Image Up Advertising & Design

12 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | JULY 2023 Pat Wayne Blooms With Creativity RESIDENT SPOTLIGHT Most Four Seasons residents have intersected with Pat Wayne. She is the fabulous president of our Performing Arts Club (PAC), whose latest production, Remember When Rock Was Young, was a three-day extravaganza. See the recap of the show on the following page. Pat was born and raised in Chicago and still considers it her hometown. The Windy City has a special place in her heart. Pat has great affection and many fond memories of trips downtown to shop, eat, and explore all that Chicago has to offer. Pat has always had an artistic bent. She remembers her mother used to buy her art supplies, encouraging Pat, from an early age, to be creative. Pat's directorial debut was orchestrating a Mother's Day parade. She gathered all the neighborhood children, including her eight siblings, and used her persuasive skills to get them all to participate in the event. The kids paraded around the neighborhood as a salute to all the mothers. Pat had her younger sister stand up in a moving wagon, pulled by other children, while holding a sign that said "All mothers are Miss America in disguise." Pat discovered a love for theater when her second-grade teacher gave her the starring role in a production of Alice in Wonderland. That love for theater became a passion in high school. Theater became her world and was the reason to go to school. It was in high school that Pat found two of her lifelong loves. She worked the stage in all the productions, and she met the person who several years later became her husband (he was 14 when they met and had the lead in all the plays). Rich and Pat have been married for 42 years and have two very artistic children, Chris and Linsay. After high school, Pat attended Knox College where she continued to expand her knowledge of all things connected to theater arts. Her major was Theater Lighting and Design. While at Knox, she enhanced her skills by becoming the director of a company called Second Stage. Pat applied to and was accepted at New York Brooklyn College, where she graduated with a Masters in Performing Arts Management. This led to a one-year apprenticeship working at Carnegie Hall. She then went to work at Circle on the Square on Broadway as the Assistant Director of the Theater School. Then she made a move into the not-for-profit arts, working with a theater in Boston, a dance company in Chicago, the arts council in Columbus, Ohio, and finally to the Orange County Performing Arts Center and Arts Orange County here in California. Her mentor at that job was Jim Thomas; they are friends to this day. Jim included Pat on a team that attended workshops on how to coordinate disparate groups, hear everyone, and coalesce them into a cohesive entity. This experience helped her get the job as Director of Create California. The focus of the Create program is to bring various groups, school districts, and other entities together to coordinate and organize their programs so they can more efficiently work together to provide arts education during the school day to all California students. A direct result of the encouragement and mentorships that Pat received over her career was her decision to assist several school districts, including Beaumont, with their strategic plans. She continued to consult with Riverside County Department of Education to support the school districts as they get ready to receive a large influx of funding under Proposition 28, The Arts and Music in Schools initiative. Both Beaumont and Banning will be receiving large funding allocations for the arts. Not only is Pat the current PAC president, she is also Chairperson of the Garden Club, and is also working with our Board of Directors on a long-term plan for our community. She has been actively involved in the community since she and her husband moved into Four Seasons in 2015. One of her first volunteer stints was with the Community Planning Committee (CPC). Pat was inspired to volunteer her time because she wanted to be actively involved in the Four Seasons community. While Pat helps wherever and whenever she can, her heart and soul belong to theater arts. She directed A Toast to the Tonys in 2022 and from there she went on to work with all the other PAC leaders to increase the number of members and the quality of the performances. Pat feels that her role as president is to support the talents of each member of PAC and help enhance their skills in front of a live audience and behind the scenes. And there is much more to come — big plans are already in the works or on the horizon; Tom Wasco will be directing a radio show in August and John Horning will be directing the holiday show in December. Pat is excited to support these two excellent directors. What more can we expect from someone whose life motto is, "Laughter is the best medicine?" I guess we will have to wait and see. ~ Irene Welker

• Cover