A fundraiser for Fine Arts for Children and Teens, titled Skip's Day, took place Wednesday night at Counter Culture Café. The dinner theater, hosted by Caldera Gallery, won't happen for another four years, as it honored the world's least celebrated occasion, leap year.
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With the event scheduled to go from 6-10 pm, my partner and I arrive "late" at around 6:20, but we haven't missed much. Time doesn't seem to exist when around Sandra Wang and Crockett Bodelson, Caldera's founders.
In character as Alexander, Crockett greeted us at the door to the café, handing us a piece of paper with instructions to write our names and choose a ceramic cup, each handmade by Bodelson, Wang and Cris Brodsky. I chose one that suggests chemistry class with a smoking beaker and some test tubes. My partner selected one featuring a row of colorful, oddly shaped people.
The Café has been decorated to look like a school classroom, and a room has been set up with lights and a green backdrop for class pictures.
A small crowd buzzes around gourmet food, served on lunch trays by a woman wearing a hair net. I attempt to interact with the crowd, but instead accept my heavily loaded tray and sit down. There is so much food, I'm a little overwhelmed, but pleased with the generosity. Tickets were $75.
So around 6:30 pm I'm eating, with little else to do but admire the absolutely delicious food: lasagna, ceasar salad with a slice of bread, beef bourguignon, and roasted cauliflower and brussel sprouts drizzled in a perfect amount of truffle oil.
The little crowd is steadily amassing, peaking at around 30, with a few older couples, some children, a few younger couples, and a smattering of singles of various ages. Wang tells me most of these people are good friends, making the atmosphere relaxed and friendly.
My companion is in a quiet mood, observing, so I try engrossing myself in the environment, taking in every detail, but nothing's happening yet.
At 6:45 pm, Crockett passes around the ceramic cups, informing us of the crib notes painted onto the bottom. I'm like "What information? The bottom of my cup lists an 1828 cocktail recipe." But he's already gone, and I just go with it. Ten minutes later, the show starts.
For about 40 minutes, the audience is transports back to high school, a time when sarcastic substitute teachers rule the world, or at least survive the semi-brutality of joking youngsters who make it their job to ridicule subs.
This particular classroom scene is a bit more complex since it is Leap Day, providing a dual premise for the play. Mr. Werner (rhymes with learner) is subbing for Mr. Applebaum, who assigned the class homework of looking up a fact having to do with Leap Year.
Mr. Werner goes around asking everyone for their Leap Day facts, ridiculing them for the smallest slip-ups; though you can't blame him. The student Quentin gets in trouble every time Mr. Werner turns his back.
Leap day is also Alexander's birthday, so his peers tease him, calling him Skip. He is distressed by the attention, particularly coming from Quentin. But he seems to take some pleasure in his fact—that the visionary painter Balthus also had his birthday on a leap year.
Around 7:15, I finally register that the crib notes on the bottom of our cups are Leap Year facts that we might have to share with the class. Excitedly, I pick up my companion's cup, forgetting I just filled it with coffee. I turn it over his lap, a whole cup of coffee now staining his shirt and jeans. No one seems to notice though, including Mr. Werner, who swoops by and picks up my nametag, which I had decided not to fill in. He sarcastically asks if I'm in attendance today, but still requests that I share my fact. I dutifully recite the cocktail recipe on the bottom of my cup and then ask facetiously, in response to his tone, if that sounds good to him.
At this point, Mr. Werner returns to his desk, and tells Alexander he has a package waiting in the principal's office. On his way there, he runs into the ghost of the late artist Balthus, who encourages him to ignore the torments of his classmates by saying "if we weren't born when we were things might not be right."
This ghostly visit cheers him up, so he returns to class where Mr. Werner asks for a few more facts, before dismissing class, students and the audience. Then I take my partner home to change his pants, still sopping with coffee which has turned cold and uncomfortable.
