News release
Public Information Office
SLU 10880 Hammond,
LA 70402 phone:
985-549-2341 fax:
985-549-2061
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Contact: Christina Chapple
Date: 9/23/04
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FANFARE 2004’S FIRST WEEK PROMISES TO BE A “THRILLER” HAMMOND – Music by masters of jazz and ragtime; a “thrilling” evening of dance; a witty, groundbreaking comedy; and a Hitchcock film classic: those are just some of the treats in store for audiences when the curtain goes up on the 19th season of Fanfare, Southeastern Louisiana University's annual October arts festival. Fanfare, the opening act for the 2004-05 season of Southeastern’s Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts, gets underway at noon on Friday, Oct. 1 with the Brown Bag Concert at noon in downtown Hammond's Cate Square. The traditional festival kickoff will feature an ensemble of Southeastern jazz musicians conducted by Richard Schwartz, director of jazz studies. The highlight of the first week is “Thriller,” a unique dance experience presented by Odyssey Dance Theatre. Scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the university’s Columbia Theatre in downtown Hammond, “Thriller” is one of the eclectic dance company’s most popular works. Containing everyone’s spooky Halloween favorites from Frankenstein to Jason, “Thriller” provokes thrills, chills, laughs -- and total entertainment. Tickets for “Thriller” are $22, adults; $20, senior citizens, Southeastern faculty, staff and alumni; $18, group rate; and $10, non-SLU students. Southeastern students are admitted free with their university I.D. Saturday, Oct. 2 will feature two community events. At 10:30 a.m. at the Tangipahoa Parish Library Hammond branch, 314 E. Thomas Street, talented storyteller and children’s librarian “Miss Karen” Plauche will treat area children to “stories with a beat.” The free program, “Books to Songs and Songs to Books,” is open to all ages. Also on Saturday, the annual Hungarian Harvest Celebration, centered at the Hungarian Settlement American Legion Hall on Hwy. 43 near Springfield, will join the Fanfare schedule. The festivities begin at 3 p.m. with food booths featuring Hungarian-style cuisine and music by Eletfa. From 5:30-7:30 p.m., patrons can enjoy the music of the Baton Rouge International Folk Dancers and colorful pageantry of the Hungarian Harvest Dance. The Boudin Cajun Band, featuring12-year-old accordion player Dane Monic, takes the stage from 8-10 p.m. Harvest Dance admission is $10 in advance and $15 at the door for ages 13 and older and $5 for ages seven-12. Children under seven are admitted free. For additional information, contact Jim King at 222-567-9670. New Orleans’ popular New Leviathan Oriental Fox-Trot Orchestra will open Fanfare’s “Music for a Sunday Afternoon” series with a 3 p.m. Oct. 3 concert at the Lake Pontchartrain Maritime Museum, 133 Mabel Dr. in Madisonville. Known for lovingly re-creating the cakewalks, rags, rumbas, two-steps, and jazzy sounds of American pop music from the Roaring '20s, the popular group plans to perform on the museum’s dock on the banks of the Tchefuncte River. A reception and museum tour will follow the performance. The Columbia will return to its roots as "the most elaborate movie palace between New Orleans and Baton Rouge" with a free 7 p.m. showing on Monday, Oct. 4 of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.” Starring James Stewart and Kim Novak, the 1958 thriller, which will be introduced by Southeastern English professor and film expert William Parrill, has been described as Hitchcock's most stunning achievement. Southeastern alumnus Olympia Vernon, an acclaimed young novelist who joined the English faculty as an artist-in-residence this fall, will read from her works, sign books and answer audience questions as a Fanfare guest at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5 in Sims Memorial Library. Since the debut of her first novel, “Eden,” last May, Vernon has been compared to literary legends such as Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison. She has won a number of honors, including the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award. Her second novel, “Logic,” was published in May. Another Southeastern alumnus will be in the spotlight at the library on Tuesday. A reception is scheduled from 5-6:30 p.m. to open an exhibit by sculptor and 2002 graduate Jessica Weaver. Weaver’s sculpture installation will feature cut out letters draping from the library’s ceiling to form streams of text. The exhibit will be on display through Nov. 1 Southeastern Theatre joins the Fanfare 2004 schedule on Oct. 5 with the opening of “[sic],” an innovative comedy with an unusual name. “[sic]” portrays three young non-professionals living in the city who struggle to understand art, love, money, and other plagues of modern living. Frank has dreams of becoming an auctioneer. Theo spends his days composing a score for an amusement park ride, and fretting over the "mysterious disappearance" of his wife. Babette is willing to beg, borrow, and steal to avoid getting a job and being distracted from writing her magnum opus -- a history of significant outbursts. Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. through Oct. 8 at Vonnie Borden Theatre. Tickets, available in the theater’s box office in D Vickers Hall, are $10 for adults and $6 for senior citizens, Southeastern faculty, staff, alumni and non-Southeastern students. Southeastern students are admitted free with their university I.D. Wednesday, Oct. 6 will see the first of eight free "Then and Now" lectures hosted by the department of history and political science. Samuel C. Hyde Jr., Ford Chair in Regional Studies and director of the university’s Center for Regional Studies, will present “Seventy-Four Days a Nation: Louisiana’s Florida Parishes” at 1 p.m. in the Pottle Music Building Auditorium. The lecture is inspired by Hyde’s latest book, “A Fierce and Fractious Frontier,” which employs provocative groundbreaking research to explain the past and project the future of Louisiana’s unique and often-neglected Florida Parishes. A book signing will follow the lecture. Fanfare’s annual Foreign Film Festival’s first offering, the award-winning Spanish film “Talk to Her,” will be shown at 3 p.m. on Wednesday in the Music Recital Hall. Directed by Pedro Almodovar, the film took home a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and an Academy Award for Original Screenplay. A second Fanfare exhibit opens on Thursday, Oct. 7, with a reception from 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the Center for Contemporary Art in East Stadium. Gallery hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m., weekdays (with extended hours until 8 p.m. on Wednesdays), and noon-4p.m. on Saturdays. The Southern States Sculpture Exhibition will feature artists from six southern states. It was juried by Ken Little, a nationally known sculptor and University of Texas-San Antonio faculty member. Little’s work will be shown along with artists Cliff Tresner, Louisiana; Niles Wallace, Greely Myatt, and Dan Bethune, Tennessee; Robbie Barber, Texas; Billie Grace Lynn and R.F. Buckley, Florida; Tad Gloeckler, Georgia; and Richard Saxton, Alabama. In conjunction with the exhibit, the visual arts department will host a series of free lectures and workshops Oct. 26-28. For additional information, contact gallery director Dale Newkirk at 985-549-5080. Also on Thursday, the Columbia will present “Late Night Catechism,” a show that will delight Catholics and non-Catholics alike. The one-person performance is “part catechism class, part stand-up comedy,” and is driven by the authoritarian whims of habit-clad Sister, who doles out glow-in-the-dark rosaries one moment, and confiscates lipsticks and candy the next. Her mock question and answer sessions take audience straight back to catechism class. General admission tickets for the 7:30 p.m. performance are $35. Fanfare will wrap up its first week by joining in the university’s celebration of Homecoming. On Saturday, Oct. 9 Fanfare will sponsor the Olympia Brass Band’s participation in the university’s homecoming parade. New Orleans’ famous band will adds its tuneful second line strut to the parade through downtown Hammond at 2 p.m. and its soulful, sassy sound to pre-game festivities in Strawberry Stadium at 5:30 p.m. The Lions will take on Northern Colorado at 6 p.m. For a Fanfare brochure and ticket order form or for additional information about Fanfare events, contact the Columbia Theatre, 985?543?4366 or fanfare_ctpa@selu.edu. Iinformation can also be found online at www.selu.edu/fanfare. Fanfare tickets are available at the Columbia box office, 220 East Thomas St., Hammond, 985-543-4371. Most 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. |
FANFARE
GUEST AUTHOR – Southeastern Louisiana University alumnus and acclaimed
novelist Olympia Vernon will read from her works, sign books and answer
audience questions as a special guest of Fanfare, Southeastern’s annual
arts festival, at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5 in Sims Memorial Library.
