member of Odyssey Theatre’s Writers’ Odyssey and a Resident Playwright of New Dramatists.  Upcoming in May 2024: the world premiere of Mix-Mix: The Filipino Adventures of a German Jewish Boy, produced by Playwrights’ Arena and Latino Theatre Company at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. 

SOCKS WHITMORE (they/them/theirs) is an agender/gender non-conforming performer, composer, and storyteller rooted in voice and text. As a stage, screen, & voice actor, Socks has originated roles of all genders in musicals, immersive theater, feature films, animations, podcasts, video games, and audiobooks. On fancier occasions, they’ve performed in renowned spaces such as the Grand Ole Opry, Carnegie Hall, and the Sydney Opera House. Socks’ creative work as a creative musician and wordsmith spans from live performance to digital media to print, including music theater, choral music, audio dramas, narrative design for games, poetry, short fiction, op-eds, and more. Their collaborations for stage include the opera MARROW, Back to One: A Coming of Self Musical, and the mental health musical, We Are Here. Socks has been produced by New Musicals Inc., Overtone Industries, & Feminist Fairytales, and published by American Composers Forum, Sappho Small Talk, Translash Media, & Queer Quarterly magazine, among others. They are also a staff critic with Stage Raw and a board member of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle. To top it all off, Socks is a co-founder & facilitator of the trans vocal group 8TPS, a producing partner at the trans-led events production company, Prismatic.one, and the creative director at the gender-expansive Bolero Game Studio. A self-described “professional overachiever,” Socks likes to keep busy—if they’re not on stage, set, or their laptop, they can be found watching bad movies and amassing large amounts of socks. 

DAVID TRAN (he/him) is a graduate of Orange County School of the Arts’ Drama Conservatory. He then ventured outside of the OC bubble to complete Bill Alderson’s two-year Meisner acting program. David has worked on various theatrical projects for CBS, CW, MTV, and Nickelodeon. Stage highlights include Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music (Dandy Minion), Martin Sherman’s Bent (Rudy), Bert V. Royal’s Dog Sees God (Beethoven), and Terrance McNally’s Corpus Christi (Thomas). When he’s not at home watching reruns of “Golden Girls” and other 90s sitcoms with his Labrabull, he is out in the field flexing his other creative muscle in the fashion industry as a Visual Merchandising Manager & Stylist, or helping out Celebration Theatre, where he’s been an active company member since moving to Los Angeles.