Theatre, lectures, music and dance kick off Southeastern's Fanfare

 

Friday, September 21, 2018 
by: Tonya Lowentritt 


     HAMMOND – A musical, lecture, theatre production and dance concert are just some of the events providing the opening flourish for the 33rd season of Fanfare, Southeastern Louisiana University’s annual fall arts festival.
     “With over three decades of Fanfare, we are excited to continue the celebration of arts and culture that were at the heart of Fanfare’s beginning. Through this festival, our community has had access to many life-enriching events,” said Roy Blackwood, director of Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts and Fanfare.
     Fanfare officially opens with Southeastern Theatre presenting the world premiere of a new stage adaptation of “Dracula.” Written and directed by Southeastern Associate Professor of Acting and Directing James Winter, the production is scheduled Sept. 25 – 28 at 7:30 p.m. in Vonnie Borden Theatre in D Vickers Hall on Southeastern’s campus.
     Winter brings the classic monster, one of the most universally iconic characters ever known, to irresistible life in a reimagined interpretation of Bram Stoker’s original. Tickets can be purchased one hour before performance time from the Vonnie Borden Theatre box office located in the lobby of D Vickers Hall. General admission tickets are $15 adults; $10 seniors/non-SLU students; and free to Southeastern students with university ID.
     Next up is Southeastern Opera/Music Theatre Workshop’s presentation of the Broadway musical “Into the Woods” Sept. 27 – 28 at 7:30 p.m. at the Columbia Theatre in downtown Hammond.
     “Be careful what you wish for” is an ongoing theme in “Into the Woods.” The names are familiar – Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk – but in the show, these fables conjure up cautionary morals about modern relationships, communities, and society.
     Advance tickets are available at the Columbia Theatre box office Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will also be available beginning one hour prior to each performance. Ticket prices are $21 for adults; $16 for seniors, Southeastern faculty/staff and non-Southeastern students and $8 for children twelve and younger. Southeastern students are admitted free with university ID.
     A Common Read panel discussion is planned Sept. 27 at 6:30 p.m. at the Ponchatoula Library, located at 380 N. 5th St. “The Radium Girls” by Kate Moore is this year’s selection, and the discussion is free and open to the public.
     Karen Williams, retired English instructor from LSU, will moderate the discussion. Southeastern history faculty members Georgina Little, Lori Osterly Ulfers and Laurence Mauerman will serve as guest panelists discussing themes presented in Moore’s work.
     The Southeastern Dance Department will present the dance concert “One Road: A Journey of Joy, Love, Hope and Faith” on Oct. 2 and 3 at 7:30 p.m. in Vonnie Borden Theatre in D Vickers Hall. Southeastern Dance Performance Project will perform a full-length work addressing the emotional views of joy, love, hope and faith expressed through the collaboration of movement, music, spoken word and video installation.
     Tickets can be purchased 30 minutes before performance time from the Vonnie Borden Theatre box office, located in the lobby of D Vickers Hall. General admission tickets are $10 adults and $8 seniors/students/children.
     On Oct. 3, the Department of History and Political Science’s free “Then and Now Lecture Series” officially kicks off its 18th presentation of free lectures. The lecture series is sponsored by the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the Department of History and Political Science and the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies.
     First up is a lecture by Riley “Bo” Trisler, Southeastern history graduate student and tour guide at the Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville. “A Yankee Grave Decorated by Dixie,” will be presented at 1 p.m. in Pottle Auditorium.
     “On June 12, 1863, the guns of the American Civil War fell uncharacteristically silent. Rear Admiral David Farragut had sent the USS Albatross, under Lt. Commander John Elliot Hart, to shell St. Francisville and push the confederates back to Port Hudson,” Trisler said. “In the grip of what was likely yellow fever, he took his own life. This silenced the guns of war and brought two warring nations together as brethren bound by Masonic tradition.”
     The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra will present “Beethoven’s Fifth” on Friday, Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Columbia Theatre. Returning to Hammond for the Beethoven and Blue Jeans concert series, the LPO concert will open with Beethoven’s Overture to “Fidelio” and selections from Edvard Grieg’s “Peer Gynt,” one of his most popular compositions. The program concludes with one of the best-known compositions of all time, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.
     General admission tickets are $20-37 and are available at lpomusic.com.
     For a complete Fanfare schedule, contact the Columbia/Fanfare office at 985-543-4366 or visit columbiatheatre.org.




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