Phantom actress to perform for SCARC benefit

The SCARC Foundation will host its third annual “An Evening with the Sandra Joseph All-Stars” on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019, at the Sussex County Community College Performing Arts Center.

The concert will feature the incomparable Sandra Joseph, and as it turns out, the annual benefit has become very near and dear to the actress who starred as Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera for 10 years and more than 1,500 performances.

“I’ve been blessed to meet many of the families that SCARC helps support and they have really touched my heart, Joseph said. “It’s a joy to be able to celebrate this beautiful community and come together to raise money and awareness through sharing the gift of music.”

She said her first experience with SCARC was as a keynote speaker and her involvement has grown since.

“We’re now putting on Broadway benefit concerts for the community,” she said.

This year, Joseph will perform along with Ron Bohmer, Carter Calvert, Lawrence Clayton, Roger Cohen, Eric Fotre Leach, and, she added, “perhaps a surprise guest.”

In a society where technology is so prevalent, Joseph feels the theater is extremely important.

“In 1864, the German novelist Berthold Auerbach wrote, 'Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life,'” Joseph said. “It is even more important today that we put down our devices and immerse ourselves in art. There’s something about hearing the human voice live, being in a room where music is being created in real time before your eyes and ears, that brings us into the present moment and drops us from the head to the heart. I think we all need that today more than ever.”