Dedicated dancing

Jennifer K Mahal

When Temre Jaco Vouga agreed to sing and tap dance in her first

Children’s Hospital Orange County Follies three years ago, she had no

idea how personal her fund-raising work would become.

While rehearsing that year, the Huntington Beach resident was

diagnosed with breast cancer and her first grandchild was born at

Children’s Hospital needing heart surgery. The child died a few months

later.

“I was in a show volunteering for CHOC, and I needed CHOC at the same

time,” said Vouga, a fifth-grade teacher at Harbor View Elementary.

Her firsthand experience with CHOC and the camaraderie formed with her

cast mates during rehearsals has kept Vouga coming back to perform year

after year.

“Going through chemotherapy and radiation, losing all my hair, I made

friends here who support me and raise my spirits,” said the vivacious

1966 homecoming queen of Mariners High School.

The sixth CHOC Follies, “The Slipper and the Surfer,” will be held May

17-19 in a tent across from the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Vouga will tap dance her way across the stage as the Fairy Godmother in

this Orange County Cinderella tale.

There are few, if any, professional actors, singers or dancers in the

Follies. Every year, creator and executive producer Gloria Zigner

recruits people from all walks of society to rehearse two or three times

a week for several months and perform the original musical over a

weekend. Director John Vaughan, choreographer Lee Martino and music

director Doug Austin whip the cast into shape.

So far, the Follies has raised more than $1 million for CHOC, which

has facilities in Orange and at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo.

Follies participants are required give a $500 personal check as a promise

that they will raise or sell at least that much in sponsorships and

ticket sales.

“Most people never ask for their check back,” Zigner said.

This year’s cast of 90 includes Theresa Flynn and Dody Korn, both of

Huntington Beach. Prominent businessman John Crean will perform alongside

Costa Mesa Mayor Linda Dixon. Skipper Tim Bercovitz of the American

Legion Yacht Club in Newport Beach will play an aging hippie.

What makes such divergent people come together? Two things -- Zigner

and the hospital itself. When asked why they participate in the Follies,

most people claim executive producer and former CHOC Foundation president

Zigner as the reason they are there. “She talked me into trying out,”

said Leslie Cancellieri, who is co-chairing the Follies with Sandy

Segerstrom Daniels and Dale Skiles. “I’d never been on stage before. I

told her I had no talent. She said it was OK.”

“Gloria forced me to do it,” said Rick Reiff, executive editor of the

Orange County Business Journal. “But now I beg her every year.”

For Vouga, it was a former boyfriend, who knew Zigner, that got her

involved initially. He ran into Zigner and ended up getting Vouga an

audition time.

It wasn’t her first time on stage. Besides being Miss Seal Beach from

1966 to 1968 (Mariners High served Seal Beach at that time), Vouga was

the lead in her high school play, “South Pacific.” Her high school drama

teacher has told her he intends to see her perform this year.

* JENNIFER K MAHAL is an editor with Times Community News and a former

city editor of the Independent. She can be reached at (949) 574-4282 or

by e-mail at o7 jennifer.mahal@latimes.com.f7

FYI

* WHAT: CHOC Follies “The Slipper and the Surfer”

* WHERE: A tent across from the Orange County Performing Arts Center,

Town Center Drive and Avenue of the Arts, Costa Mesa

* WHEN: 8 p.m. May 17, 2 and 8 p.m. May 18, and 2 p.m. May 19

* COST: Evening performances -- $25 general admission, $50 reserved

seats, $100 includes cast party. Matinees -- $25 general admission, $25

reserved seats.

* CALL: (714) 532-8690