Palm Beach Dramaworks’ 2024 Gala: “The Roaring Twenties”

Saturday, March 16

West Palm Beach, FL. – It’s probably the most storied decade in American history: the Roaring Twenties. F. Scott Fitzgerald popularized it as the Jazz Age. It was an era of modernity and change. Women were finally able to vote. Newly liberated flappers sported short dresses and shorter bobs. Radios became ubiquitous in homes, and automobiles took to the road in record numbers. Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic. The music of George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, and Cole Porter brought a new, invigorating sound to Broadway. Uptown, the Harlem Renaissance brought to the fore great Black artists, writers, and musicians, including Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong. Possibilities seemed endless.

Viewed from the distance of 100 years, the ‘20s appear celebratory and forward-looking and teeming with creativity. Which is why, as Palm Beach Dramaworks roars towards its 25^th anniversary season, the theme of this season’s Gala is The Roaring Twenties. So, dust off your flapper dress, palazzo pants, feather boa, and cloche hat, your three-piece suit with wide lapels, knickers, fedora, and two-tone Oxfords. The Gala takes place on Saturday, March 16, at the Kravis Center’s Cohen Pavilion, beginning at 6:30pm. Marsha and Stephen Rabb are the co-chairs.

Board member Lisa Koza kicked off the festivities on Wednesday, January 31, when she hosted a cocktail reception for PBD’s Board of Directors, the Gala chairs, committee, and sponsors, at Northern Trust’s Palm Beach office, where she is senior vice president and managing director.

“I’m so grateful to Lisa for putting together such a lovely reception,” said PBD Managing Director Sue Ellen Beryl. “It was the perfect prelude to the main event. I also want to thank Marsha and Stephen, the Gala committee and sponsors, and our wonderful board for their unwavering support and commitment to PBD. It’s hard to believe that next season marks 25 years. We’re very proud of how the company has grown during this past quarter century, of the impact we’ve had on the community, and the impact the community has had on us. This Gala is a celebration not only of what we’ve accomplished, but of our continuing evolution.”

Entertainment will be provided by “South Florida’s first couple of the Great American Songbook,” vocalist Jill Switzer and multi-instrumentalist/composer Rich Switzer. This marks the fourth time that the Switzer Trio, which includes drummer/vocalist Cielo, will be performing at a PBD Gala.

The members of the Gala Committee are Beth Alcalde, Penny Bank, Sue Ellen Beryl, Tina Bolton, The Honorable Ann Brown, Stephen Brown, Esther Dinerstein, Hermine Drezner, Susan Ellerin, Edith Hall Friedheim, Jim Fuld, Susan Goldfein, William Hayes, Lisa Koza, Carlton Moody, Cynthia Nalley, Mark Perlberg, Bernard Perry, Ed Ricci, Jennifer Sardone-Shiner, Louise Snyder, and Rudina Toro.

Generous sponsors of the evening include Dinner Sponsors: Nancy and Gene Beard, Nancy Goodes/Goodes Family Foundation, Toni and Martin Sosnoff; Decorations Sponsor: The Honorable Ann Brown; Entertainment Sponsors: Sally Nathanson, and Louise and Barry Snyder; Table Sponsors: Penny Bank, Esther and Sid Dinerstein, Susan and Larry Goldfein, JP Morgan Securities, Judy and Lew Kramer, Charles Orozco – First Republic Bank, and Diane and Mark Perlberg; Cocktail Reception Sponsors: Stephen Brown and Jamie Stern, Lisa Koza – Northern Trust; Gift Bag Sponsors: Roe Green and Pamela McIver; Photography Sponsors: Beth Alcalde – Akerman LLP, Suzanne Holmes, Sid Lesowitz and Peter Rogers, Dan Sampson – Milestone Mortgage Corporation, Judy Lewent and Mark Shapiro, and Bernard Perry.

Individual tickets are $600 and tables of ten begin at $6,000. Proceeds from the benefit will support PBD, and all tickets are tax deductible as provided by law.

The Cohen Pavilion at the Kravis Center is conveniently located at 701 Okeechobee Boulevard, West Palm Beach.

Sponsorships are still available. For more information about the Gala, including reservations and sponsorship levels, contact Sue Ellen Beryl at (561) 514-4042 ext. 102 or sberyl@palmbeachdramaworks.org.