Food Pantry Fundraiser - AmiciMusic presents "Elaine Stritch: A Broadway Baby" October 11 & 13

AmiciMusic, the award-winning chamber music organization based in Asheville and dedicated to high quality performances in intimate venues, will present a very special show entitled "Elaine Stritch: A Broadway Baby" at Calvary Episcopal Church in Fletcher on Friday, October 11 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, October 13 at 2:00 pm. This one-woman show, featuring the incomparable Carol Duermit along with pianist/Artistic Director Daniel Weiser, was conceived and directed by renowned director Francis Cullinan. A portion of the proceeds from the show will go to the incredible Cavalry Episcopal Food Pantry, which served over 17,000 people in 2018 and continues to grow. Tickets for the show will be available at the door for $25 or you can buy discount seats in advance at: www.amicimusic.org/concert/elaine-stritch-a-broadway-baby/

Snacks and drinks will be available for small donations.

Elaine Stritch was one of the last grand dames of Broadway whose career spanned almost 70 years, a true Lady of the American Theater. Her brassy powerful voice was often compared to Ethel Merman, for whom Stritch was the understudy in the 1952 show, Call Me Madam. Stritch rose to stardom as the original Joanne in Stephen Sondheim's Company in 1970, for which she sang her signature song, "The Ladies Who Lunch." Her one-woman show, Elaine Stritch at Liberty, won the 2002 Tony Award for best special theatrical event and her cabaret act at the Carlyle Hotel that lasted from 2005-2013, when Stritch was in her 80's, was a true tour de force. She received four other Tony nominations and also won Emmy's for her regular roles on Law and Order and 30 Rock. She also appeared in cameos in numerous films, including Woody Allen's September, the Spiral Staircase, and A Farewell to Arms.

Acclaimed director Francis Cullinan, who now lives in Fletcher, has directed over 100 productions around the country, including several for the Missouri Repertory Theatre in Kansas City and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and the Eisenhower Theatre at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Mr. Cullinan headed the MFA Directing Program at the University of Missouri in Kansas City for ten years and was also a guest Director at numerous Colleges around the country including Carnegie Mellon and Boston University. Mr. Cullinan has helped write operas and musical theater and recently put together the show, Over There, in collaboration with AmiciMusic, to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the end of World War I. For this Elaine Stritch show, he will narrate stories of Stritch's fascinating life interspersed with some of her signature songs written by composers such as Sondheim, Noel Coward, Leonard Bernstein, and Irving Berlin.

Carol Duermit, an Asheville favorite who has performed in numerous theater productions in the region, is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, and moved to North Carolina in 1996. She has lived in both Hendersonville and Asheville and been involved in the music scene in both places. From fronting blues and jazz bands as a lead singer to doing community theater, both musicals and non-musicals, she embodies Ms. Stritch's larger-than-life, sassy and brassy persona. Most recently she performed and served as emcee at Diana Wortham Theater in Imagine, a benefit for the Haywood Street Congregation Fresco. Dr. Daniel Weiser, the founder and Artistic Director of AmiciMusic, has performed in over 30 countries around the world and was the 1996 U.S. Artistic Ambassador of Music, which resulted in a two-month tour of the Middle East and Southeast Asia. He has performed on some of the great stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Cairo Opera House, and Lincoln Center.

The Calvary Food Pantry opened in April of 2009 in an effort to help local residents in need of food. In 2011, the Food Pantry was incorporated as a non-profit organization.

On opening day in 2009, five people came in need of food. In 2018, the Calvary Episcopal Church Food Pantry served a total of 4,896 households and 17,081 individuals with weekly averages of 96 households and 335 individuals.Theyprovided 147 turkeys at Thanksgiving and 150 turkeys at Christmas in 2018. AmiciMusic hopes to help raise funds for the Food Pantry in order to help them continue to serve this very needy community during these difficult times.