ETC en Blanc

Ensemble Theatre Company’s (ETC) supporter extraordinaire Dana White was honored at the annual Curtain Up! gala at the New Vic Theatre with a sunset dinner for 160 guests in the garden of the venerable Santa Barbara Club, which helped raise around $230,000.

White hails from Connecticut and has called Santa Barbara home for more than four decades. He has dedicated 30 years to teaching English to students in grades seven through 12 at Laguna Blanca, as well as guiding seniors through the art of writing their college essays.

Since retiring from the classroom, he volunteers as a teacher of conversational English to at-risk youth in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and has served on the board of ETC for 15 years.

The Folk Legacy Trio performed at the theater before guests strolled the two blocks to the club when classical guitarist Chris Fossek, Hunter Hawkins, and Chance Challen entertained with Amy Ashton as emcee…

Among the theatrical throng were Dan and Meg Burnham, David and Anne Gersh, Joan Rutkowski, Simon Williams, George Konstantinow, Kostis Protopapas, Ginny Brush, Robert Turbin, Mary Dorra, Scott DeVine, Peter and Deborah Bertling, Sybil Rosen, Fred and Nancy Golden, Bob and Val Montgomery, and Eve Bernstein.