By MARK SCOLFORO !

By MARK SCOLFORO !

Rappahannock New* Staff Writer i

The entertainment fare being cooked up fori the annual benefit variety show for the Rappa-i hannock Association for the Arts and the Community (RAAC) will have a slightly different flavotf this year, but the goal hasn’t changed: to raise money for the association. ' ;

In past years the variety show held open au-i ditions, but this year event coordinator Bob Scott opted to solicit performances from those who have proven to be popular entertainers on RAAC stages in the past. .:

For example, scenes from Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” will be rendered by county actor’s Susan Estes, Howard Coon, Dinah Pehrson-Day, Jody Carbone, Jimmy Foster and Mike Mahoney;

“We wanted to pick people who have given good performances and to develop some youngeii actors,” such as Miss Estes and Mr. Foster, said Mr. Scott.

The benefit will be held at 8 p.m. Saturday* Aug. 17, in The Theatre at Washington, Va. Tick-! ets are $5 for adults, $2.50 for students and chil-i dren and are available at Mountainside Market} and RAAC’s office on Gay Street in Washington. J

Other performances include Waldron O’Con-i nor as George Washington in the opening scene,' conveying a message to the people of Rappahannock County.

Charlie Tompkins, said Mr. Scott, “was called out of retirement to play some bluegrass guitar and sing.”

Mr. Coon and Mrs. Pehrson-Day, in addition to the half-hour of Shakespeare, will also do a scene from a Neil Simon play. Mrs. Pehrson-Day pleads for her life during a scene from Shawls “Saint Joan.”

Lyric soprano Lisa Johnson, with a piano accompanist, will sing a medley of show tunes written by composers such as Gershwin, Cole Porter and Leonard Bernstein.

Virginia Scott’s dramatized folk songs promise to captivate the audience, presented in an enchanting, sometimes humorous, always original fashion.

Bob and Virginia Scott will provide the comic relief during a humorous sketch.