minitherapyhorses.com.<\/a><\/p>\nSeen at the Scene: CEO of Miller Children\u2019s and Women\u2019s Hospital Lara Khouri, Dr. Gary Feldman, Dr. Ioana Pal, Steel Magnolia past President Michele Dobson, Steel Magnolia President Sue DeRosa, Sharon Stutz (Mini Therapy Horse trainer) Stevee Rowden, Janel Rowden, Nancy Gaines and Marianne Gastelum.<\/p>\n
\u201cMusic in the Morning\u201d<\/p>\n
Musical Theatre West\u2019s Footlighters group held its popular \u201cMusic in the Morning\u201d event on March 28 at the Grand Event Center. More than 70 attendees enjoyed a luncheon and apreview of MTW\u2019s upcoming presentation of Lin-Manuel Miranda\u2019s \u201cIn the Heights.\u201d Footlighters Nancy Eilers and Temre Vouga acted as greeters, Gloria Nelson handledreservations and centerpieces and worked the check-in table, along with Susan Joy, and Ginny Pace arranged for photographs.<\/p>\n
MTW associate producer Bren Thor described this Tony Award-winning musical about an evolving neighborhood in New York\u2019s Washington Heights as being an amazing story about \u201cchasing your dreams while holding on to your roots.\u201d He introduced select members of the talented cast, who mesmerized those in attendance with selected songs and dances from the show, including the lively ensemble piece \u201cIn the Heights\u201d and \u201cCarnival del Barrio\u201d \u2014 with the audience clapping along. The show\u2019s stars performed moving duets of\u00a0 \u201cWhen You\u2019re Home\u201d and \u201cIt Won\u2019t Be Long Now.\u201d<\/p>\n
MTW Board of Directors President Suzie Price greeted the attendees and told them that \u201cIn The Heights\u201d was her favorite musical, and encouraged them to bring new people to exposethem to the work of MTW.<\/p>\n
Footlighters board President Marnos Lelesi conducted a short business meeting, with reports from Treasurer Chris Huff and Membership Vice President Pam Dingwell, and recognizedMTW Trustees Nancy Conger, Robert Green, Mari Hooper, Marlene Temple and Joan Wells, as well as Board of Directors Barbara Blackwell, Roxanne Korzeniowski, Diane Spiegel and Jan Hall Zolin.<\/p>\n
Executive Director and producer Paul Garman welcomed the group, and reiterated the importance of community outreach, particularly with the recent production of \u201cMan of LaMancha\u201d and the upcoming \u201cIn the Heights,\u201d emphasizing the importance of giving the community an opportunity to see themselves represented on stage, as well as encouragingthe younger generation to keep theater alive. To this end, MTW will present five student matinees of \u201cIn The Heights,\u201d all free of charge to students, many of whom havenever experienced live theater.<\/p>\n
The ever-popular opportunity drawing was held after the luncheon, with the sought-after prize baskets assembled by Spiegel and Maloney, and tickets sold by Jack Gesner and Steve Hicke. Temple won a lovely purse and cashmere wrap; Ami Silverman took home a large crystal candy jar; a colorful cactus garden went to Marian Locke; festive cookware was won by Marilyn Bittle; and a large tote and scarf went to Dorothy McDermott.<\/p>\n
The Footlighters support community and student programs, including special performances for students and touring shows for local schools to introduce young people to the joy and magic of live theater. Each year, Footlighters present scholarships to high school students in the performing arts, including vocal, dance and technical and stage skills to allow them to further their education in their chosen fields. A number of former MTW scholarship recipients have appeared in recent MTW productions, and several have gone on to Broadway.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn The Heights\u201d will run through April 26 at the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts on the CSULB campus.<\/p>\n
Seen at the Scene: Executive Director Paul Garman, Marlene Temple, Mari Hooper, Stephanie Davis, Jan Foster, Marilyn Gabel, Nancy Koblensky, Linda Loseke, Claire Rand,Jackie Stanfield, Sandy Wells, and Penny Wilds, General Manager Douglas Senecal, Associate Producer Bren Thor, Facilities Coordinator Daryl Leach, Chris Huff, Diane Spiegel, Roxanne Korzeniowski, Ami Silverman, President Marnos Lelesi, Glora Nelson, Lisa Maloney, Temre Vouga, Pam Dingwell, Susan Joy and Ginny Pace.<\/p>\n
News of Social events with charitable purposes may be sent to Shirley Wild at spwild@verizon.net. Please include a contact phone number. Send high-resolution jpeg photos, by attachment, to spwild@verizon.net and include group name and identification of individuals from left. Call Shirley at 56-594-9468 for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is something soothing and healing about animals that\u2019s like no other therapy. The Mini Therapy Horses, specially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[23,131,133,132,648],"class_list":{"0":"post-263963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-local-news","9":"tag-long-beach","10":"tag-long-beach-headlines","11":"tag-long-beach-news","12":"tag-shirley-wild-column"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"National](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/LPT-L-WILD-COL-0412-01-1.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"\u201cProving](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/LPT-L-WILD-COL-0412-01_9a7ba4.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Musical](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/LPT-L-WILD-COL-0412-01_3eeffa.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n