Dazzled by the surroundings at St. Louis’ annual Veiled Prophet Ball, guests can’t help wondering what the preparation efforts must be like. The answer is, nothing short of Herculean!
VP Ball planning takes every day of the calendar year, says Thomas Cooke, spokesman for the Veiled Prophet Organization. It’s an odyssey that begins all over again the day after each gala. The result is an unforgettable December evening for typically 50 to 70 young women, or Maids of Honor, who are presented to the St. Louis social and civic community as future leaders and ‘difference-makers.’
A dozen committees and 300 volunteers spend thousands of collective hours working with production staff to ensure every detail of the ball is covered. “Committee responsibilities run the gamut from greenery and flowers to ensuring the girls’ parents are where they need to be during the gala,” Cooke says. “We even have a ‘vertical transport committee’ to run the elevators.”
Each year’s planning schedule includes brainstorming meetings, set and menu design, volunteer preparations, rehearsals and other key activities. Chairman Michael Ruwitch oversaw the 2016 gala arrangements, coming up with themes and working with the VP organization’s design staff to create an overall look. Cooke says the set has to reflect the mythology of the Veiled Prophet, a concept that originated in 1878 as St. Louis’ answer to New Orleans’ Mardi Gras celebrations.
At the 2016 event, the organization unveiled a brand-new stage and set design. More than a year ago, organizers met to discuss updating the set, which had evolved annually based on a set design from 30 years ago. “We felt it was time to freshen it up,” Cooke says. A design contest was held with creative professionals from Webster University, Washington University and the VP organization’s production company, Technical Productions Inc. (TPI), led by Michael and Elizabeth O’Keefe. Each group submitted CAD (computer-aided design) concept drawings of their ideas, and TPI’s was chosen.
The winning design included striking new 3-D props carved from large styrofoam blocks by computerized router equipment. One example was a 10-foot-tall re-creation of the medallion the organization’s members wear, cut from foam and painted. The painting was done by the VP organization’s creative staff, then the items were covered with a protective coating so they would last. Many of the construction techniques used for these props will have future applications for floats in the 2017 VP Parade, Cooke says.
Also new were a 95-foot-long scenic drop canvas hand-painted with a landscape depicting the Veiled Prophet’s Kingdom of Khorassan, and the ‘chute’ from which the young women emerged when being presented. Cooke says all set components were loaded into tractor-trailers and delivered to the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch a week before the event.
Cooke compares the ball’s planning process to that of a theatrical production: “When the lights go down and everyone’s in their white ties, tails and gowns, it’s so much fun to see all the planning work come to fruition on stage.”
2016 VP Ball by the numbers
2,000 guests at the Ball
32 orchestra members plus 3 heralds (trumpeters)
10 dressers, including 4 seamstresses
119 floral centerpieces for the Queen’s Supper
1,236 meals served at the Queen’s Supper
470 poinsettia plants
5 bands playing at the Queen’s Supper
75 costumed characters
12 planning committees
625 total volunteers
5 tractor-trailers to deliver equipment and supplies to the hotel
62 gallons of paint for the set and decorations
