CityView Magazine

28 | May 2020 Bo's Birthday Parade Surprise party for theater icon is well-played BY JANET GIBSON | PHOTOGRAPHY BY CINDY BURNHAM T here are times in our lives when we feel a palpable energy that something wonderful is about to happen. Memories are waiting to be made. And, no matter the surreal circumstances, all of us will be better for the experience. Like a stage play coming to life – with twists and turns, a bit of improv, pure heart and soul – we immerse ourselves into the production that is Bo orp's Birthday Parade. Act 1: The Gathering Darlene Ransom grabs a megaphone to direct the crowd that she has secretly summoned to her home on Summertime Road. e time: 12:45 p.m. Saturday, April 11, the day before Easter and also the eve of Bo orp's 87th birthday. Bo is the iconic founding artistic director of Cape Fear Regional eatre and an actress of great local renown. She also is Darlene's friend, neighbor and mentor – her collaborator in bringing to fruition Darlene's vision for "lumBEES: Women of the Dark Water," a story about her people, in 2019 at CFRT. Bo, like so many of us, has been "sheltered in place" at home. But maybe there are ways to work around a pandemic. eater folk are industrious that way. A birthday is still a birthday. Among the first to arrive is Deborah Martin Mintz, her husband, Lawrence "Larry" DiLucchio, and their rescue dog, Cayley. Deborah, the retired executive director of the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County, goes way back with Bo – to the early 1980s, when she first arrived in town as a young actress "She is an amazing woman," Deborah says of Bo. "I am only one of the many, many people she and Herbert (Bo's late husband) have touched, helped, fixed. I love her." Lauren and David Allred, decades-long supporters of the theater, also are here. Lauren is a stalwart member of CFRT's board. Also on hand, aer driving from Robeson and Hoke counties, are several of the theatrical "BEES," Lumbee women who adore Bo like a spiritual sister. Act 2: The Procession All told, about 20 vehicles line up for the "drive-by" celebration. ey are led by Darlene's husband, Mike, in a big, black Chevy Silverado, festooned with a "Happy Birthday" banner and balloons of Easter pastel colors. Over the next few minutes, with horns honking, the vehicles slowly proceed to Bo's home. We see smiles. We hear laughter. Among those waving from their Suburban are F E A T U R E

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