News release
Public Information Office   SLU 10880   Hammond, LA 70402   phone: 985-549-2341   fax: 985-549-2061
publicinfo@selu.edu Summer  2005 news releases Public Information home News archive

Contact: Christina Chapple
Date: 9/26/05
 
SIDEBAR: Fanfare survives Katrina intact

Additional Fanfare 2005 pictures are available at www.columbiatheatre.org/fanfarephotos05.html

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The Question of God: A DebateSLU_Fan05_QuestionofGod.jpg
FANFARE DEBATES “A QUESTION OF GOD” – Jerry  Snare, as Sinclair Lewis, and Nikki Barranger, as Freud, will present “The Question of God: A Debate,” Oct. 2 at 3 p.m. at Hammond’s Grace Memorial Episcopal Church, 100 W. Church St., as part of Southeastern Louisiana University Fanfare’s “Sunday With the Arts” series. The series is free.

Charles DranguetRoman HeleniakSLU_Fan05_CharlesDranguet.jpg  and SLU_Fan05_RomanHeleniak.jpg
MANCHAC “GHOSTS” – Charles Dranguet, Southeastern Louisiana University’s senior professor of history, and Roman Heleniak, former department head and current scholar-in-residence, will discuss their research for their forthcoming book on the commerce and culture of the Manchac swamp as part of Fanfare’s Then and Now lecture series. The free lecture, “Ghost Towns of the Manchac Swamp Revisited,” is scheduled for Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. at the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum, 133 Mabel Drive, Madisonville. 

Harlem Gospel ChoirSLU_Fan05_HarlemGospelChoir.jpg
GOSPEL FROM HARLEM – The internationally acclaimed Harlem Gospel Choir will be the guest of Fanfare, Southeastern Louisiana University’s annual arts festival, on Oct. 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts. The choir has performed for Nelson Mandela and Pope John Paul II, and with U2, Lyle Lovett, the Chieftans and Diana Ross. Tickets are $18, adults; $15, senior citizens, Southeastern faculty, staff and alumni; $12, group rate; and $8, non-SLU students. Admission is free for Southeastern students.

Randy SandersSLU_Fan05_RandySanders.jpg
Brains vs. Brawn – Southeastern Louisiana University history professor Randy Sanders will give the second Southeastern Louisiana University  Fanfare “Then and Now” lecture, “Brains vs. Brawn: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, and Scientific Baseball in Early 20th Century America,” Oct. 5 at 1 p.m. at the Pottle Music Building Auditorium.  The lecture is free.

The Capitol StepsSLU_Fan05_CapitolSteps.jpg
CAPITOL STEPS ENCORE – The hilarious political satire troupe, the Capitol Steps, will make its sixth appearance at Southeastern Louisiana University’s Fanfare arts festival on Oct. 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts. Tickets are available at the Columbia box office, 220 E. Thomas St., Hammond, 985-543-4371.


FANFARE 2005 SWINGS INTO ACTION WITH TASTY JAZZ AND ANNIVERSARY CAKE
       HAMMOND – Fanfare, Southeastern Louisiana University’s annual arts festival, will celebrate the opening of its 20th season with tasty servings of cake and jazz.
       The festival’s traditional kickoff, the Brown Bag concert, will swing the landmark season into action on Sept. 29 at noon at the Performance Circle, the outdoor stage adjacent to the Pottle Music Building Auditorium in Friendship Circle. 
       Fanfare Director Donna Gay Anderson said Brown Bag patrons will be treated to slices of a special anniversary cake as well as the sounds of the Southeastern One O’Clock and Two O’Clock Big Bands, directed by Southeastern music professor Richard Schwartz.
       Highlights of Fanfare’s first week also include a concert by the internationally acclaimed Harlem Gospel Choir and the return of the ever-popular political satire comedy troupe, the Capitol Steps.
       The Harlem Gospel Choir will bring its foot-stomping, hand clapping blues, jazz and gospel spirituals to the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts on Oct. 4 at 7:30 p.m. 
       “This is a musical experience not to be missed,” said Anderson.
       From the heart of Harlem in New York City, the choir travels the world as the ambassadors for African American culture, and is loved for its joyous music. The choir has performed for Nelson Mandela and Pope John Paul II, and with U2, Lyle Lovett, the Chieftans and Diana Ross. 
       Tickets are $18, adults; $15, senior citizens, Southeastern faculty, staff, alumni; $12, group rate; and $8, non-SLU students. Admission is free for Southeastern students with their university I.D.
       The Capitol Steps will be back on the Columbia Theatre stage on Oct. 6 at 7:30 p.m. with a laugh – and an insult – for everyone. After wowing Fanfare audiences for the first time in 1996, the group is returning to the October festival for the sixth time this year. The Capitol Steps have earned a side-splitting reputation for being the only group in Washington that attempts to be funnier than Congress. Digging into the headlines and hot topics of the day, the troupe creates new lyrics for familiar tunes, skewering everyone, left, right or center.
       Tickets are $22, adults; $20, senior citizens, Southeastern faculty, staff, alumni; $18, group rate; and $10, all students. 
       Also during Fanfare’s first week, the first of three free “Sunday with Arts” performances is scheduled for Oct. 2 at 3 p.m. at Grace Memorial Episcopal Church in Hammond. “The Question of God: A Debate” is a fictional squaring-off of two 20th century intellectual luminaries, Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis. Although the pair never met in person, their diametrically opposed ideas will meet when Jerry Snare, as Lewis, and Nikki Barranger, as Freud, discuss God, love, sex, and the Meaning of Life.
       The entertaining and eclectic Fanfare series “Then and Now,” which highlights the wit and wisdom of members of the Department of History and Political Sciences, also gets underway during Fanfare’s first week. The 2005 edition of the popular lecture series is dedicated to Professor Emeritus of History C. Howard Nichols, a member of the department for four decades and supporter and frequent participant in Fanfare since its inception.
       The first of two Then and Now lectures in Week One is “Ghost Towns of the Manchac Swamp Revisited,” which will be presented by Charles Dranguet, Southeastern’s senior professor of history, and Roman Heleniak, former department head and current scholar-in-residence. The lecture is scheduled for Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. at the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum, 133 Mabel Drive in Madisonville. The pair will discuss their research for their forthcoming book on the commerce and culture of the swamp. 
       The series continues on Oct. 5 at 1 p.m. in the Pottle Music Building Auditorium, when history professor Randy Sanders presents “Brains vs. Brawn: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, and Scientific Baseball in Early 20th Century America.” Sanders will discuss the early days of America’s national pastime, drawing upon research for his forthcoming book, “The Georgia Peach and the Sultan of Swat: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and the Character of the American People.”
       Opening receptions are also scheduled for two Fanfare art exhibits. On Oct. 4 from 5- 6:30 p.m. in Sims Memorial Library, patrons can view the work and visit with three Southeastern alumni, graphic designers Dean Cavalier of New Orleans and Keith Kelly, originally of Slidell, now working in Washington, D.C., and sculptor Martin Needom, also of Slidell.
       A reception for the artists participating in “Mark the Line: National Drawing Invitational” is scheduled for Oct. 6 from 5-6:30 p.m. at the Contemporary Art Gallery in East Stadium. Nationally recognized artists from across the country will display their work in a show that illustrates themes, subjects and drawing methods with a contemporary edge. Contemporary Art Gallery curator Dale Newkirk and Southeastern Visual Arts Department faculty member Michelle Dussault are coordinating the invitational exhibition. In conjunction with the exhibit, visiting artist George Ferrandi will lecture on her artwork on Oct 6 at 3 p.m., also in the gallery.
       The reception will also introduce “Humpty Dumpty,” a video by Dana Sperry that will be on display in the East Stadium video gallery during Fanfare. The film uses footage of civil war re-enactments to explore “history” as a human creation -- a creation by very specific cultures at very particular moments. 
       The annual Fanfare Foreign Film Festival also makes its debut in Week One with the German film “Goodbye Lenin,” scheduled for Oct. 5 at 3:30 p.m. in the Music Recital Hall. The subtitled film is free.
       Fanfare tickets are available at the Columbia box office, 220 East Thomas St., Hammond, 985-543-4371. Online ticket ordering will be available soon at www.columbiatheatre.org. Box office hours are noon to 5 p.m., weekdays. The box office is open until performance time for events at the Columbia Theatre.