Southeastern Opera/Music Theatre Workshop to present video performance
Monday, October 26, 2020
by: Tonya Lowentritt
HAMMOND – Opera/Music Theatre Workshop recently announced its contribution to
the performing arts at Southeastern Louisiana University for the fall semester: “A
Night on Broadway 2.” Opera Workshop presented a similar program several years ago
with live performances and a full orchestra. With the restraints of Covid-19, this
production has been videotaped in advance and will be available for online viewing
on YouTube Nov. 2, at 6 p.m. through Nov. 6, at 10 p.m. at https://youtu.be/y_CExG9BSK4.
Chuck Effler, director of the Opera/Music Theatre Workshop, said the cast includes
a number of freshman, as well as sophomores, juniors and senior voice students, a
graduate student majoring in cello and another majoring in voice, a non-traditional
student studying voice with decades of professional experience under her belt, and
a pair of twins, for good measure.
Twenty-seven students will perform songs and duets from a wide variety of Broadway
shows, including the Golden Age of Broadway (“Fiddler on the Roof,” “Carousel,” “Guys
and Dolls,” and “South Pacific”) to shows from the 1960s and 1970s (“Godspell,” “Sweeney
Todd,” “Little Shop of Horrors,” and “Pippin”) to the blockbuster shows of the 1980s
(“Phantom of the Opera,” and “Dreamgirls”) and more contemporary shows (“Sunset Boulevard,”
“Book of Mormon,” “Hamilton,” “Kinky Boots,” and “Dear Evan Hansen”).
Students who will perform include Ryan Blanchfield and Sarah Wagner (Baton Rouge),
Austin Bonfanti, Jacob Chancey, Becki Davis, and Dallas McAlister (Hammond), Andrew
Butler and William Dopp (New Orleans), Jacob Chauvin (Gramercy), Jessica Clayton (Pearl
River), Katherine Cousins (Madisonville), Emily Guagliardo and Canaan White (Ponchatoula),
Adia Hunt (Arcola), Jeanetta Johnson (Bogalusa), Shelby Johnson (Luling), Rebeca Lemos-Gonzalez
(A Coruna, Spain), Anastassia Marr (Slidell), David Meyer and Rayna Oggs (Chalmette),
Cole Persick and Caleb Porter (Franklinton), Caitlyn Rodrigue and Camryn Rodrigue
(Thibodaux), Alexa Salpietra (Belle Chasse), Trey Townsel (Zachary), Hannah Turner
(Central).
