Theatre--Performance

V-Day Lafayette 2011 presents The Vagina Monologues on April 1st (at 7 pm) and 2nd (at 2 pm and 7 pm) at Hamilton Hall on the UL-Lafayette campus.  Tickets available at door or at http://vdaylafayette.eventbrite.com/.

Playwright/Founder Eve Ensler’s award winning play The Vagina Monologues is a celebration of female sexuality in all its complexity and mystery. In this stunning phenomenon that has swept the nation, Eve Ensler gives us real women's stories of intimacy, vulnerability, and sexual self-discovery.

Based on interviews with over 200 women about their memories and experiences of sexuality, The Vagina Monologues gives voice to women's deepest fantasies and fears.

All proceeds benefit the V-Day local and global activist movement.

Opera--Performance

The UL Lafayette Opera Theater in collaboration with the UL Lafayette Wind Ensemble will present the operetta,  The Mikado, by Gilbert and Sullivan.

The performances will take place on Thursday, April 14 at 7:30PM, Friday, April 15 at 7:30PM and Saturday, April 16 at 2:00PM.  There will also be an educational performance on Friday morning, April 15 for school children.  The performances will take place in Ducrest-Gilfry Auditorium in Angelle Hall on the UL Lafayette campus.

Tickets are available at the door only and are $10 for the general public and free for UL Lafayette students, faculty, staff and members of the UL Lafayette Opera Guild.  For more information about the performances, call the School of Music and Performing Arts at 337-482-6012.

The operetta is considered to be Gilbert and Sullivan’s finest work and revolves around a small town in Japan called Titipu.  As is all of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas, the situation is comic and many plot twists and turns occur during the evening.  The show is suitable for all ages.  The show is being directed by Shawn Roy and conducted by Dr. William Hochkeppel with 24 members of the Wind Ensemble.  Sets are by Duncan Thistlethwaite, Lighting Design by Ken Harrelson, Choregraphy is by Kenneth Jenkins and Costumes are being provided by Malabar Costume Rental in Canada.  

Jennifer Andrews, Meghin Taylor and Alex Hollerman 

(Photo by Josh Coen)

Jennifer Andrews, Meghin Taylor and Alex Hollerman

(Photo by Josh Coen)

Dance--Performance

All children, except one, grow up … but there’s a bit of him in everyone. Perhaps that’s why his story is held so dear. Lafayette Ballet Theatre is delighted to announce its next spring production, Peter Pan, as never before experienced in Louisiana. This full-length ballet in two acts promises to please grown ups and children of every age — complete with humor, suspense and adventure, along with all the romance of classical dance. Tickets on sale now!

This spectacular show — slated for Saturday, April 9, and Sunday, April 10, at the Heymann Performing Arts Center — will feature the acclaimed choreography of the New Orleans-born Washington Ballet artistic director Septime Webre and guest artists from the Cincinnati Ballet. This is the first time a work of Webre, one of the nation’s most sought-after choreographers, will ever be presented in his home state. Setting the choreography on the local cast will be Cincinnati Ballet's ballet mistress, Johanna Wilt. Another plus: trust and a little pixie dust — with help from America’s best aerial effects company, Flying by Foy — will send the stars soaring beyond the crowd’s greatest expectations.

Tickets are available at the Heymann Center Box Office Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (337-291-5555) and through all Ticket Master outlets including online at www.ticketmaster.com. Prices are as follows: front orchestra, $50; back orchestra, $42.50; first balcony, $37.50; back orchestra, $20. Additional Ticket Master fees may apply. Special group rates are available. College and high school students are eligible for the “student rush” special: half off on all seats still available 30 minutes prior to curtain. (Students must present a current school ID at the Heymann Center Box Office to receive the “student rush” discount.)

Lafayette Ballet Theatre is a nonprofit classical ballet company offering professional contracts to local artist, classical ballet instruction, dance study scholarships, educational programs and theatrical stage performances to the Acadiana community.

For more information on LBT and Peter Pan, call 337-262-0444 or visit www.LafayetteBalletTheatre.org.

Theatre--Performance

Eunice Players’ Theatre is preparing its season opener, Barefoot in the Park, a two-act comedy by Neil Simon. This production of the play marks a revival on the EPT stage following its first run in 1972. Director Suzanne LaHaye has put together a cast of stage veterans and audience favorites to bring to the stage the story of a newlywed couple who must contend with their own differences - she being free-spirited, he being a strait-laced lawyer - as well as a faulty postage-stamp sized New York apartment, a quirky neighbor and a nosy mother-in-law.

Bonnie Pitre and Charles Seale

Bonnie Pitre and Gabe Ortego 

Gabe Ortego, Bonnie Pitre and  Tucker Kelly

Gabe Ortego, Bonnie Pitre,  Ricci Arnaud and Charles Seale

Ricci Arnaud and Gabe Ortego

The show will begin its run Thursday, March 24 through Sunday, March 27. Dinner theatre is scheduled for Tuesday, March 29 at 6:00 p.m. at Nick's on Second St., with the performance immediately following. Other performances dates include Wednesday and Thursday, March 30 and 31. All evening performances are at 7:00 p.m.; the Sunday matinee is at 2:00 p.m. Individual tickets for the show are $10 and on sale at David Ltd. Salon on Second St. Season tickets may be purchased and more information can be obtained by calling 546-0163 or 457-2156. For $20 a season ticket includes 3 shows, reservation rights, voting privileges and an invitation to the 42th Annual Irving Awards. Angel and patron packages are also available for purchase.

More pictures and information about EPT can be found on their Facebook page or at euniceplayers.blogspot.com.

Theatre--Performance

Local playwright and actor Cody Daigle opened Wednesday night in Shining City, a production of Playhouse Tulsa and the first review, which is very good, is already out.  It can be found here.

Theatre--Performance

The UL-Department of Performing Arts is presenting Picnic by William Inges.  The show opens on Thursday, March 17th and will run every day through March 20th.  The Thursday, Friday and Saturday performances will begin at 7:30 pm and the Sunday performance will be a matinee with a 2 pm curtain.  There will also be an encore performance on March 22nd at 7:30 as part of the College of the Arts' annual Spark Festival of the Arts.


Tickets are available at the door.  Tickets are free to ULL students, faculty and staff with their UL ID card, $5.00 for students of other schools, alums and seniors, and $10.00 for general admission.

For more information, call the UL Department of Performing Arts at (337) 482-6357. 

Theatre--Performance

Eunice Players’ Theatre is preparing its season opener, Barefoot in the Park, a two-act comedy by Neil Simon.  This production of the play marks a revival on the EPT stage following its first run in 1972.  Director Suzanne LaHaye has put together a cast of stage veterans and audience favorites to bring to the stage the story of a newlywed couple who must contend with their own differences - she being free-spirited, he being a strait-laced lawyer - as well as a faulty postage-stamp sized New York apartment, a quirky neighbor and a nosy mother-in-law.

Filling the roles of the newlywed couple, Corie and Paul Bratter are Bonnie Pitre and Gabe Ortego of Eunice.  Gabe was most recently seen in The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Dramatic Society's Production of A Christmas Carol as Gordon, for which he won the Best Supporting Actor Irving Award.  An accomplished actor in the Opelousas and Eunice theatres, with Providence, A Tuna Christmas, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to his credit, Gabe has also directed Steel Magnolias, Monky Business, and The Subject Was Roses.

Bonnie returns to the stage following her Irving Award-winning performance in Providence and a stellar turn in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.  Bonnie appeared in several plays at LSU while earning a minor degree in theatre; she has also been seen on the EPT stage in Woman and The Sound of Music, and she also ran the lighting for If the Shoe Fits.

Longtime EPT actor and frequent set designer Charles Seale returns to the stage in the role of the quirky but charming Victor Velasco after having recently taken part in Fiddler on the Roof and co-directed Deathtrap.  Interestingly, Charles assisted with painting the scenic backdrop for the EPT's earlier production of this show.

Joining the cast as Corie’s mother, Mrs. Banks is Ricci Arnaud from Crowley .  Ricci is past president of Acadia Players in Crowley , where she appeared in The Queen of Bingo, A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking, and Seven Nuns in Vegas.

Stepping in as the telephone repairman is Tucker Kelly of Crowley, most recently seen in last season’s What the Bellhop Saw at EPT.  He’s also had roles in Bridge to Terabithia and Seance in Acadiana at Acadia Players, as well as numerous high school and church productions.

Rusty Moody of Eunice has the cameo role of the delivery man.  Currently the mayor of Eunice, Rusty is returning to the stage after a 20 year absence, having last been seen in The Nerd for which he won an Irving Award.

The show will begin its run Thursday, March 24th through Sunday, March 27th. Dinner theatre is scheduled for Tuesday, March 29 at 6:00 p.m. at Nick's on Second St. , with the performance immediately following.  Other performances dates include Wednesday and Thursday, March 30 and 31.  All evening performances are at 7:00 p.m.; the Sunday matinee is at 2:00 p.m.  Individual tickets for the show are $10 and on sale at David Ltd. Salon on Second St .  Season tickets may be purchased and more information can be obtained by calling 546-0163 or 457-2156.  For $20 a season ticket includes 3 shows, reservation rights, voting privileges and an invitation to the 42^th Annual Irving Awards. Angel and patron packages are also available for purchase. 

More pictures and information about EPT can be found on Facebook and at www.euniceplayers.blogspot.com.

Theatre--Performance

Blaine Peltier and Dennis Ward

The Saturday, March 19th performance of Chez Gisèle will be “Retro Disco Night”. A costume contest for the best retro disco outfit will take place that night awarding $100 for the best disco outfit. So shine your platform shoes and press your bell bottom slacks. Come to the March 19th performance of Chez Gisèle, at Cité Des Arts, 109 Vine St., downtown Lafayette, and disco dance away with $100. Contest is open only to all ticket holders. To purchase a ticket to the play call 337-291-1122.  To purchase tickets online (using paypal), visit the Cite website.

Theatre--Performance

A Different Woman, tales from a true Texas Childhood, an original one woman play written and performed by Veronica Russell, will be playing at Cité des Arts this Friday, March 11 & Saturday, March 12th at 7:30pm. Tickets are $12.50 for general admission, and $10.00 for Students and Seniors. Please call 291-1122 for reservations In the freewheeling, liberated 1920's, women finally get the vote, but apparently publishing anecdotes about childhood abuse, your brothers' sexual exploits with the family livestock, and sincere wishes that death and destruction might be visited upon all the members of your backwater Texas family would still get a girl institutionalized and kicked out of Great Britain. Edna Gertrude Beasley is the most incendiary feminist author never heard of. Her autobiography, My First Thirty Years, was banned upon its publication in 1925 for "gross obscenity," and most copies were destroyed in U.S. and British customs offices. Some eventually made it into circulation, though the governor of Texas later sent the Texas Rangers to seek out and seize any copies that had managed to infiltrate his great state. Upon discovering this powerfully independent iconoclast and her amazing story, Veronica Russell set about adapting portions of her all-but-vanished book into a one-woman theatrical production which has been performed to great success in New York and New Orleans. There is now have the opportunity to help re- introduce Gertrude and her story to a larger audience.  Throughout the summer of 2011 this show will tour 6 Canadian Fringe theatre festivals, including a stop in Edmonton, the largest such festival in the Americas.

Editor's Note

Happy Mardi Gras!!

Theatre--Performance (Musical Theatre)

South Pacific, the legendary Broadway and movie hit, will be presented by the Iberia Performing Arts League opening Friday, March 25 and running Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sunday afternoons thru April 10.  Evening performances are at 7:30 and Sunday Matinees are at 3:00 at the Essanee Theater, IPAL’s Art Deco home.  

 Helen Allain Richthofen (Bloody Mary)

 Anne Catherine LeBlanc (Liat) and Phillip Smith (Lt. Joe Cable)

Thomas Owens (Luther Billis),  James Wyche (Stewpot) and Matthew Dugan (Professor)

Kim Monroe (Nellie Forbush) 

Kim Monroe (Nellie Forbush) and Michael Parich, Sr. (Emile de Becque)

Ticket or other information can be obtained by calling the theater at 364-6114, e-mailing ipal@cox.net, or by visiting the IPAL website. Tickets can also be obtained in New Iberia at Paul’s Flower Shop, Delaune’s Pharmacy, or Accentrics. All seats are reserved and are $15 in advance and $20 at the door.

Theatre--Auditions

Two roles remain to be cast in the Acadia Players' production of Noises Off (Garry and Selsdon).  If interested, contact the director (Russell Faulconer) at (337) 783-1512 or (337) 581-9876 or Jody Powell at (337) 580-1787.

Theatre--Performance

The Opelousas Little Theatre at The Delta Grand presents William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Two households, both alike in dignity,

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;

Whose misadventured piteous overthrows

Do with their death bury their parents' strife.

The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,

And the continuance of their parents' rage,

Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,

Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage...

Directors Travis Fontenot and Walter Duncan McBride bring to life this timeless comedy/tragedy.  That's right!  Everyone knows the story: Boy meets girl. Girl belongs to a rival family. Rival family hates boy. They get married anyway. Rival families fight. People die. She pretends to kill herself. Boy buys poison and kills himself while she wakes up from fake-killing herself. Kills herself... Got all that? Of course there's more than that, it is a two hour play filled with comedy, swordfights, and a world of intrigue. Join the fine actors of Opelousas Little Theatre as they retell this story of the people of Verona, Italy in one of The Bard's best told stories.

ROMEO- Andrew Markel
BENVOLIO- Cody Richard
BALTHASAR- Nick Blumrich
ABRAM- Nick Blumrich
LORD MONTAGUE- Travis Fontenot
LADY MONTAGUE - Tara Sibille
JULIET- Austin Guidroz
TYBALT- Jersten Seraile
SAMPSON- Cody Sibley
GREGORY- Dustin Clark
LORD CAPULET- Duncan McBride
LADY CAPULET- Cindy Pitre
NURSE- Sarah Bourgeoius
MERCUTIO- Andy Doucet
PARIS- Dalton Guiterriz
PRINCE- Eugene Dupre'
FRIAR LAWRENCE- Casey Harmon
JOHN- Cody Sibley
APOTHECARY- Jada Doucet
CITIZEN'S OF VERONA- Alix Trombley and  Hillary Ziegler.

STAGE MANAGER- Erica Stanford
BACKSTAGE- Chelsey LeBleau
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR- Nick Blumrich

 The cast of Romeo and Juliet will preform at the Delta Grand Theatre in downtown Opelousas from April 6th through the 9th and April 13th through the 16th at 7 pm. Matinee performances on April 10th and April 17th at 2 pm


Tickets are available over the phone at Sebastion-Dupre Fine Jewelery at 337-948-4367 or can be purchaed at the door on the day of show.

Look OLT up at www.opelousaslittletheatre.com or become a fan on Facebook.

Theatre--Auditions

The Evangeline Players have cancelled the Sunday, March 6th auditions for The Glass Menagerie.  The auditions will take place as scheduled on Saturday, March 5th.

Theatre--Company Website

The Evangeline Players have launched their new website.  Check it out.

Theatre--Company Website

Acting Unlimited, Inc and Acting Unlimited Repertory Academy are announcing their new website.  Take a look and leave comments for the companies.