The Column Awards to take place at Irving Arts Center this year

by PegNews wire

It all began ten years ago with a crazy dream that kept swirling around John Garcia's mind. He gathered up a close group of friends to help make that wacky dream into a reality. This "dream" premiered at the intimate Plaza Theater in Garland, Texas. What was this dream? It was none other than The Column Awards.

The Column Awards Organization honors excellence in theater around the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The Column Awards is the only awards organization in the United States that donates all their profits (after operating expenses) to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA).

Since that intimate awards ceremony at the Plaza Theater, The Column Awards continued to grow in attendance, support, popularity, and even gaining national recognition. It now has a Board of Directors of extremely hard working individuals that work with Garcia to produce a lavish gala with major celebrities from the entertainment world of Film, Broadway, and Television to serve as special guest stars.

For the last three years, The Awards Gala has become such a sought after ticket, that the event completely sold out The Courtyard Theater in Plano in less than two weeks. The Courtyard Theater has served as the official home of The Column Awards for the past three years. The Board of Directors and Garcia realized the incredible increase in attendance had to be addressed this year.

With that said, it is the extreme honor & privilege that the Board of Directors and Executive Director/Producer John Garcia announce that the 2009 Column Awards will be held for the first time in the gorgeous Carpenter Hall Theater at the Irving Arts Center in Irving, TX.

"We knew that the awards gala has grown beyond the capacity of The Plano Courtyard Theater, which has been our beautiful home for the last three years", stated Garcia. "So when the opportunity to move to the Irving Arts Center presented itself, the Board and I agreed that it was time to move."

Garcia went on to say, "On behalf of my Board of Directors, we cannot thank enough the amazing staff and team at The Courtyard Theater. They become such big supporters of The Column Awards and it's Gala. They worked so incredibly hard each year to help turn our ideas into reality. They have become our friends and we could not have succeeded without them. We will always value and treasure our time with The Courtyard."

The Column Awards Board of Directors and Executive Director John Garcia wish to publicly thank the Courtyard Theatre, its staff and the City of Plano for allowing The Column Awards to host the Gala in such a beautiful venue for the last 3 years. The Irving Arts Center & the Irving Arts Board have been very receptive to awards organization and are very excited in hosting the 2009 Column Awards gala!

"We are thrilled beyond words to do our Gala this year at such an exquisite Theater that is Carpenter Hall!" Garcia said, "The audience capacity is doubled now, we have lots more dressing rooms and stage space to raise the bar even higher to produce one of the most lavish and spectacular evenings we've ever had in the ten year history of The Column Awards!"

Because of the move to the Carpenter Hall, the date has been moved to Monday, March 23, 2009.

Source: The Column