Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
    Date: 2/25/99
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple   98

WANTED: FLOWERS TO MAKE SLU'S "SECRET GARDEN" GROW
          HAMMOND   "Mary, Mary, quite contrary: how does your garden grow?"
     The nursery rhyme has probably been running through the minds of Steve Schepker,
Scharmal Schrock and Larry Gray as they pondered the contrary question of how to make the
Pottle Music Building Auditorium stage "grow."
     Schepker is the set designer, Schrock the production coordinator and Gray the director of
the Southeastern Opera-Music Theatre Program's March 17-20 production of "The Secret
Garden." The  Tony Award-winning musical, a hit on Broadway, is an adaptation of Frances
Hodgson Burnett's beloved children's classic.
     In "The Secret Garden," orphaned Mary discovers an abandoned walled garden at her
uncle's lonely country home. Her determination to restore the garden's blooming glory gives
meaning and hope to her life and that of her neglected and sickly young cousin, Collin.
     To show the fruits of  Mary and Collin's labor, "We've got to fill the stage   a good 180
square feet of it   with blossoms," said Schrock.  "And Miracle Grow and green thumbs aren't
going to do us any good!"
     With the cost of new artificial blooms and greenery beyond her budget, Schrock has
turned to the Opera-Music Theatre Program's legion of fans to help make the secret garden grow.
     "It dawned on us that many people have artificial flowers or arrangements that have
become a little shabby or no longer fit their decor -- or maybe they're just tired of them," Schrock
said. "We'll take anything!"
     "Give us your tired, your poor, your tattered masses of blossoms and we'll use them to
make our secret garden burst into bloom!"
     Flowers for the secret garden can be brought to the Southeastern music department office 
                             (MORE)
WANTED: FLOWERS FOR "THE SECRET GARDEN"    Add One

in the Ralph R. Pottle Music Building from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., weekdays, through March 10,
Schrock said.                            
     Curtain time for "The Secret Garden" is 7:30 p.m. General admission tickets are  $5 and
are available at Red White & Brew and Bayou Booksellers in downtown Hammond and at the
door. Southeastern students tickets are free with I.D. and are available in Pottle lobby.
     For additional information, call 504-549-2184.
                            - SLU -
     This press release is available on the World Wide Web:
      www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsp99.htm