CALEB WARNOCK - Daily Herald | Posted: Saturday, February 3, 2007 11:00 pm
About 170 supporters of the arts paid $95 a plate to attend the Star Awards in Orem on Saturday evening. The second annual black-tie gala fundraiser benefits the SCERA. As they entered, guests walked a creme-colored carpet scattered with gold rose petals and had their photos taken before gold-and-black drapes and a suit of armor.
Waiters and waitresses wore medieval costumes.
Women in sparkling gowns and men in black bow ties and tails dined on chicken with champignon sauce and chocolate-caramel cheesecake before an auction. Alan Osmond and Orem Mayor Jerry Washburn were among those in attendance.
More than 20 people were honored with Star awards at the event. Here some of the individuals who received awards.
Karen Acerson
A special recognition award was given to the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, which was founded 18 years ago by Karen Ashton and a group of volunteers called "The Friends of the Orem Public Library." The group started the festival to raise funds for a new children's wing in the library.
A volunteer committee of up to 50 people meets monthly to ensure the festival goes off each year, and hundreds more volunteers do everything from pick up trash to set up chairs to make sure children don't fall into the water features at the park where the festival is held, said Karen Acerson, one of the festival founders. She noted the award is for all those who organize and volunteer for the event.
"I think it's just a fun event that people love to go to with their families, and it gives them a chance to laugh," she said.
Many people don't realize how much time and money the festival spends bringing nationally-recognized professional storytellers into local schools, she said. More than 4,000 local children now participate each year in school storytelling competitions where the winners perform in school assemblies.
The festival has grown from 800 attendees to the second-largest festival of its kind in the United States, Acerson said. The Storytelling Festival's Midwinter Concert and Workshops will be Feb. 9-10.
Keith and Jody Renstrom
A lifetime achievement Star Award was given to Keith and Jody Renstrom, founders and owners of the Valley Center Playhouse in Lindon. Jody Renstrom said she got hooked on theater in elementary school when she was put in charge of weekly school productions.
"Every Friday we had a program and I was able to write, direct and cast," she said.
After moving to Utah in the 1960s, the couple found few opportunities to participate in theater.
"There was nothing," she said. "I thought there really should be a family theater."
When the church office building sold the couple 198 seats for $2 apiece, Jody said she scrambled to find a home for the chairs.
After her husband called to say he would arrive home shortly and would put them on the front lawn of their home to store them, she immediately began driving to find an empty building to rent. Before Keith arrived with the chairs, she had signed a five-year lease on a Provo building.
The couple now owns their Lindon theater and have traveled the nation doing hundreds of performances of two one-woman plays written by Jody.
The Osmond Brothers
The final award of the evening, the 2007 Star of the Year, went to the Osmond Brothers, who for a time composed a wildly popular American family pop group that sold more albums than either the Beatles or Elvis Presley, according to SCERA officials.
Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay Osmond began their careers almost 50 years ago as young boys, following a big break at Disneyland. This led to regular television appearances on "The Andy Williams Show" and a record deal with MGM in 1971, according to SCERA officials. They were known for their talent and wholesome lifestyles and their commitment to their religious faith.
With the opening of a studio in Orem in the late '70s, the Osmonds brought Hollywood to Utah as they produced "The Donny and Marie Show" at the base of the Wasatch Mountains. They performed for 6,000 people at the inaugural concert of the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre in 1984. Wayne, Jay and Merrill continue to perform as The Osmond Brothers, with frequent appearances in Branson, Mo., and the United Kingdom. Joining them is Jimmy -- and occasionally Alan. This fall marks the 50th anniversary of The Osmond Brothers.
Utah Valley Symphony
When the Utah Valley Symphony was first organized 48 years ago, it featured 30 musicians, eight of whom still play with the symphony, said SCERA officials. Those eight, who have a combined 384 years of experience, were honored in the category of volunteerism on Saturday. The musicians include Shirley Allred, cellist; Richard Barker, bass; Colleen Dinsdale, violinist; Marilyn Hales, violist; Diane Furr, violinist and her husband Karl Furr, French horn; Cornelia Madsen, trumpet; and Rhoda Vaun Young, pianist and cellist.
Sharon Swindle
The award for Advocacy of the Arts went to Sharon Swindle who, with her husband, John, purchased Frameworks and Repartee Gallery in the University Mall 25 years ago. Swindle has since opened several galleries through the state selling original art and began a quest to bring spiritual art to the forefront and to give new and unique artists a chance to be discovered, according to SCERA officials.
Derryl Yeager
Derryl Yeager was honored in the category of dance. For a quarter-century Yeager has danced, sung and acted on film, on television and on the Broadway stage, according to SCERA officials. He is founder and artistic director of Odyssey Dance Theater and his career includes being principal dancer for Ballet West and a sought-after choreographer. Yeager earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Utah and also studied at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.
James C. Christensen
Nationally renowned fantasy painter James C. Christensen was given the Star Award in the category of visual arts. Christensen was recently designated a "Utah Art Treasure" and received the coveted Governor's Award for Art and was inducted into the U.S. Art Magazine's Hall of Fame, according to SCERA officials. He has won multiple awards from the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists and has published seven books featuring his work. He and his wife, Carole, co-chair the Mormon Arts Foundation.
Eric Fielding
Eric Fielding, professor and former chair of the Theater and Media Arts Department at BYU, was honored in the category of theater. An award-winning set designer who has enjoyed a 30-year career, Fielding's work has been displayed on the local, state, national and international level, according to SCERA officials. He has done work at BYU, the Utah Opera, Sundance, Promise Valley Playhouse, Pioneer Theater, Tuachan and the Hill Cumorah Pageant. He received a gold medal at the Prague Quadrennial Celebration in Czechoslovakia and created an international design exhibition called World Stage Design. Fielding is now working on his 256th design.
Clayne Robison
Clayne Robison received the Star Award in the category of music. An accomplished vocalist, Robison performs regularly around the world, including appearances in Russia with the St. Petersburg and Moscow Philharmonic orchestras, according to SCERA officials. While completing his degree at Harvard Law School, Clayne spent his evenings singing and, after several years as a lawyer, received a degree in voice at BYU and a master's in orchestral conducting and a doctorate of musical arts at the University of Washington. He has been the BYU director of opera for more than two decades, teaches vocal workshops at music conservatories across the world, and is frequently featured at music conventions and in leading music publications.
Ray and Tye Noorda
The first Star Award in the category of Friend of the Arts went to Ray and Tye Noorda. The late Ray Noorda was a creative computer pioneer who invented and promoted a computer operating system that gained a worldwide market in the 1980s and '90s, according to SCERA officials. Tye Noorda is a playwright and patron of the arts. The Noorda family recently donated $1 million to the Orem Fitness Center for a remodeling project.
KBYU Television
KBYU Television Channel 11 was honored as a Friend of the Arts. The station has aired educational, cultural and inspirational programming for 40 years and has supported many charitable arts organizations with hundreds of public service announcements, from the Utah Shakespearean Festival and the Utah Festival Opera, to Ballet West, the Utah Symphony and the SCERA, said SCERA officials.
Caleb Warnock can be reached at 443-3263 or cwarnock@heraldextra.com.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B1.