Lori Portner had a brush with celebrity on a recent trip to New York.

Portner, who is education director at La Crosse Community Theatre, spends as much time at the theater as she can possibly manage whenever she makes it to New York. When she attends productions alone, she often chats with the people sitting next to her.

While sitting in the audience at “At a Steady Rain,” she struck up a conversation with Susan Clemson and Charuwan Siri.

Because this was a fundraising week for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, there was a fundraising raffle for a backstage meet-and-greet with show stars Daniel Craig (the latest in a long line of James Bonds) and Hugh Jackman (better known to many as Wolverine).

Siri ended up paying $1,500 for the meet-and-greet, and she brought along her new friend Portner when she went backstage.

“She turns to the lady by the stage door and she asks her how many people she can bring back. Then she grabs my arm and pulls me along and says, ‘There’s three of us.’”

At that point, they hadn’t even exchanged names.

“We get on stage, and I can see Daniel Craig standing there and Hugh Jackman. And it was my birthday, so Hugh Jackman signed my playbill, ‘Happy birthday, Hugh Jackman.’ They both wrote happy birthday. It was so surreal, and it happened so quickly. I grabbed Hugh Jackman’s hand and he gave me a kiss.”