Word spread through the party tent, erected on the Loop 610 service road, like wildfire. Lynn Wyatt has arrived wearing jeans and she has rollers in her hair!

And that was just one of the gleeful, if not startling, sights that kick-started the Alley Theatre "April Fools Trailer Park Chic Ball." Thank you gala chairs Jana and Scotty Arnoldy and party planner extraordinaire Richard Flowers of The Events Co. for coming up with one of the whackiest and most entertaining charity bashes in memory.

(It seems that the Alley is on a creative roll having held last year's unconventional gala in the 1940 Air Terminal Museum at Hobby Airport and the year before in a warehouse off of I-45 South.)

Lynn confessed that it took every bit of her courage to step out in hair curlers. (Her son, Brad Wyatt, couldn't believe his eyes when he picked her up for the party.) But once she made the "trailer park" scene, the ham in La Wyatt surfaced all the while she remained as glamorous as ever and looked an amazing 20 years younger than reality! In fact, there was a truckload of good-natured hamming it up at the gala for which Jana dressed her trailer park chic best and honorees Kim and Dan Tutcher followed their own pied piper in prom queen and Texas tux attire, respectively. You could see Kim's hoop-skirt, shimmering orange gown from the freeway. Nice.

It was a perfect night for partying on the tent patio (actually an abandoned parking lot) where carnival lights swayed overhead and the aroma of Frito pie drifted through the zanily-clad crowd. Sharin Gaille, fresh from wearing a custom designer gown only the week before as chair of the Symphony Ball, dressed in two black Hefty bags that somehow managed to look like a chic minidress and declared herself queen of the doublewides. Kirby McCool favored white trash bags for her trailer park fashion statement and held the pieces together with zebra-striped duct tape. Hubby Scott McCool, the talented floral designer, created a sort of insect handbag for her out of a sweet potato can.

Even though the tent was decorated in the most insane fashion (our table was centered with an aluminum Christmas tree adorned with pink flamingoes), partygoers preferred socializing in the so-called food court where deviled eggs vied for attention with Gigi's dumplings and where Hubcap Grill had a burger truck and Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen served from its taco truck. Even the barbecue was offered from the open side of a food truck. The late night delivery of Domino's cheese pizza for every table was an added culinary bonus.

Only a few guests played it fashion straight such as Margaret Williams in a shimmering navy cocktail dress. Alley Theatre managing director Dean Gladden and wife Jane, Cornelia and Meredith Long, Patty Hubbard, Molly Hubbard, Nanette and Jerry Finger and a handful of others eschewed the costuming. Accompanying the Longs was artist Donald Sultan, currently exhibiting at their gallery, Meredith Long & Co.

We applaude those who stepped out of their comfort zone (or maybe not) including Scott and Soraya McClelland, Carol and Mike Linn, Bonner and George Ball, Susan Krohn and Patrick Gehm, Reed Morian, Susan and Dick Hansen and Denise and Bill Monteleone.

The night saw its share of prom queens (Cynthia Petrello, Courtney Hopson and Laurie Morian) and big-hairs, the latter a look we never imagined that we would see on Kathryn Ketelsen. Lynn Wyatt was not the only one to arrive in rollers. Gay Kelsey showed up in a flannel robe and slippers with rollers in her hair.