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

 

Wednesday, September 25, 2019 
by: Tonya Lowentritt 


     HAMMOND – A musical, lecture, theatre production and dance concert are just some of the events providing the opening flourish for the 34th season of Fanfare, Southeastern Louisiana University’s annual fall arts festival.
     “As the new Fanfare director, I could not be more pleased with this year’s incredible lineup,” said Jim Winter, artistic director of Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts and Fanfare. “High-profile events like the ‘Wild & Scenic Film Festival,’ ‘Cabaret’ and ‘An Evening with Clarence Gilyard, Jr.’ make this year’s Fanfare a truly inspirational celebration of the arts.”
     Fanfare presents Southeastern Opera/Music Theatre Workshop’s presentation of the Broadway musical “Cabaret” Sept. 26 – 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts in downtown Hammond.
     The story of “Cabaret” has a long history, said Charles Effler, director of the Opera/Music Theatre Workshop.
     Set in 1931 Berlin as the Nazis were rising to power, “Cabaret” focuses on the nightlife at the Kit Kat Klub and revolves around a newly arrived American writer, Cliff Bradshaw, and his relationship with an English cabaret performer, Sally Bowles.
     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. Southeastern students are admitted free with university ID.
     Next up is a concert from the Southeastern Dance Department. Titled “Missing…have you seen her?” the concert is scheduled Oct. 1 and 2 at 7:30 p.m. in Vonnie Borden Theatre in D Vickers Hall.
     Tickets can be purchased 30 minutes before each performance 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.
     Poetry readings are scheduled Oct. 2 from 12:30 – 1:45 p.m. Featuring Southeastern’s own David Armand, Jack Bedell and Alison Pelegrin, the readings will take place in Southeastern’s Contemporary Art Gallery in Clark Hall.
     Also on Oct. 2, the Department of History and Political Science’s “Then and Now Lecture Series” presents Marissa Akeroyd, a recent Southeastern graduate student, as part of its 19th presentation of free lectures. The lecture titled “Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen Mother of the Twelfth Century” will take place in the Student Union Theatre at 1 p.m.
     Akeroyd will discuss how English queenship evolved its own identity, why medieval queens occupied a unique social niche, how Eleanor of Aquitaine provides a case study of the phases in a queen’s life and problems an ambitious and able woman faced in medieval society, and why she exercised her greatest political power as a widow and queen mother.
     Oct. 2 concludes with the Southeastern Symphony Orchestra presenting “Concerto Competition Winners Night” at 7:30 p.m. in Pottle Auditorium. Featuring violinists Kelsey Jones, Alana Saenz, Brennan Saenz and Kate Rush, winners of the Community Music School Concerto Competition, the concert will include music by Mendelssohn, Verdi, Ravel, Accolai, Monti, Corelli and Mollenhauer. The concert is free and open to the public.
     The week culminates with an opening art reception on Friday, Oct. 4, at 5 p.m. “Oray and Derbins: Two Lifetimes of Work” will be presented at the Hammond Regional Arts Center in downtown Hammond.
     For a complete Fanfare schedule, contact the Columbia/Fanfare office at 985-543-4366 or visit columbiatheatre.org.




More News...