Imagine a magical evening in the courtyard of the beautiful Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts as you are wined, dined and entertained by the finest this area has to offer. Coastal Carolina University's Fall Gala, the major annual fundraiser to benefit an endowment for cultural programming at the university, is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 18 at 6 p.m. in the Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts.

Tickets are $100 per person, and are still available for the event which will offer music and drama provided by the university's Department of Performing Arts as well as array of delicacies prepared by the area's best chefs..

Entertainment begins at 8 p.m. as the drum line of Coastal's new Spirit of the Chanticleer Marching Band enters the courtyard with brooms and begins a rhythmic sweeping that transforms into a melody of street noises in the "Stomp" tradition. Kurry Seymour, assistant band director, directs the percussionists..

Coastal's Concert Choir will sing "Libiamo," a familiar drinking song from Giuseppe Verdi's opera "La Traviata." Alissa Watts will sing "Adele's Laughing Song" from Johann Strauss' "Die Fledermaus." A preview of the upcoming Coastal production of "Hamlet" is next, featuring the famous gravedigger scene. Several songs from the recent production "The Baker's Wife" will be performed, including "Meadowlark" and "If It Wasn't for You" by Diane Fabiana, as well as the lighthearted "Bread" by the ensemble cast..

Vocalist Stephen Webb, a student, will sing "Flying Home" and "I Give It All For You," both from "Songs for a New World," which was presented last spring..

As a final number, dancers from the Department of Performing Arts will dance the "Hot Honey Rag" from "Chicago," a number that begins with two dancers and increases in numbers as the dance progresses. To end the magical evening, the percussionists return, leading the Spirit of Chanticleer Marching Band, which will perform songs from its halftime repertoire..

Call Diane Gunnin at 349-2811 or dwatson@coastal.edu for more information or to purchase tickets.