AUDITIONS and MORE!

Auditions- Cult of the Stage Monkey!
                                                                            
     Curious About Improv Theater?
Cult of the Stage Monkey- UL's Student Improv team is preparing to begin their next performing season soon, and are looking for new cast members! If you think you have what it takes, or are just starting out and want to learn more about Improvisational Theater, join us on the 20th at Theater 810!  Auditions start at 6pm and laugh out until 10pm!
For More Information, Contact Rick at stagemonkey02@gmail.com with the subject "Auditions."



 Opening this Weekend!



 "A Christmas Tuna" for Thanksgiving weekend! Get your tickets now for the Hilarious Comedy with Shane Guilbeau, and Kyle Bourque. What could be better entertainment for the entire family?  Eat the Turkey--laugh it all off at the show.......November 21-25 (last show is a Sunday Matinee at 2:00) AND YES!  We're having a show on Thanksgiving evening!!  Buy your tickets online at www.citedesarts.org.







 And don't miss...

     Iberia Performing Arts League will present Jean Shepherd’s A Christmas Story  adapted by Philip Grecian as its third offering in its 2012-13 season.  The show opens at IPAL’s ESSANEE Theater in New Iberia on Thursday, December 6, 2012, and plays for two weekends, closing on Sunday, December 16.  2012. Curtain is at 7:30 PM on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings and 3 PM on Sunday afternoons. Tickets are $10 and may be obtained at Delaune’s Pharmacy, Paul’s Flowers and Accentrics on Main Street, by calling the theater at 364-6114 and leaving a name and phone number.

 

       A celebration of seasonal joys, the family friendly play is about growing up in the 1940’s and Ralphie Parker’s quests for a genuine Red Ryder BB Gun.  All of the elements of the beloved motion picture are here, including the family’s temperamental exploding furnace, Scut Farkas, the school bully, and Ralphie’s father winning a lamp shapd like a woman’s leg in a net stocking.  Toys and Christmas presents today may be different, but a young boy’s pursuit of his goal never changes!

        Directed by Vincent P. Barras and  Carmen Nicholson , the production has a host of adults including Jamie Castille, Jenny Gonsoulin, Lanie Marcantel, Virginia Molbert, La Doris Polite, Julaine Schexnayder and Bernard Terradot. Lead Ralphie Parker is played by 11 year old Nicholas LeBlanc and other younger actors include Thomas Beaullieu, Madicyn Boudreaux, Kaliana Brower, Carmen Gonsoulin,  Ryan Michael Gonsoulin, Hilary Hebert, Christa Hulin , William Lambert, Kelbi LaShare, Andrew Lewis, Olivia Lopez, Camille Morvant, Hayden Patout, Aleece Patout, Parker Robichaux, Macie Ann Romero, Maddi Terradot, and Sydni Terradot.

For questions or additional information visit IPAL’s website www.iberiaperforming artsleague.com or email ipal@cox.net 

 Eunice Players' Theatre is proud to present the hilarious comedy by Alan Ball, Five Women Wearing The Same Dress, as the third and final show of their 43rd season. The play is directed by Gabe Ortego. 

The plot surrounds five bridesmaids who sequester themselves in a bedroom immediately following the wedding in which they served. Through the course of the afternoon, they drunkenly bare their souls and discover a common bond. Sparks fly between one of the women and a charming bad-boy usher. The show includes adult humor and smoking onstage.

  The cast includes Kaitlin LeBleu, of Basile, as Frances; Bonnie Pitre, of Eunice, as Meredith; Amy Martel Rider, of Eunice, as Trisha; Adrienne Renee Miller, of Eunice, as Georgeanne; Kelly Pitre, of Eunice, as Mindy; and Joshua Carriere, of Eunice, as Tripp.

Performance dates:
November 29 at 6:00 p.m. - Dinner Theatre
November 30 at 7:00 p.m.    December 2 at 2:00 p.m.
December 5 at 7:00 p.m.      December 6 at 7:00 p.m.
December 7 at 7:00 p.m.      December 8 at 7:00 p.m.

 

     Tickets are available by calling David at David Ltd. Hair Salon, 337-546-0163 or Debi at Turning Point, 337-457-2156. Visa and MasterCard may be used for advance purchase. Tickets are $10; dinner is additional $15, plus tip.

The theatre is located at 121 S. Second St. in Eunice.

The Riveters Present: Cheaters  By Michael Jacobs

Allen and Michelle have been living together for eighteen months. It is the first real relationship for both of them. Michelle thinks they should marry; Allen isn’t sure. His hesitancy drives her home to her parents for advice Michelle’s Father isn’t aware that it is Allen’s mother he has been seeing for the last six months and would now like to get rid of, nor does Michelle’s mother know that it is Allen’s father she has just spent the night with and would like to see more of The pieces fall uproariously into place when the parents decide to meet the young lovers over dinner to lend their maturity and experience for the benefit of their children’s relationship. It’s suddenly everyone for himself in this wild, rollicking look at love and romance

Bottom of Form

Bottom of Form

Directed by: Martin Smith
Stage Manager: Amber Izdepski
Prop Master: Jenna Fontenot
Poster Design: Bree Quereau

Cast:
Monica- Leah Pratt
Howard- Billy Walker
Grace- Kristen DuBois
Sam- Dustin Lafleur
Allen- Andre Trahan
Michelle- Elizabeth Satterly

January 10 - January 12 @ 7:30 pm   January 13 @ 3:00 pm
January 17 - January 19 @ 7:30 pm    January 20 @ 3:00 pm

General Admission- $15.00
with a Student ID- $10.00

For More Information visit www.citedesarts.org or call 337.291.1122

 

---A Review of Cabaret----

Some plays, like old friends, just never go away, and the space between play revivals can be remarkably short or lengthy. South Pacific took over sixty years to return to Broadway, but La Cage Aux Folles and Guys and Dolls have had multiple revivals and the former has won three Best Revival Tony awards. Just last month Edward Albee’s seminal play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? re-opened fifty years to the day it first graced Broadway, even though it had a smashing revival seven years ago with Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin. When a play is that good, it never seems to outstay its welcome.

Cabaret, one such play, opened in 1966 and has enjoyed a sensational life on stage and in film. I was privileged enough to see it three separate times and all three shows have been a revelation. A few years after the 1998 stunning, sleazy revival starring the late Natasha Richardson and Alan Cumming, a national tour came to Lafayette’s Heymann Performing Arts center. Once one gets past the heightened level of raunchiness—several elderly ladies sitting in front of me left after intermission—the audience got a full dose of the horrors of the Nazi regime in this haunting production. In 2007, I attended a West End production that proved beyond any doubt that lightning doesn’t always strike twice. In a misguided attempt to revitalize the play, the British production threw in copious amounts of gratuitous nudity, not trusting that the Nazi horrors were sensational enough to sustain a play. That revival got mixed reviews, and somehow managed to run for two years, when it mercifully closed.

So I approached the Cité des Arts revival, directed by Christy Leichty, with apprehension. The space is mercilessly small for so grand a musical and having seen two wildly different productions, I wanted to preserve the memory of the Lafayette tour. The 1998 show also called for the actors to play their own instruments on stage, a recent trend particular to Sondheim revivals. Would the Lafayette actors play instruments, would there be a band, and if so, where would it be on that tiny stage? Amazingly this Cité production utilized the space well and wisely blended choreography and singing with the human element so crucial to the play’s longevity.

Kander and Ebb’s musical has a rich dichotomy, which juxtaposes nicely with 1930s Berlin. Songs in the seedy nightclub are exciting, even liberating, but songs in the boarding house reflect the brutal realities of life. In the Kit Kat Klub, there exudes a “no worries” attitude symbolized by the song “Wilkommen,” even though all the characters in the boarding house are suffering the effects of the Great Depression. Like Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Mask of the Red Death,” the Kit Kat Klub tries to isolate itself from the dual assaults from the Depression and the National Socialists who are rising in power. Under the Weimar Republic, Germany’s government from 1918 until 1934, Germany also experienced a social upheaval that permitted sexual license in social clubs like the Kit Kat Klub. That licentiousness exhilarated younger Germans after decades of repression under the Kaiser, but it horrified the older generations who looked for anyone to save them from this social revolution, even if that someone came in the form of Hitler and his Nazis. Scenes continuously alternate between the free-wheeling Klub to the ever-depressing boarding house.

A train whistle introduces us to Clifford Bradshaw (Aren Chaisson), an American author who befriends Ernst Ludwig (T. Chase Nelson), a beguiling creature who not only refers Bradshaw to the boarding house run by Fraulein Schneider (Amanda Newbery), but also offers him various quick errands for tantalizing amounts of money (think money laundering for Nazis.) Bradshaw visits the Kit Kat Klub, where he runs into both the high-spirited Sally Bowles (Jessica Jouclard) and a former lover of his from Britain named Bobby (Ricky Rowan). Moving from lover to lover, Sally moves in with Cliff in the small, one bedroom apartment in Fraulein Schneider’s hotel, even becoming Cliff’s lover along the way. Once rich but now poor, Fraulein Schneider perseveres in Teutonic form as her once fashionable establishment transforms into something akin to a brothel. One of her tenants, Fraulein Kost (Caroline Helm), constantly refers to some visiting sailor as her “cousin,” or more ironically, “her brother,” even as he gropes her in a most un-brotherly manner. The only light in Fraulein Schneider’s day comes from the tender attentions paid by a local Jewish fruit vendor, Herr Schultz (Milton Resweber). Schneider’s impending marriage to Schultz alienates German society just as the Nazis ascend to power, and this dramatic tension exposes the ugly side of Nazi Germany as it hardened in its fixation against Jews. Eventually even Cliff cannot tolerate the twisted distortions surrounding him and he escapes back to America, a luxury not available to many Europeans at that time.

Joel Grey, now eighty and still performing, originated the role of the Emcee to androgynous perfection, earning the coveted Tony, Oscar, Golden Globe, and Grammy awards for that one role. In 1998 Alan Cumming chose a more sordid interpretation and captured a Tony award as well. I was curious to see what path Travis Guillory would carve with his portrayal and there was a steady, rather remarkable restraint to his Emcee. Garishly made up in harsh tones of white and rouge, he begins as the epitome of ennui and devolves into a haggard human, with the makeup disappearing to reveal a dazed man concussed first by the Depression, then by the Nazis. Somehow that middle path between Grey and Cumming works for Guillory, who uses his vocal talents to sell songs like “If You Could See Her Through My Eyes” and “Wilkommen.” Guillory also choreographed the dancing, which the cabaret girls along with Andre Guillory and the incredibly expressive Ricky Rowan executed nicely though not always uniformly, but that wasn’t the point. If it had been perfect, these girls and guys wouldn’t be in the squalid club.

Even though Cabaret revolves around the Emcee, Sally Bowles, and Clifford Bradshaw, nicely played by Aren Chaisson, the heart of the play comes from its touching subplot involving Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz. Amanda Newbery and Milton Resweber, both veterans, play the middle-aged lovers who find each other only to lose each other when faced with the harsh reality of Nazi Germany. Their initial romantic gestures revolve around gifts of fruit—the song “It Couldn’t Please Me More” about a pineapple is simultaneously funny and moving—and their romance blossoms into questions of matrimony with the poignant “Marriage.” When she frets over what will become of them as they age, or as they face the growing Nazi threat, he tells her warmly, “I will catch you. I promise.” A perfect couple on stage, their subsequent break-up is all the more heart-wrenching because they brought pathos to their characters. 

This sensational play suffers in some areas. While Caroline Helm has a wonderfully expressive face that is fascinating to watch on stage, the orchestra and the chorus overpowered her in the song “Money,” which is so fast that it must be heard clearly to appreciate its decadent humor. Transfering that “Money” song from the Emcee to Fraulein Kost defies logic as Kost is not a character in the Kit Kat Klub, and the puppet (Charlotte Leavitt) singing “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” doesn’t quite work either, though not due to any fault in Ms. Leavitt’s singing. The song originally called for a bevy of waiters doing wonderful harmonies, but alas, there weren’t enough males in the cast. The proximity of the audience makes the fight scene with Bradshaw particularly unconvincing; what looks effective from a balcony looks patently false in an eight row theatre. There aren’t enough white lights in Cité to light the entire stage, so some actors plunge into darkness, resembling Bela Lugosi shying away from the sunlight. The play also suffers slightly at the end of each act. Act I has a shivering song “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” which somehow felt muted and not nearly as menacing as it should have been. The cast is singing what seems like an innocuous song about the Rhineland, but its patriotic overtones will become slavish servitude to the Third Reich. Resweber and Newbery nicely register the concern on their faces, but Leichty could have exaggerated the hyper-nationalism more on the remaining cast members’ faces, symbolic of the ugliness that can surface when all restraints are removed from human nature. There is nothing Leichty could have done with that clumsy end to Act II, where characters return to repeat their lines just in case the audience forgot the last two hours. It’s an unfortunate case of the authors’ not trusting an audience to understand the message, which was wordlessly captured by the closing scene.

Many, not all, of those faults evaporate in the presence of the Jessica Jouclard. As Sally Bowles, she exudes an electrifying energy, and from her entrance to her final scene, it’s as if the lights become slightly brighter and the play pulses with greater intensity. The role made a star of Liza Minelli, and Jouclard, having played the role before, descends from dizzying enthusiasm to harrowing disillusion. When Jouclard sings the rousing title song, she mirrors that dichotomy mentioned earlier: her words are exuberant, ecstatic even, but her face is tormented and pallid. “This is a fiction,” Sally once says with outspread arms to Cliff, but in reality, Jouclard’s arms are for us, drawing us into her fiction and never letting us go.

                   

                                                                                                                                                  Vincent P. Barras

Announcements Galore!

3 more performances of "Cabaret" the Musical-Thurs, Nov. 15, Friday, Nov. 16 & Saturday, Nov. 17th ONLY

"Cabaret", one of the most captivating musicals of the last century,  is based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood. The music was written by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned the 1972 film starring Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey and numerous subsequent productions.

   Set in 1930 Berlin as the Nazis are rising to power, "Cabaret" focuses on nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Club and revolves around the English cabaret performer Sally Bowles, and her relationship with the young American writer, Cliff Bradshaw.

 

A sub-plot involves the doomed romance between German boarding house owner Fräulein Schneider and her elderly suitor Herr Schultz, a Jewish fruit vendor. Overseeing the action is the Master of Ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub who is a metaphor for the dangerous 'big brother' type political and social movement that is sweeping Germany

   The cast is all local and includes a live band with musical direction by Esther Tyree and Adam Trouard.  Jessica Jouclard, who wowed local theatre goers last spring as Thelma in IPAL's production of "Chicago", will be playing Sally Bowles.  The cast also includes:  Aren Chaisson, Caroline Helm, Amanda Newbery, and Milton Resweber.  Choreography is by Travis Guillory who will be portraying the Emcee.  Direction is by Christy Leichty, Program Director of Cité des Arts.   The evening performances are at 7:30pm, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  Tickets maybe purchased from our website using paypal at www.citedesarts.org, or make reservations by calling 337-291-1122.
Fair WARNING:  Don't wait to make your reservations

 "A Christmas Tuna" for Thanksgiving weekend! Get your tickets now for the Hilarious Comedy with Shane Guilbeau, and Kyle Bourque. What could be better entertainment for the entire family?  Eat the Turkey--laugh it all off at the show.......November 21-25 (last show is a Sunday Matinee at 2:00) AND YES!  We're having a show on Thanksgiving evening!!  Buy your tickets online at www.citedesarts.org.











    Firelight Performing Arts to present Scrooge the Musical

On Thursday, December 6 through Sunday, December 9, Firelight Performing Arts will present its holiday offering, Scrooge, the Musical. With a multi-talented cast of 25, ranging in age from 6 to an almost septuagenarian, the troupe’s performance is an ideal way to usher in the Christmas season. Directed by Laura Blum, Scrooge will be presented at Ul-L’s Burke Hall, with evening performances on December 6 through 8 at 7:00 p.m.; additionally there will be 2:00 p.m. matinees offered on December 8 and 9. Come and let Ebineezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit, and the three ghosts spin a story that is sure to delight children and make grown-ups miss their childhood. Tickets are $15.00. Group rates are available for school, church, and scout groups of 10 or more. Call 337-962-0306 for more information or to make reservations.

What's up at IPAL? A Lot!!!

1. Saturday November 17 at 10:30 in the Steamboat Warehouse at Bouligny Plaza IPAL will be present its original "Light Hearted Re-Enacatment" of the landing of the original Spanish Families in Nueva Iberia. It is a part of the  El Festival Espanol de Nueva Iberia.  Six IPAL veteran actors along with descendents of those original families will be on stage. Come on down to see our fun presentation.

2. Tickets are now available for IPAL's Christmas show, A Christmas Story. You'll laugh at Ralphie's efforts to get An OFFICIAL Red Ryder Carbine-Acton 200-shot Range Model Air Rifle! It is a beautiful, heartwarming family Christmas entertainment. The show will run Thursdays thru Sundays Dec. 6-16. Tickets are $10 and are available as usual at Delaune's Pharmacy, Paul's Flower Shoppe, and Accentrics on Main Street.

3. Construction is completed on our Proscenium Arch thanks to Jacob Borel. It is dedicated to Ms. Twinkle Ruff. We are preparing to get bids to paint the inside of the auditorium, to have necessary gutter work done outside, and to address a number of other issues for the long time preservation and enjoyment of the Essanee Theater. THANKS to you for all YOUR support in fundraisers and by purchasing tickets, which makes this possible.

 Theatre 810 is having a work call from 10am to 5pm on Sunday for a little TLC for Theatre 810 and Space 806.  If you enjoy working in these spaces, or enjoying attending performances there, please donate a bit of your time!  Lunch and drinks  provided!



 CLASSES and WORKSHOPS!

                If you know of anyone whose child is interested in musical theatre and is in grades 4 through 8, refer them to Kidz Kabaret. Kidz Kabaret is an independent group that showcases the talent of children in grades 4 through 8. The goal is to give each child an opportunity to perform while learning the basics of the craft through a specific curriculum. It focuses on the individual child and his or her unique talents and abilities. Over the course of one month, kids will meet weekly with an instructor for three one-hour lessons (one per week) at Cité des Arts (109 Vine St., Lafayette). The children will each choose one song from a musical or movie musical, rehearse it, and perform it in front of a live audience in a cabaret setting. This is not a voice lesson; it’s not an acting workshop; it’s not a dance class. It’s all three - musical theatre! It’s Kidz Kabaret! Cost is $30

Go to http://kidzkabaret.webs.com/ to sign up! Thanks!

Instructor:  Travis Guillory 



   This Saturday is an "Intro to Improv with Jason and Elaine" of the Stage Monkeys.  This all-day workshop begins at 10am and runs until 5pm, culminating in an evening improv performance for friends and family!  Registration is $45 and you call Theatre 810 at 484-0172 to get signed up, or for more information!



 

Annnnnnd.... We're back!

Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!


     First on the list for the weekend is Cabaret, performing at Cite des Arts!  Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 2:00pm!  There are tickets available for next weekend too, but don't miss out on seeing this show!

     "Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions.

      It is based on John Van Druten's 1951 play I Am a Camera, which in turn was adapted from the 1939 short novel Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood. Set in 1931 Berlin as the Nazis are rising to power, it focuses on nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub and revolves around the 19-year-old English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and her relationship with the young American writer Cliff Bradshaw.

      A sub-plot involves the doomed romance between German boarding house owner Fräulein Schneider and her elderly suitor Herr Schultz, a Jewish fruit vendor. Overseeing the action is the Master of Ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub which serves as a constant metaphor for the tenuous and threatening state of late Weimar Germany throughout the show."

 

     While you're downtown on Saturday, be certain to find your way to the first annual Steampunk Festival, also at Cite!



     The University of Louisiana -Lafayette, Department of Theatre and Dance proudly presents State of La Danse in the auditorium in Angelle Hall, UL campus.  The concert will be showing both November 10th at 7:30pm, and November 11 at 2:00pm. 

  
   Oh, and by the by, tickets have just gone on sale for St. Martinville Evangeline Players' production of:  A DICKENS’ CHRISTMAS CAROL: A TRAVELING TRAVESTY IN TWO TUMULTUOUS ACTS.  Tickets can be purchased at Shamrock Office Supply (394-5574) and The Duchamp Opera House (394-6604.)  


   Sorry that this update is coming on Friday, and we've already missed some of this weekend's offerings, we'll be back at full speed early in the week!

Editor's Note

Sorry about this, but circumstances force me to place this blog in indefinite hiatus.  If anyone is interested in beginning another similar blog, I will be happy to redirect the traffic to that blog.

Spoken Word--Performance