DIRECTOR PRESIDENT MARK CASTANZA ABOUT THIS YEAR’S EVENT…
Jeffrey ll, and Empress XXXVlll Ruby Starling present the dazzling and radiant 39th annual Night Of A Thousand Gowns, a Masquerade Ball, on Saturday April 5, 2025 6PM-11:00PM @ the Edison Ballroom in Manhattan.
There will be a red carpet, followed by a three course dinner, a silent auction and entertainment by Sabel Scities, Betty, Claybourne Elder and the Boy Band Project. The Gala and celebration will benefit Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS. Get Out Magazine spoke with the very cheerful and positive Board of Director President Mark Castanza about this year’s event.

INTERVIEW >>>
So let’s talk about this years Gala. What’s your exact title and do you have a royal name?
Yes, it’s Emperor XV Fantasia. President of the board of directors.
How did you get to be President? How did that happen?
What happened was I ran for President like four years ago. I got elected and I won for a two-year term. I did my first two years, but my second term I could only do a year because I was diagnosed with stage four cancer.
Oh, are you okay now?
Yeah, I am seven years cancer free. Since no one was really interested in running for the President, I decided to try it again. And I won by a landslide. I got all 152 yesses. Zero no’s and no abstains. They like me, they really do like me, lol.
Tell me the order of how things are going to go. I mean, I know it, but pretend I don’t.
It’s going to be on April 5th @ the Edison ballroom. The beneficiary this year is Broadway Cares Equity. And our reigning monarchs are Emperor Jeffrey 2 and our Empress is Ruby Stalin.
It’s going to be a wonderful affair, as it usually is. We have great entertainment. We have the Bar Boys, the boy band. We have the Betty Boops. We usually do the red carpet, where we have our sponsors. We don’t have a lineup of responses yet because we usually do that at the end of the month. Most likely, it will be the same sponsors as last year. Hopefully, we would get Miller Coor’s and Li-lac chocolates. We also had Boxers and Get Out magazine with the fabulous Mike Todd. It’s going to be a very exciting evening. I’m told all I have to do is show up in my outfit and have fun.
Tell me a little bit about the silent auction. Are you having that this year?
Yes we will be having our silent auction. We will be having 35 to 40 items.
Anything you want to lure anyone in with?
Well we just started but we have a lot of our Court jewelry like tiaras and rhinestones and bracelets. We also having a raffle.
Which will hopefully be an Apple watch, a tablet and one of those rings that you wear that tells you about your health. We are also going to have the wonderful Ben Fink. He’ll be selling his book Notable Deeds. Which is a huge thing for the Imperial Court System. He has many many pictures of raining past Monarchs and Prince and Princesses. I got to see the book in Florida. It’s really a beautiful presentation of a book. He’s a sweetheart of a guy.
What encouraged you or even motivated you to become involved with this organization?
Back to 1999, when I was 21 years old, before I joined the Court, my best friend Sal had AIDS. He never told me. One day I couldn’t find him or get ahold of him and he used to leave me messages. But one day, I had enough and I went to his home and his mom answered the door with her Italian accent and I asked if Sal was there and she said “No, no, Sal no here no more.” I asked where did he move to and she said, “No, no, he died.” I said “What?” And his sister came out and said, “Mark, we’ve been trying to find you.” And she told me he passed of AIDS. I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t have told me. And she said he was embarrassed. So, from that point on, I always thought there’s no reason to be embarrassed and that started me on my crusade to start raising money for people with HIV and AIDS. I joined the court in 1999 and I’ve been on the board of directors since then. I’ve been on the board for over 25 years already. I started off as a board member at large and then I woÅrked myself up to Vice Preåsident and now President. The same way I started out as a Lord and Lady and worked my way up to Emperor.
A lot of my friends have been Emperors and Empresses.
We have a great membership. They’re very supportive. We just had our holiday Gala, which turned out fabulous. They treated us like kings and queens.
This year, it says it’s a masquerade ball. Isn’t it always a masquerade ball?
Originally, when it first started, it was a masquerade ball. It continued for years, and as monarchs evolved and got younger and newer, they wanted to change the theme. One year was Razzle Dazzle, one year was Spectacular, one year it was Icon, and now this year they decided they wanted to go back to the masquerade. Hopefully, everyone will be wearing a masquerade. Outrageous costumes. Trying to bring back the old days.