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Butterfly Effect Is Flawless Fundraiser For Cancer Fund
By Sister Dana Van Iquity
April 17, 2008
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Well-known Bay Area talents Veronica Klaus, Matthew Martin, Connie Champagne, Leigh Crow, Trauma Flintstone, David Bicha, and other San Francisco stage luminaries will gather on Sunday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m. on Theatre Rhinoceros’ main stage for The Butterfly Effect, The All-Star Gala Benefiting the Jeffrey Hartgraves Cancer Fund.
Frequent Hartgraves collaborator Leon Acord will host, in collaboration with Theatre Rhino. A silent auction will be included as part of the evening’s festivities. Tickets are $25 and can be obtained at the rhino.org or ticketweb.com or by calling the Rhino Box Office at (415) 861-5079.
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| Leon & Jeffrey Photo: Steve Savage |
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Jeffrey Hartgraves, a deeply valued veteran of Bay Area theatre as a playwright, director, and actor, was diagnosed with bone cancer in 2005. Following a year of remission - during which he wrote and starred in his critically acclaimed “very nearly solo show” Shark Bites at The Rhino and published a collection of essays entitled Bone Matters – Hartgraves is now back on another round of painful chemotherapy, making it difficult to make ends meet.
“It takes a lot of cash to kick cancer’s ass,” says Acord, who is also co-producing the evening. Acord and Hartgraves co-produced and co-starred in 2002’s hit Carved in Stone at Eureka Theatre, among other collaborations, before Acord moved to LA in 2004.
“I wish I had some odd, quirky anecdote about Jeffrey. Alas, my comments about Jeffrey are all steeped in a reverence for his playwriting skills,” Trauma Flintstone tells Bay Times. “To this day, I think the one-woman play [Family Jewels] he helped Veronica Klaus craft remains as one of the best of its genre.”
Trauma says, “Likewise, Carved In Stone, a fabulous (in the true sense of the word) adventure for the gay literati is also without parallel.” Trauma concludes, “Jeffrey is an amazing playwright, and to perform in this benefit is the least I can do for the joy he brought me on two separate occasions as an audience member.”
“Jeffrey Hartgraves is the nicest genius you’ll ever meet. He’s living proof that geniuses don’t have to be abusive egomaniacs,” Leon Acord tells Bay Times. I’ve worked with him many times, and I’ve never once heard him raise his voice, or lose his temper. He’s always professional, brilliant, charming and lightning-quick.”
Acord says, “This show is the huge gala it is - precisely because he is so loved by everyone who’s worked with him! Every single performer I called said ‘yes,’ before I even had a show date! I had to say ‘no’ to some folks, in fact, or else we’d have a four-hour show!”
The two worked together as actors in Ronnie Larsen’s A Few Gay Men in 2001 at Venue 9 and Rhino, among the many other projects they have shared. “Jeffrey’s been one of my closest friends for almost 15 years. And he’s a valuable resource in the theatre community. He’s been so generous to so many for so long, I wanted to give some of that back. And apparently, I’m not alone!”
Acord tells me, the name, Butterfly Effect, refers to the theory that a butterfly’s wings in Argentina can cause a tornado in Kansas. We’re not in Kansas anymore, but still we can count on a real twister comin’ to San Francisco!
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