Cleveland Public Theatre Benefit

"We don't ask them to perform and go home" Beth Wood says about the fact that some 250 dancers, actors, musicians, stilt walkers, and other artists will lend their skills to Cleveland Public Theatre's annual "Pandemonium" benefit. "They are part of the party." Add several hundred guests and mix with drinks, and you've got what has for years been one of the movingest, shakingest parties in town. Among the performers this year are Lost State of Franklin, several area dance companies, Wild Things monster puppets designed for Parade the Circle by the art museum's Robin VanLear, a fire show by Aaron Bonk, and Pandemonium perennial fave Lounge Kitty. The event also marks the public debut of a newly enclosed former alley between CPT's Gordon Square and James Levin theatres. Pandemonium reigns at 7 p.m. Saturday, September 11, at Cleveland Public Theatre (6415 Detroit Ave., cptonline.org). Tickets are steep — $125 — but the memories will linger quite possibly forever. — Gill