Week Three cutlines

BALLET, “ELVIS,” TOGAMAN AND BANDS HEADLINE FANFARE’S WEEK THREE
      HAMMOND -- A ballet version of a stage classic; “Elvis” rocking with the King’s favorite backup singers; a fashion show straight from Ancient Rome; the premiere of an independent film, and a symphonic tribute to Southeastern bands share top billing during the third week of Fanfare, Southeastern Louisiana University’s annual festival of the arts, humanities and sciences.
      Week Three gets underway with Hammond Square Mall’s annual contribution to Fanfare, the Family Arts Festival. This year’s afternoon of family fun, scheduled for 2 to 5 p.m., Sunday, October 13, coincides with the mall’s 25th anniversary. Families can get an inside look at earth science by exploring the Louisiana Children’s Museum’s 22-foot inflatable Earth Balloon from 2-3 p.m. and 3:30-4:30 p.m. They also can enjoy a special birthday cake and a variety of community performances, music, art exhibits, and entertainment. The event is free to the public.
      Also on Sunday, Fanfare’s Music for a Sunday Afternoon concert series continues with a performance by the acclaimed Centenary Choir at Hammond’s First United Methodist Church, 2220 Rue Denise. The 3 p.m. concert is also free. The unique collegiate choral group will bring their world-wide tradition of musical excellence to a repertory of sacred and secular music.
      At 5 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 14, members of the North Carolina Dance Theater, which has been described as “unstinting in range and thunder,” will host a free master class for intermediate and higher level dancers in the Kinesiology and Health Studies Building dance studio. 
      The acclaimed company will take the stage of the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts on Tuesday, Oct. 15, to present a dramatic and intense adaptation of the Tennessee Williams classic, “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Hot jazz, contemporary and classical music, and the brash and decadent atmosphere of 1950s New Orleans heighten the unforgettable experience of this dynamic ballet, scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.
      Tickets for the “Streetcar” are $23, orchestra 1, $20 Orchestra 2 and Balcony 1, and $18 Balcony 2.
      Also on Monday, Oct. 14, the Jane Austen Film Festival will continue with the 7 p.m. showing of “Emma” at the East Gate Café and Cinema on North Oak Street, across from the Southeastern campus. The free film is rated PG.
      “Togaman,” Southeastern English professor Wade Heaton, will return to the Fanfare stage on Wednesday, October 16. Heaton’s popular presentation, in which he dons an authentic Roman toga to illustrate the garb’s historical and social significance, is “new and improved” for Fanfare 2002, the professor says.
      In "Clothing of the Ancient Romans: at Peace, at War, at Home," Heaton will narrate a whole new lecture that gives a close-up view of not just the toga, but also the dress of Roman women and soldiers. 
      Heaton’s free lecture, which is part of the Department of History and Political Science’s “Then and Now” Fanfare lecture series, is scheduled for 1 p.m. in Pottle Music Building Auditorium.
      Also on Wednesday, “Wild Kingdom,” a new independent film written by Alan Marsh and produced and directed by Martie Fellom, will debut at 7:30 p.m. in Vonnie Borden Theatre. Marsh, a member of the English faculty, and Fellom, director of the university’s dance program, have won two film festival awards for their first film, “Wish,” which debuted during Fanfare 2001. “Wild Kingdom” depicts a junior high student who employs the camouflage techniques of wild animals to avoid being called on in class. Photography for the project was directed by Southeastern photographer Claude Levet, with editing by Public Information Office student assistant Andrew Richmond.
      “Elvis” will be in the building -- the Columbia Theatre -- on Thursday, Oct. 17. Brandon Bennett of Ponchatoula, who won the 2002 “Images of Elvis” World Championship in Memphis, Tenn., will join the legendary Jordanaires on stage at 7:30 p.m.
      The Jordanaires have been together for half a century, but longevity  hasn’t dimmed the talents of this dynamic quartet -- Gordon Stoker, Curtis Young, Louis Nunley, and Ray Walker. The group that performed with Elvis Presley on his first RCA recording sessions and on virtually every recording he made through 1970 is still going strong. The Jordanaires’ most recent awards and recognitions have included being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and being nominated for a Grammy for Southern Gospel Album of the Year.
      General admission tickets for the Jordanaires are $15.
      The Sweet Home Folklife Days will join the Fanfare schedule from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Friday, October 18, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, October 19. The annual celebration of Kentwood’s African American community, held at Sweet Home Baptist Church Museum on Hwy. 51N, includes hands on demonstrations of story telling, home remedies, hair styling, childhood games and music, buggy rides along a scenic nature trail and a traditional baptism at the “baptizing hole”–Cool’s Creek. Traditional African American foods, such as fruit pies, sweet potato pones, outdoor open kettle fried chicken, collard greens, red beans and rice and crackling bread, will be offered for sale. Admission is $ 2 for adults, and $1 for children. For additional information, call 985-229-5016.
      At 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 19 at the Hammond branch of the Tangipahoa Parish Library, 314 E. Thomas, Karen Plauche, children’s services coordinator, will make books come alive for area children through a free program of stories, songs and films.
      Week three will wrap up with a special treat – a free performance at the Columbia of Southeastern’s acclaimed Wind Symphony. Timothy Muffitt, music director and conductor of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, is featured as guest artist in 7:30 p.m. concert.
      The concert, titled “Tributes,” will begin with a rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” featuring the 120-voices of the Northshore Chorale, University Chorus, Women’s Chorale and the Southeastern Concert Choir. The massed choir will also take the stage with the Wind Symphony for John Williams’ “Call of the Champions,” a piece composed for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.
      Muffitt, who is in his fourth season with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra and eighth as artistic director of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra’s Casual Classics series, will guest conduct two works, “First Suite in E-flat” by Gustav Holst, and “Commando March” by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Samuel Barber.
      Rounding out the program will be Percy Aldridge Grainger’s masterwork, “Lincolnshire Posy,” composed in 1937 and considered one of the exceptional works for wind band. 
      For a Fanfare brochure and ticket order form or for additional information about Fanfare events, contact the Public Information Office, 985-549-2341, publicinfo@selu.edu, or Fanfare, 985-543-4366, fanfare_ctpa@selu.edu. Fanfare information is also available online at www.selu.edu/fanfare. 
      Fanfare tickets are available at the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts box office, 220 East Thomas St., Hammond, 985-543-4371. Tickets can also be purchased online at www.ticketweb.com. Box office hours are noon to 5 p.m., weekdays. The box office is open until performance time for events at the Columbia Theatre.