Broward House Presents Dining Out For Life®

On Thursday, April 13, 2023, Broward House, Inc. is thrilled to announce their eleventh annual Dining Out For Life®. Gather your friends and family for this delicious event and have a meal together at our participating restaurants for a worthy cause. A cause that promotes HIV awareness, combats stigma, supports, and celebrates small businesses, and raises funds for our life-saving programs at Broward House.

On April 13, we invite the community to dine out at our local participating restaurants with a variety of cuisines from breakfast, lunch, and dinner to ice cream and cocktails! Our restaurants will then donate a generous percentage of the day’s proceeds to Broward House, supporting our mission to provide HIV prevention, education, and care to those living with HIV.

The more you dine out, the more money raised for Broward House client care, and the bigger the impact! Your involvement is key to the success of Dining Out For Life® and there are 3 ways you can make a difference: Dine Out, Donate to Broward House, and Share our event! If you’re interested in volunteering opportunities, you can show your community spirit and become a Dining Out For Life® Restaurant Ambassador!

Broward House Care Guide of 17 years, Joyce Nunnally, shares her experience as an Ambassador for the sixth time, “I love it! I get to mingle with people, talk about Broward House’s mission and our impact in the community. It’s a great cause and it’s a lot of fun,” says Joyce.

“Many services that we provide for clients aren’t covered under our grants. Our Dining Out For Life® fundraiser

About Broward House: Broward House has served

County since 1988, has been able to provide our clients and their families with items like backpacks, school supplies for kids, work clothes, burial assistance, and other things,” said Joyce.

Broward House CEO Stacy Hyde states, “Each year during Dining Out For Life® we reach someone who was not aware of our services. We know that someone will talk about HIV who maybe was not comfortable before a Broward House ambassador spoke with them. We are grateful to our restaurants for giving of themselves and providing a space to share our mission. We will get 100% of people in care and prevent new infections by continually raising awareness and DOFL is a fun way to do it!” the to improve quality of life for with chronic health races, and sexual orientations; and serve individuals with or without insurance or income. Our objective: to support the health and stability of each individual who walks through our door with a plan unique to their goals, including housing, medical care, HIV testing, mental health and other support services. For additional information visit browardhouse.org.

This year we welcome Tito’s Handmade Vodka as our Dining Out For Life® event title sponsor! Tito’s will match all Tito’s cocktails in our restaurants for up to $7,500. This year we have 28 restaurants from which to choose. Restaurant partners include our “Legacy Restaurants,” which have supported Broward House every year for the event’s eleven-year run: Apt. 9f, Rosie’s Bar & Grill, Hunters, The Over Easy Café, Georgie’s Alibi, and Wilton Creamery. Additionally, several restaurants have committed to donating an impressive 50% of their gross sales to Broward House: Apt. 9f, Burgers and Beers, and Wilton Creamery. Voo La Voo Café has committed to donating 100%! Hunters Nightclub has committed to donate 100% of proceeds from Tito’s cocktails and Scandals Saloon will donate 50% of their Tito’s Cocktails on April 13th. For additional information and to see a full list of local participating restaurants including addresses, visit BrowardHouse.org/DOFL. We encourage people to DINE OUT at our restaurants April 13th and all year long. Let’s support our philanthropic restaurant local businesses.

About Dining Out For Life®: Since 1991, Dining Out For Life has grown into an international event that raises an average of $4 million annually. The idea behind the single-day event is simple: Dine Out, End HIV. Each restaurant donates a percentage of the day’s food sales, which goes to local organizations to fund care, prevention, education, testing, counseling, and other essential HIV services. For more information or to participate, visit diningoutforlife.com. This year, donations can be made to Florida AIDS Walk- Broward House. All donations made there will be matched by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) for double the impact.

Content Courtesy of Broward House

IT’S THAT TIME!

Dine at our favorite restaurants all donating a portion of sales on April 13th!

Rosie’s Bar & Grill ♦ Apt. 9F ♦ Hunters Nightclub

Georgie's Alibi Monkey Bar ♦ Over Easy Cafe ♦ Wilton Creamery

The Alchemist Café ♦ Bona Italian Restaurant ♦ Bubbles & Pearls ♦ Burgers & Beers

Cafe’ Seville ♦ Legends Tavern & Grille Pompano ♦ Milk Money Bar & Kitchen

Palmyra Restaurant & Hookah Lounge ♦ Papa Duke’s Deli ♦ Tatts and Tacos Beer Garden

Temple Street Eatery ♦ The Pub Wilton Manors ♦ Tropics Grille ♦ Tulio’s Tacos & Tequila Bar

Voo La Voo Café ♦ Da Gianni ♦ Eagle Wilton Manors ♦ Le Patio Wilton Manors

Patio Bar & Pizza ♦ Scandals Saloon ♦ Starbucks Wilton Manors ♦ Union Kitchen & Bar

THURSDAY

APRIL 13

Browardhouse.org/DOFL

Title Sponsor

Media Sponsor

In the middle of the pandemic, bored and housebound, South Florida actor and writer Charles Baran along with his husband, theatrical lighting designer Kirk Bookman, decided to try something new to pass the time. They ordered a bunch of LGBTQ plays from New York’s Drama Bookshop and spent the evenings reading them aloud in their Palm Aire apartment. When they got to TRU, a play about author Truman Capote and written by Jay Presson Allen, a lightbulb went off. Back in 1989, the year Charles and Kirk met, they had seen the Broadway production which starred Robert Morse and absolutely loved it. Kirk, who had worked on several regional productions of TRU in his career, felt that Charles was a good fit to play the scandal-plagued Capote and that they should find a theater in the Fort Lauderdale area and do it. Both thought that Truman’s life and story would appeal to LGBTQ South Florida audiences. After all, in the pre-social media era, wasn’t Truman Capote one of the first “influencers”? Aside from being a well-known author, Capote gossiped about celebrities, he gave fabulous parties, he knew everyone who was everyone and went everywhere that everyone wanted to be. Charles jumped at Kirk’s idea and the chance to play such an iconic figure. Charles had a natural instinct for impressions. Back in Manhattan’s High School of Art and Design he was known for entertaining his fellow 9th Graders with his Bette Davis impression over hot dogs and Mac n’ Cheese in the school cafeteria. Even during that first “pandemic-inspired” reading in their Florida condo, Kirk felt Charles had already captured the writer’s mannerisms and quirky speech inflections.

Charles had always been a fan of Truman Capote and knew a fair amount about his life. He had read several of his major books: In Cold Blood, The Grass Harp, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Back in the 1970’s in the heady days of Studio 54 and Xenon, where Charles was a busboy, he had several close encounters with Capote himself. “I was at 54 on a Tuesday night, it must have been 3 o’clock in the morning and the place was starting to clear out. I looked at the dance floor and there was Truman Capote, slow dancing to “Last Dance” by Donna Summer, his arms draped over the shoulders of a much younger Latino man, his eyes were closed and he swayed back and forth, a bit unsteady on his feet. It wasn’t the first time I had seen him. He was always at 54 with Warhol and Liza so I wasn’t surprised. The next morning, my phone rang. It was my mother telling me to turn on the Stanley Siegel show because Capote was on it ‘high as a kite and stewed!’ ‘Stewed’ was my mom’s favorite expression for a drunk. I turned on the TV and there he was, wearing the same outfit I had seen him in only a few short hours before, sans the younger Latino man of course, and telling Siegel he liked to ‘mix pills and liquor like cocktails’.”

The decision to mount a production of TRU was born. Next, Charles and Kirk had to find a venue. They called their friend David Gordon from Empire Stage and told him about the idea. David was on board and found a time slot that would work. Empire Stage seemed like the natural fit as Charles had a great time back in 2018 playing the lead in the world premiere of a play written by Nora Brigid Monahan called Aunt Jack which Charles later did Off-Broadway at New York’s Theater for the New City. For a director, Charles wanted someone he felt could understand the material and someone that had a great sense of comedy as well as pathos. TRU, while bittersweet at times, also has lots of moments that are uproariously funny. They approached Andy Rogow of Island City Stage whom they both greatly admired. Andy liked the idea and a production was in the works.

Set in 1975 and taking place over the course of two evenings, TRU finds Capote alone in his New York apartment at Christmas time after being ostracized by New York society for publishing a “semi-fictionalized” tellall chapter from his unfinished novel Answered Prayers To prepare for the role, Charles immediately immersed himself into all things Capote. “As of today, I’ve read most of his short stories, read the Gerald Clarke biography twice, which the play is based on, reread In Cold Blood and The Grass Harp, and discovered a book of Truman’s letters that I read a bit of every night religiously before going to bed. I’m also watching every Dick Cavett and David Suskind interview that Truman did back in the 70’s to further solidify Truman’s voice and hand movements. The old Johnny Carson interviews are especially funny. YouTube is a great resource for doing research!” www.EmpireStage.com | (954) 678-1496.

April 14, 2023 through May 7, 2023.

Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 5pm.

Baran-Bookman Productions in association with Empire Stage presents T R U

A play by Jay Presson Allen

From the Words and Works of Truman Capote

Featuring Charles Baran as Truman Capote

Directed by Andy Rogow

April 14 – May 7, 2023

Performances Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 5pm