Walk Down the Red Carpet and Feel Like a Star
at This Year's Sugar Creek Singer Auction

FEB. 14-WATSEKA, IL-Sugar Creek Symphony & Song will hold its third annual singer auction at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, March 28 at Celebrations in Watseka. This year's event is themed "A Night at the Oscars" and will feature Oscar-winning songs from the past 75 years.

"Everyone would like to go to the Oscars, but most of us only get to watch them on TV," says Sugar Creek General Director Helen Todd. "Now Sugar Creek is giving you the opportunity to go to a red-carpet event and feel like a star."

Sugar Creek will roll out the red carpet to treat attendees to an evening of glitz and glamour. Attendees are encouraged to dress to the nines. Celebrations will be decorated with Oscars colors and classic movie posters. Attendees will also have the option of coming to a pre-Oscars party for hors d'ouevres at 6:30 p.m., or of just coming for the show at 8:00 p.m.

The singers at this year's auction will be tenor Mark Thomsen and soprano Laura Kachurek. Mark has performed with Sugar Creek since its first year in 2003. Among other bookings, this spring Mark will be performing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He is also well-known among Sugar Creek aficionados for his Minnesota-themed Sven and Ollie jokes.

According to Mr. Thomsen, the people of Watseka and Iroquois County have become "in lots of ways like an extended family. They are fantastic people who care about the community, and I want to do everything I can to support that."

As for the music, Mr. Thomsen's favorite movies from the list of songs for the evening are Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, An Officer and a Gentleman, and Dirty Dancing.

"I believe I was on a double date when I saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," he says. "And An Officer and a Gentleman really blew me away, because I was so impressed with Richard Gere's performance and how he worked through all of his inner demons in that film."

Laura joined Sugar Creek this year as a member of its Young Artist Program and currently studies voice at DePaul University in Chicago.

"It is such an honor to be on stage again with a singer of the caliber of Mark Thomsen," says Ms. Kachurek. "Mark is a great artist and this is going to be a fun event."

Ms. Kachurek has fond memories of growing up with several Oscar-winning songs. Before beginning her training in classical voice, she sang a lot of pop music and loved to peruse her father's songbooks of pop standards from the 1960s and 1970s. "Moon River" from the film Breakfast at Tiffany's is one of her first loves.

"Audrey Hepburn is so perfect in her role in Breakfast at Tiffany's. What little girl doesn't want to be as glamorous and gorgeous as she is in that film?" asks Ms. Kachurek. "Now at this year's auction, we'll be able to capture some of that magic that Audrey Hepburn gave us on screen."

During the performance, Craig Massey will create a live drawing, which will be auctioned off before the end of the event. The proceeds from this special auction will be donated to the flood victims' fund. All other proceeds from the event will benefit Sugar Creek Symphony & Song's summer festival.

A special bidding will also take place to select a person for a nonspeaking, nonsinging walk-on role in this summer's opera, Elixir of Love. During the evening, audience members will be asked to cast a secret ballot for their preference for a walk-on role in the opera. Then votes will be tallied and an auction will be held, with the winning bidder choosing which of the top vote-getters will get the walk-on part.

One auction will be held to chose a woman for a walk-on role, and then another will be held to chose a man. For women, a potential walk-on role could be that of the girlfriend of the lead soprano. For men, the role could be that of a soldier, a peasant friend of the tenor, or the assistant to the traveling salesman who sells the tenor a magic potion. Either way, this special auction may give someone the big break they've been looking for!

Songs featured at this year's auction will include favorites from Disney movies, romantic duets, and many other classics from the silver screen.

Disney songs include "Can You feel the Love Tonight" from The Lion King, "When You Wish Upon a Star" from Pinocchio, "A Whole New World" from Aladdin, and "When You Believe" from The Prince of Egypt.

Romantic duets include "I Had the Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing and "Up Where We Belong" from An Officer and a Gentleman.

Other songs available for auction this year include "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic, "The Way You Look Tonight" from Swing Time, "Baby, It's Cold Outside" from Neptune's Daughter, "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" from the movie of the same name, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, "The Way We Were" from the movie of the same name, "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)" from Dick Tracy, and "You Light Up My Life" from the film of the same name.

Many other Oscar-winning songs will also be up for auction.

Individuals and companies will also be putting up matching bids during the performance to match dollar-for-dollar bids from the audience.

Tickets to the auction are $20 each. Tickets to the auction and the pre-performance hors d'ouevres are $35 each. Tickets are available at the Sugar Creek office, which is located at Farmers' Insurance at 136 E. Walnut St. in Watseka. For tickets, stop by the box office or call (815) 515-5837.

Sugar Creek Symphony & Song is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit entity dedicated to producing an annual summer opera and classical music festival in Iroquois County, Illinois. The 2008 festival will take place from August 1-3 and will feature Donizetti's opera The Elixir of Love.