Theatre and Dance--Performances

The Performing Arts Society of Acadiana (PASA) has announced an incredible lineup of dance, theater and opera as entertainment for its Daytime Performances for Students series. Experiencing live performances for students and teachers is an important educational opportunity that takes learning out of books and classrooms, and brings it to life onstage. The Daytime Series events, for middle and high school students from throughout south Louisiana, will take place during the 2009-2010 school year.

The series kicks off on Monday, September 21, with a sizzling blend of African, modern ballet and hip-hop stylings by Evidence Dance Company. Next up will be Montana Rep's dramatic staging of To Kill A Mockingbird on Monday, October 19. The series concludes with a special daytime performance of the opera Porgy and Bess on Wednesday, March 8, 2010. All performances will be at 10: 30 a.m at the Heymann Performing Arts Center in Lafayette. Tickets for these performances are $5 per person and reservations must be made through the PASA office by calling (337) 237-2787.

In advance of each performance, PASA provides each attending student an informative study guide, BackStage Pass, which is printed courtesy of The Daily Advertiser. This guide prepares students and teachers with information and activities that will enhance the value of attending the performance and underscores the educational fundamentals that are core to curricula.

The performances for the 2009-2010 school year will provide students with a wide variety of performing arts experiences, all of them of the highest quality and professionalism.

The first event in the series, a dance performance by Evidence Dance Company on September 21, has been generating buzz with audiences worldwide with its storyteller-approach to modern dance. Choreographer, principal dancer and artistic director Ronald K. Brown demonstrates his anthropological pursuits when he joins his dance company Evidence, in a blend of African, modern ballet and hip-hop stylings to tell stories. This performance will include his fascinating piece Two Year-Old Gentleman that melds Louisiana’s Mardi Gras Indians into a comment on rites of passage from boys to men.

Next up on the series (on October 19) is the Montana Reparatory Theater Company’s dramatic return to the Heymann Center stage with its staging of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. The novel is a must-read for every student and the performance is a must-see for teachers and students. A classic tale of honesty, integrity and courage is as timeless today as it was when it emerged 50 years ago. Set in a fictional southern town, its colorful characters include the memorable Atticus Finch and the unforgettable recluse Boo Radley.

To Kill A Mockingbird is also part of the Big Read Acadiana program. The Big Read is an initiative by the National Endowment for the Arts to engage communities across the nation in celebrating great literary works through a diverse array of activities. Several elementary, middle and high schools across Acadiana are participating as Big Read project schools. Find out how your school can be a part of this literary movement by calling the PASA office for more information.

Finally on March 8, 2010, Porgy and Bess, the distinctively American opera, closes out the daytime student series with a sweeping tale of love, loss and triumph over despair. This tale features the music of great American composers George and Ira Gershwin. Every student should attend a live professional opera and Porgy and Bess features a cast of 30 performers and a live orchestra. Performed in English with projected supertitles, this opera features a memorable score that includes the well-known songs “Summertime”,” I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So”.

These performances are presented by PASA with the sponsorship support of lead sponsor Capital One and the Wilkinson Family Foundation