| EVENT REPORT 04.21.08 1:50 PM |
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| Spellbound |
| Inspired by the recent acquisition of a 16th-century manuscript of spells and an in-house production of Macbeth, the Folger Shakespeare Library hosted a gala tied to a magic theme, complete with potions and pentacles. |
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This year’s annual gala for the Folger Shakespeare Library, held on Wednesday night, paid tribute to a recent in-house production of Macbeth by director Aaron Posner and the magician Teller and the library’s acquisition of a rare 16th-century book of spells, with like-minded entertainment and what the program called a “magical dinner of potions and delights."
The slightly spooky presentation of the building’s canopied spaces fit with the theme. The cavernous exhibition hall, with floor-to-ceiling wood paneling and a domed white ceiling, held a cocktail reception with gold linens covering tall and short tables. Bars featured the drink of the evening: a Mystical Colada, a concoction of pineapple juice and coconut milk topped by cotton candy and rum in a stemless martini glass, which sat on a globe of smoking dry ice. |
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PHOTO GALLERY |
 | Spotlights lit the four-foot-tall centerpieces in the old reading room, and blue L.E.D. lights lit the tables.
Photo: Pepe Gomez |
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 | The night's Mystical Colada included a hunk of cotton candy (which dissolved with the addition of rum), displayed on globes filled with dry ice.
Photo: Pepe Gomez |
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 | Settings combined gray linens and silver mosaic plates with white floral arrangments.
Photo: BizBash |
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 | The new reading room, with its domed ceilings and skylights, featured more modern table settings than the old reading room.
Photo: BizBash |
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 | A pentacle symbol marked the main course of beef tenderloin encrusted with mustard seed.
Photo: Pepe Gomez |
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 | The goat cheese and crème fraîche cheesecake, with hazelnut brittle and blood-orange caramel sauce, included a white-chocolate disk in the shape of an eye.
Photo: Pepe Gomez |
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 | The dinner's mostly white centerpieces varied from short to tall, some reaching four feet into the vaulted ceiling of the old reading room.
Photo: BizBash |
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Following cocktails, guests filled up the library's Elizabethan Theatre, where they found actors in 16th-century costumes wandering around (one man was trying to sell a watch) before the program, which featured magician Richard Bloch as the M.C. and included performances by comedian Chris Bliss and illusionists John and Charlotte Pendragon.
Next up was dinner, which took over both the circa-1932 wood-paneled reading room and the newer, sky-lit reading room. “The challenge was whether to use two different design schemes or try to find something that works in both rooms,” said Folger director of special events Caroline Bedinger. The result was gray linens, alternating in checkered and swirl patterns, topped with blue LED lights and silver mosaic plates.
Four-foot-tall centerpieces complemented the vaulted ceilings in each room, with white roses, tulips, and hydrangeas filling glass cylinders. “You have to work against a very dramatic background, especially in the old reading room, since smaller things can get lost,” Bedinger said.
The evening's menu, too, adhered to the magic theme, including the main course of beef tenderloin encrusted with mustard seed and seared with a pentacle symbol. Two sauces accompanied the entrée: a fennel and caraway red-wine reduction to “ward away evil spirits” and garlic horseradish to “guard wealth,” according to the menu.
—Danielle O'Steen
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Folger Shakespeare Library
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