Say sayonara to one season while looking ahead to the new one. As a benefit for the nexStage Theatre, Sean Glaccum, of Sun Valley, will screen his two short outdoor films. "Endless Winter," tracks the Sun Valley Ski Patrol as it dealt with last year's record snow pack. "Feeding the Dragon" is a film about white water rafting on the Payette River.
The benefit will take place 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 29. The films will screen at 7 p.m. There will be a raffle and refreshments in the lobby of the nexStage, on Ketchum's Main Street, with drawing for prizes after the show.
Raffle tickets to the nexStage's Diamond Raffle are on sale now. The drawing will take place on Thursday evening. The winner will be the proud owner of a necklace and matching earrings worth $5,500, designed by New York jeweler and Wood River Valley resident Susan Reinstein, of Reinstein/Ross.
The $5 entrance fee and all proceeds from the raffle will go to support the nexStage Theatre's campaign to save the building.
A Wood River Valley native, Sean Glaccum, 29, is a member of Sun Valley Ski Patrol, and in the summer runs the Payette River Company in western Idaho.
"I've done some slide shows (at the nexStage) and gone to plenty of things there," he said. "It's just a wonderful place for people to meet, from sports people to theater people. It's a multi-use venue and the town doesn't have one of those otherwise. It'd be real sad to see it turn into a five-story hotel or something. I'd like to keep it keep it going. Where would you have the Banff Mountain Film Festival? Plus, there's stuff for kids. It seems there's always something going on there."
Glaccum said that the two films have something in common. "Feeding the Dragon is a joke that began on the river last summer," he said. "It was an epic winter. The dragon is all that snow melting."
The heavy snow winter displayed in "Endless Winter" indeed created high water and fast moving rapids. Some rapids, next to a hot spring, known as the Dragon, became the site of many overturned kayaks and boats. Thus, feeding the Dragon.
"We're thrilled that young people like Sean care enough about the nexStage to get behind us so generously with their talent and enthusiasm" said nexStage Managing Director Kathy Wygle. "This will be a really fun event for all ages, and a great way for everyone in town to show their support for nexStage by coming to the party."
The nexStage Theatre board is in the final stages of a capital campaign to buy the theater from the present owners, The Mott Family Foundation.
For more information, call the nexStage 726-9124.
