Theatre--Workshop/Camp

StoryPalooza, a new, collaborative summer camp between three Acadiana nonprofits, is now accepting registrations for its four one-week camps starting June 4. 

Children and teens ages seven to 17 will participate in stops during the week at AOC Community Media, Acadiana Symphony Orchestra and Cité des Arts.

Using the organizations’ areas of expertise, The Acadiana Symphony Orchestra will conduct both music and art classes guiding the students to prepare music, sound accompaniment and visuals for use in the live performances of the stories. Cité Des Arts will focus on acting and theatre, while AOC will give the campers a hands-on learning experience with animation. Each camper will spend time at each nonprofit experiencing all spectrums of storytelling and developing their own story ideas into shows and productions at the end of each week. 

“This unique summer camp will be all about developing productions from story ideas generated from our students and crafted with guidance from our professional teaching artists,” said Ed Bowie, executive director of AOC.

Students will tell their own stories while learning the skills necessary to write the script and the accompanying musical scores, create visual sets, act on stage and on film, and learn to capture it all visually using equipment of the digital media age. 

Each week-long camp’s tuition is $280 per student with a 10 percent discount for multiple weeks or multiple students in a family. There is a $25 registration fee. The deadline for the full payment of $280 is May 1. The camp will run from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day. Students are expected to bring their own bag lunch, and snacks will be provided during breaks.

The camp will run from June 4-8 and June 18-22. Space is limited in each week’s camp. To register your child, call the ASO Conservatory of Music at (337) 232-4277 ext. 2 or visit
http://www.acadianasymphony.org/conservatory/storypalooza. 

For more information about StoryPalooza, contact AOC at info@aocinc.org, ASO at (337) 232-4277, Cité des Arts at (337) 291-1122 or ASO Conservatory of Music at (337) 232-4277 ext. 2. 

Theatre--Auditions

Joshua Coen is holding open auditions for two short plays for the Salute Your Shorts ten-minute play festival scheduled for the second weekend in August at AOC on Lee Street in Lafayette. The auditions will be held from from 8:00 to 9:00 pm on Saturday, June 27th at AOC.

All auditioners should be prepared with two contrasting monologues if possible. If the auditioner cannot prepare the monologues, they will be given a monologue/cold read to study for five minutes and then perform. Auditioners may also be asked to read with other actors so be prepared for that as well.

Each short requires three actors- two men and one woman, from 16 to 30, and the same 3 actors will be in both plays.

The two shorts are entitled The Philadelphia and Words Words Words, both written by David Ives. Coen is also working on an original short play that may or may not be in the actual festival, but would include the three people cast in the Ives shows.

Theatre--Performance

This June, some of the young students from Lafayette's Firelight Performing Arts Academy are traveling to New York to perform A Thousand Paper Cranes, a one-act play honoring not only Sadako, but all victims of leukemia – both those who have survived and those who have fallen. In addition to the younger performers, 5 of the older students will perform a re-enactment of a
1950's radio show, Candy Matson, P.I.: The Cable Car Murder.

Prior to the troupe's departure to New York, they will perform A Thousand Paper Cranes and Candy Matson locally-- at Cité Des Arts on June 8th and at Acadiana Open Channel on the 9th. Both presentations will begin at 7:00 p.m. Admission to either show is one paper crane.

For more information, please call (337) 232-4434

Theatre--Performance

On the morning of August 6, 1945, two year old Sadako Sasaki was playing in her home in Hiroshima, Japan. Her happy morning was instantly devastated by a noise louder than a hundred thunders and a blaze of light brighter than a thousand suns. While she “survived” the atomic bomb’s blast, eight years later, as a result of her exposure to nuclear radiation, the ten-year old girl was diagnosed with leukemia.

According to a Japanese superstition, if someone folds 1000 origami paper cranes, he or she will be granted one wish. Young Sadako had only one “simple” desire - to survive her terrible infirmity, to live. Alas, her wish was not granted because, shortly after the rapidly weakening youngster folded 644 cranes, leukemia took yet another victim. In her memory, her schoolmates folded the remaining 365 cranes.

At Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park, located at Ground Zero, there is a monument in honor of Sadako Sasaki, built as a result of money collected by school children from all of Japan. At the top of the monument stands a statue of Sadako, holding a crane in her hands. In homage, not of her death, but of her courageous young life, every day thousands of origami paper cranes arrive in Hiroshima and are placed at the statue’s base, a tribute from people all over the world

This June, some of the young students from Lafayette’s Firelight Performing Arts Academy are traveling to New York to perform A Thousand Paper Cranes, a one-act play honoring not only Sadako, but all victims of leukemia – both those who have survived and those who have fallen. Performing at 1:00 p.m on June 12th at the Off-Broadway Shelter Studios Theatre 54 on West 54th Street, the cast includes 25 young troupers representing 5 Acadiana parishes. In addition to their considerable talents, the young actors and actresses will bring a thousand paper cranes with them. After their performance, they and their artistic director, Laura Blum, will place the origami birds at another ground zero, where the Twin Towers once stood, praying, as Sadako Sasaki once did, for peace and hope.

In addition to the younger performers, 5 of the older students will perform a re-enactment of a 1950’s radio show, Candy Matson, P.I.: The Cable Car Murder. Candy Matson was the private eye star of Candy Matson, YUKON 2-8208. The troupe will recreate the sights and sounds of a mid-20th Century radio broadcast center, complete with sound effects, singing talent, and commercials.

The third element of the show will be singing selections performed by the academy’s Broadway Singers. Prior to the troupe’s departure to New York, they will perform A Thousand Paper Cranes and Candy Matson locally-- at Cité des Arts on June 8th and at Acadiana Open Channel on the 9th. Both presentations will begin at 7:00 p.m. Admission to either show is one paper crane.

For information about the play, the group’s New York adventure, or for directions on how to fold cranes, contact 857-6991.

Theatre--Performance

Gnostic Coincidence, a new theater piece by local author Steven
Cooper, finishes its initial run this week. The show features Andrew Hunter II, Blaine Peltier, Jessica Quinn, Yvonne Olivier, Jessica Leblanc,April Peltier, and musical contributions from 7 local musicians. The piece blends the realism of two strangers meeting in a park with the abstract representation of dreams. Can the two main characters see through the material illusions which keep them chained to unfulfilled lives or will they listen to their muses and accept the deeper vision which will let them see and pursue a more meaningful existence? The show runs Friday, March 20th and Thursday, March 26th at Acadiana Open Channel on the corner of Lee and Main St. It continues on Friday, March 27th at Cite Des Arts on Vine St. Tickets and time for all shows will be $10 and 7:30. For more information, call 337 849 8627.

Theatre--Auditions

There will be auditions for dancers/ actresses on Wednesday, January 7th at Acadiana Open Channel (from 5 pm to 8 pm) and on Monday, January 12th (from 5 pm to 8 pm) at Cite Des Arts for a full length original play called Gnostic Coincidence. Those auditioning should be ready to move and read sides. Prepared material is not required. The play will be staged in March at A.O.C, at Cite Des Arts in August, and will be shot as a film next fall. More information about scheduling will be available at the audition. For more information, call Steven Cooper at 849-8627.