By Micahel Barnes
HEALTH: Loyal to the man, the team, the school, the cause. Few letters spell out loyalty like DRK. Coach Darrell K. Royal died in 2012, but grown men and women will set aside all other pressing concerns to pause and honor the late Longhorns leader. They are especially generous to the DKR Research Fund for Alzheimer’s Disease. Coach’s widow, Edith Royal, was the steadfast calm at the center of the social storm during the Fund’s Links & Lyrics benefit at ACL Live. Whirling around her were Stratus Properties’ Beau Armstrong and Val Armstrong, Patron’s John Paul DeJoria and Eloise DeJoria, KLBJ’s Ed Clements and Betsy Clements, KOKE FM’s Bob Cole and Linda Cole, The Society Diaries’ Lance Avery Morgan and Rob Giardinelli. The musical attraction for the night? Vince Gill, who recently played a stripped-down concert at Austin Music Hall for Austin Smiles.
CHARITY: It was a night for surprises. First, Brass House co-owner Jason White jumped up onstage at the Sheraton Austin after an especially long live auction. Bearded and intense, the Afghanistan War veteran spoke movingly of his experiences with the seriously ill through the auspices of the Care Communities. Then he extended the pledge period at the Byron E. Cox Awards dinner with effectively rousing pitches. Then developer and civic leader — and sometime neighbor — Kerry Tate gave one of the best introductions ever, telling the guests about what kind of CEO, leader and philanthropist Earl Maxwell is not. St. David’s Foundation’s Maxwell followed with a short speech that exemplified his humility and good humor. Photographer Lynne Dobson, formerly of the American-Statesman, accepted her award with generous particulars and images. The last winner was Roger Temme, often called the public face of Care Communities, which provides teams of volunteers for cancer and HIV/AIDS patients. I didn’t know he had been a Catholic priest for 25 years! Gotta pay more attention …
ARTS: Robert Faires and Henry V. Taken from Jeanne Claire van Ryzin’s story in the Statesman: “Robert Faires, arts editor of the Austin Chronicle as well as a longtime actor and director, has spent the last couple of decades with a king in his head. Really, Faires has had a fascination with the 15th-century English king Henry the Fifth as Shakespeare imagined the legendary leader and warrior, the subject of one of the Bard’s most compelling history plays. Faires distilled Shakespeare’s play — with its tale of the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years War — into a 90-minute one-man show, pairing down the number of characters and scenes. Faires premiered “Henry V” five years ago. Now he reprises the reordering of the story of the warrior.