Supporters of the arts in Anaheim were treated to a special event on Saturday, Sept. 21, as Luke Yankee performed his “Diva Dish” show, a tribute to his mother, Academy Award winning actress Eileen Heckart, to benefit the Anaheim Performing Arts Center Foundation.
The group is working diligently to raise money to bring a performing arts center to the city, and all proceeds from the event benefit that effort.
Supporters of the arts in Anaheim were treated to a special event on Saturday, Sept. 21, as Luke Yankee performed his “Diva Dish” show, a tribute to his mother, Academy Award winning actress Eileen Heckart, to benefit the Anaheim Performing Arts Center Foundation.
The group is working diligently to raise money to bring a performing arts center to the city, and all proceeds from the event benefit that effort.
Yankee describes himself as the keeper of the flame and told stories about his mother and other Divas who were part of Hollywood between the 1940’s and 1990’s.
Fans reveled in stories of how Jane Wyman thought her ex-husband Ronald Regan was boring and that is why she divorced him, Lucille Ball and her plans to make Jack Yankee (Luke Yankee’s father) an executive producer for Desilu Studios, and Heckart herself who gushed over Clark Gable when he visited the set of a movie she was in and her relationship with Marilyn Monroe, who loved children and played terrace to terrace catch with his brother using fruit during the filming of Bus Stop and her anger when she had to go to the pool and pick up the fruit because his brothers were too young to catch the items.
Highlights of the show included a song about how he missed his mother, the reenactment of a scene, with audio sampling, from Heckart’s signature role in “Butterflies are Free,” where she tells her son, played by Yankee, that he should not come home because a woman broke his heart and offered to help decorate his apartment, and his reenactment of the last time he saw his mother before she died.
“When I did the scene of saying goodbye to her for the last time it can be kind of technical, but tonight it wiped me out, as it often does,” Yankee said. “Sometimes the scene from ‘Butterflies are Free’ wipes me out me, but that is kind of a different goodbye scene. I have been doing this for a long time and haven’t done it for about a year and a half. There is that much more resonance since she has been gone and it was really strong tonight.”
He said he does not usually receive phone calls from his brothers making suggestions about the stories he tells on stage.
“I did ask them for things right at the beginning,” but they did not remember things the way I did,” he said. “I was the one interested in show business and I picked up on all the tiny details.”
Heckart would have preferred her son did something other than theater, Yankee said, but she knew there was no stopping him.
“She was always very supportive,” he said.
Being able to lend his talents to the efforts to create a performing arts center in Anaheim is what Yankee referred to as ‘amazing.’
“I was so thrilled when Executive Director Gigi Fusco-Meese called me to do this I think it will be wonderful to have a performing arts center in Anaheim,” he said. “They desperately need one. I jumped at the chance to help.”
Fall is going to be a busy time for Yankee, starting with an upcoming play called ‘The Last Lifeboat.’
“That is the untold story of J. Bruce Ismay, who is the owner of the Whitestar Line when the Titanic sank and I just found out it is going to be published by Dramatists Play Service.”
Out of all the Diva Dishes, Yankee has an obvious favorite.
“My mother,” he said. “How can I say anyone else?”
Assistant Terra Taylor Knutson joined the APACF in 2010.
“This is an incredible group of art patrons who believe in what we are doing,” she said. “As a performer and playwright myself, I spend most of my time supporting the future of the arts and there is no group as dynamic and determined as the APACF.”
Knutson said the last few hours before putting together a show is akin to holding a wedding.
“There is so much work and you want it to be seamless,” she said. “I imagine the lights coming up at the Anaheim Performing Arts Center every day. I get this twinkle in my eye and hope to be the stage someday. I always want to be a part of this group.”
Knutson has a children’s show coming up at the Found Theater in Long Beach.
“It is called ‘Here Comes Cinderella’ and I get to play one of the wicked stepsisters who is not really wicked, just misunderstood,” she said.
Fusco-Meese said a lot of great things have happened for the foundation this summer.
“We have a conceptual design we unveiled at the Great Gatsby Weekend fundraiser last month and it is beautiful,” she said. “The Gatsby event featured a big performance on the tennis courts by Anaheim native Eden Espinosa, who starred on Broadway and did the LA and San Francisco runs of Wicked. She came out from New York and entertained with Broadway star David Burnham, who replaced Donny Osmond in ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ on Broadway.
The event met all its financial goals,” Fusco-Meese said, and getting the word out about the effort remains a daily goal.
“We are building our board of directors, in addition to getting the word to art-lovers who are interested in creating a legacy and building a home for the classic performing arts to Anaheim.
The alliance with Yankee grew from a cocktail party held by a mutual friend.
“We fell in love with each other immediately,” she said. “As we talked she told me about the show (Diva Dish) he has. I went and saw it and it blew me away.”
The show did a full-run at the Long Beach Playhouse.
“It sold out and had a six-week run,” she said. “Doris Roberts came down and there many celebrity sightings at the playhouse. When I came on-board at the APAC Foundation I thought this would be the perfect event and would entertain our guests.”
Foxpoint manor was transformed into a beautiful amphitheater for the event.
“It was a little blustery last night, but it turned out great tonight,” she said.
People who think you turn on lights and a show happens would appreciate the incredible effort that went into the Diva Dish.
“It took months of planning and working with RC Productions,” Fusco-Meese said. “We have started working on logistics like lights and electrical work since Gatsby weekend. Last night, the guys at RC set up the chairs, video screen and the lights, while Mr. Yankee ran through part of his performance so he can feel what it would be like. You just cannot go out and see if it will work.”
When asked about her favorite Diva, Fusco-Meese said her favorites were Debbie Reynolds and Ronald Regan.
“What gets me is the scene he does with his mom from ‘Butterflies are Free,’ she said. “Luke is a talented writer and playwright, traveled the world doing this show and gets me to cry every time I see it. He is a great performer.”
Turning the page is not very easy after a big show.
“I am still getting over the big event (Gatsby Weekend) last month and as a sideline I direct local theater,” Fusco-Meese said. “You never turn it off.”
The next project for Fusco-Meese is a production of ‘The Foreigner’ at the Long Beach Playhouse starting on Saturday, Sept. 28.
APACF President Linda Knohl since the group is inching closer and closer to its goal of getting its own performing arts center in Anaheim.
“I am delighted that we had such a lovely crowd here this evening,” she said. “We have the full city support and we are looking for a location for the performing arts center. It has been a long haul, but one worth pursuing.”
The group bid on a property, the Heritage forum, but the location was bought by another group that plans on making it a church.
“The Rock’ church was more successful than us in getting the building when it fell into foreclosure, Knohl said. “I don’t think the city was particularly thrilled that it was a church again because the forum is a wonderful venue for entertainment. However, we are not discouraged. You know the expression, when one door closes another opens. Hopefully, we will find something this year.”
Once a location is secured, the work begins.
“That is when we start the capital campaign to fund the location,” Knohl said.
Knohl had nothing but praise for the work Fusco-Meese has done for the foundation.
“Gigi (Fusco-Meese) has been the most brilliant decision our board of directors has made,” she said. She is our very first employee and hopefully our only executive director. She has done a remarkable job.”
After watching Diva Dish, Knohl said she would like her sons to see the show.
“He (Yankee) is the epitome of what every mother would want in her son,” she said. “He is an unusual guy and she was fortunate to have a son like him and he was also fortunate to have a mother like herself. I read his book and it is a heartwarming good read about growing up in the home of a famous lady and he tenderly expresses it to this day.”
The next big APACF event is a soiree coming up Dec. 8.
“We have the event here at Fox Point and feature amateur and professional entertainment,” Knohl said. “If time permits, we ask people in the audience to perform. The soiree is a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon. It is from 2-4 p.m., refreshments are served and everyone has a great time.
For more information visit www.apacfoundation.orgor email Fusco-Meese at gigi@apacf.org.
