Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
    Date: 10/19/99
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple   52M

SLU'S "FORBIDDEN THEATRE" PROMISES HALLOWEEN TRICKS AND TREATS
     HAMMOND -- Southeastern Louisiana University  and the Hammond area will
experience tricks and treats at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, October 27, as Fanfare, the university's
annual fall arts festival, presents a special Halloween stage show by Forbidden Theatre,
Southeastern's own dark comedy radio troupe.  
     The free stage show, which includes time travel, ghost stories, and--allegedly--zombie
attacks, will take place in the Oak Grove Room in Twelve Oaks Dining Hall and is free to the
public.   
     The event has prompted legendary New Orleans horror show host Morgus the
Magnificent to "caution people not to attend the show," said Wayne Cain, president of the SLU
Creative Writers Group. "Morgus, who has recorded a radio commercial for the event, said
Forbidden Theatre is 'conducting experiments with radio that break all the laws of physics' and
that his operatives have told him that Forbidden Theatre 'could attempt to raise the dead,'" Cain
said. 
     Forbidden Theatre, formed in 1997 as an offshoot of the SLU Creative Writers Group,
includes Cain, a former longtime Baton Rouge radio personality and current Southeastern
English graduate student; Phil Sevin, a senior mass communications student from Zachary and a
recent winner of the Turner Network Television Screenplay challenge; Michael Libersat, a senior
English major from Hammond who is president of Sigma Tau Delta English Honors Society and
has more than 27 years of theater experience; Corbett Mount, a junior from Denham Springs
majoring in history and longtime member of the SLU Creative Writers Group, and Jonathan
Magee, a Hammond freshman majoring in mass communications and minoring in theater.  
     Also joining the group for the show is Lillian Gray of Hammond, a Southeastern
dancer/choreographer and founder of the performing arts group Uncaged.          
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FORBIDDEN THEATRE   Add One
     Mount characterized the Forbidden Theatre Halloween show as "whimsical yet
postmodern, scary but heartfelt, diabolical yet pretty darn good."    
     "The only people the show will be more dangerous to--than the performers themselves--is
the audience," said Magee. 
     When asked about rumors that zombies would attack the audience at some point in the
performance, Sevin gave a tight-lipped "no comment," but called the group's mission of reviving
radio comedy and drama a "Lazarus of art."  Most people, Sevin said, only listen to radio in the
car, and, therefore, don't pay much attention, "but in this room (the Oak Grove Room), leave the
driving to us and we'll drive you to horror."
     "We predict you'll have a good time," Cain said. 
     For a Fanfare brochure and ticket order form or for additional information about Fanfare
events, call the SLU Public Information Office, 504-549-2341, send e-mail to
publicinfo@selu.edu, or visit the Fanfare web site, www.selu.edu/fanfare. Fanfare tickets are
available at the Fanfare box office   504-549-2323, Gate 1, SLU University Center, 700 W.
University Ave., 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m., weekdays. Alumni discount applies to dues-paying (active)
Alumni Association members.