The Durant Arts Center multipurpose room rarely gets as glamorous as it did on Friday night, May 3, when The Scholarship Fund of Alexandria ushered Charles “Chip” Esten onto its brightly lit stage.

The “Nashville” star, who plays Deacon Claybourne on the hit series, informed the audience of Alexandrians that though he would be whoever they wanted him to be that night at autograph time — Deacon, Charles or Chip — he was the boy they knew. “It’s Chip not Charles. It’s Puskar,” said the star as he walked on.

In hometown fashion, Esten opened with “Back Home,” noting it was also the first song his character Deacon Claybourne sang on the ABC show.

Esten punctuated his set list — equal parts tongue-in-cheek country songs, “Nashville” hits and co-written ballads — with one-liners: “You can’t even sort of understand what this show has meant to me,” he said. “Gettin’ to play the Grand Ole Opry, the Bluebird … if you had told me growing up I was gonna play the Durant Center multipurpose room, I would not have believed you.”

His set list unfolded to reveal standout titles such as, “Pour Four More Por Favor” and “One More Time” (another drinking song referencing shots), although the mood turned wistful in recently co-written songs like “Dancing All Around It” and “I’m Still Waiting On Her.”

In “Dancing All Around It” Esten drew out a bittersweet ballad. A sweet, romantic scene in the first verse changes tone entirely in the second verse. “We were dancing all around it, we didn’t notice the last note sounded. We kept holding on, even though the song’s gone,” sang Esten in the first verse. On the way to the second, the image of a dancing couple took on new meaning: “I wish we could’ve stayed right there on that floor. We’re not the people in the picture anymore. We’re always dancing all around it, losing each other for so long. We kept holding on, even though the song is gone … we both keep holding on.”

At one point an enthusiastic member of the 200-person crowd called out a question. “Tell us what it was like doing that steamy scene with Rayna,” yelled a fan, referring to the “Nashville” episode aired Wednesday, May 1, in which characters Deacon and longtime friend/former girlfriend Rayna share a romantic scene.

Esten wasn’t interested in the drama, though, and laughed but didn’t respond. He was there for the cause of raising scholarship money and for all the people he knew and loved, he said.

Following the concert, a “Deacon Claybourne” guitar pick and a guitar signed by Esten, Hayden Panettiere (Juliette), Sam Palladio (Gunnar), Clare Bowen (Scarlett), Jonathan Jackson (Avery) and Lennon and Maisy Stella (Rayna’s daughters Maddie and Daphne) were auctioned off for a joint total of $3,700 — $200 of which came from Esten’s Rosemont neighbor Suzanne Rathlev in exchange for a guitar pick. Jen Walker of McEnearney Associates, a Del Ray Realtor, contributed the other $3,500 to the fund in exchange for the guitar.

Even Esten’s former assistant principal while at T.C. Williams, John Porter, paid a high dollar for swag, winning a Titans sweater with his $120 bid.

Cathy Puskar, chair of the board of trustees for the fund, ushered her brother off the auctioning stage and again into the limelight, this time for photos, as a line of women waiting to smile beside him snaked around the room. Following the photo op, Esten sat for autographs.

“He was very gracious,” said Puskar after the event. “Everyone got their turn.”

Puskar dedicates a large amount of time to the evening’s cause. “The scholarship fund is great because you know exactly where the money is going,” she said. “You know when you give a dollar where it’s going … and the more diverse Alexandria becomes, the more we are able to support [first generation] college students.”

The event proceeds chalked up to $22,000, an equivalent of almost nine scholarships at $2,500 per student. Puskar said the concert supplemented the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria budget with its annual gala, which raised over $275,000 this year, as well as Clash of the T.C. Titans social media drive, which is currently in progress. To see the campaign in motion and to donate, go to http://www.alexscholarshipfund.org/clash/.

The next event for the fund will be their 18th Annual Telethon, slated for Sunday, Oct. 28, from 4-9 p.m. at T.C. Williams with an online and television broadcast scheduled for Channels 69 and 71 and www.AlexScholarshipFund.org.