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June 05, 2005

Having a Ball

And now for something totally different. The Chronicle's Sunday Pink Section asked me to go behind the scenes with preparations for the San Francisco Symphony's Black and White Ball. I'm not a society kind of gal by any stretch, so I was relieved to find that ball chair Patricia Sprincin was not your stereotypical socialite:

"It seems to be a typical morning at the San Francisco Symphony's volunteer offices. Patricia Sprincin is dressed, as always, in crisp black and white.

"When do you envision beach balls?" she says, leaning across a map of Civic Center. To her right sits a giant martini glass holding a prototype of the inflatable party favor in question. But this is hardly a day at the beach.

We're talking 5,000 beach balls, designed to flood Polk Street this Saturday at the opening of the Symphony's biannual Black & White Ball. And deciding when to drop them is just the beginning. When do you blow them up? Where? How? Who?

Across the conference table, Mark Guelfi types a note on his laptop. He's president of Hartmann Studios, the Ball's producer, and an old hand at logistics. "We'll go to Costco and buy air mattress power pumps," he says. "We'll start blowing them up at 9 a.m."

Sprincin tucks a lock of her chic blond bob behind her ear. "How do we know they'll stay inflated?"

Guelfi looks stumped. "We'll have to test that," he says.

Add another item to the list. Planning a party for 10,000 people is all in the details -- and as chair of this year's Black & White Ball, Sprincin is responsible for them all. Tall and composed, she inspires confidence. Far from the stereotype of a poodle-toting socialite, she's a down-to-earth mother with a throaty laugh and blue eyes that twinkle when she pronounces "Stymie and the Pimp Jones Luv Orchestra," one of 27 music acts that will play at the Ball's five venues.

"With a name like that, I'm sure the tickets will sell," Sprincin says with a wink."

Click here for the full piece. As a tiny side note, my lead as I composed it read "It's a typical weekday morning at the San Francisco Symphony's volunteer offices, where Patricia Sprincin is dressed, as always, in crisp black and white." I'm still partial to it, though neither the original nor the edited version is spectacular, in my opinion.

Posted by Rachel at June 5, 2005 04:42 PM

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