News release Public Information Office  SLU 10880   Hammond, LA 70402   phone: 985-549-2341   fax: 985-549-2061 publicinfo@selu.edu Spring 2004 news releases Public Information home News archive Contact: Christina Chapple Date: 9/13/04   CAST ANNOUNCED FOR FANFARE’S “A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC”       HAMMOND – “A Little Night Music,” Stephen Sondheim’s sexy and sophisticated tribute to the foibles of love, is the Southeastern Louisiana University Opera-Music Theatre Workshop’s contribution to Fanfare, Southeastern’s annual October festival of the arts.       Directed by Larry Gray and produced by the workshop’s director Charles Effler, “A Little Night Music” is scheduled for Oct. 12-15 at the Pottle Music Building Auditorium.       “With its first word, ‘Remember?’ ‘A Little Night Music’ offers an invitation to a past era of elegance and enchantment,” said Effler, who is also the musical director of the show and is joined on the production crew by Bill Walker, sets; Richard Walsh, costumes; and Ellen Sovkoplas, lighting design.      The story, Effler said, is drawn from the Ingmar Bergman film, “Smiles of a Summer Night.”      “It looks back on early 20th century Scandinavia where love, laughter and music float through the air on evening breezes in a land where the sun never sets,” he said. “It is one of Sondheim’s most cherished musical romance with unforgettable songs such as ‘Send in the Clowns.’ The penetratingly witty script was inspired by Shakespeare’s immortal line, ‘Lord, what fools these mortals be.’”      “In ‘A Little Night Music’ Sondheim employs an interesting and innovative technique,” Effler said. “He uses a quintet of singers, called ‘The Liebeslieders,’ to sing of and about the main characters in the show, but not to interact with them. The effect is something like that of a classic Greek chorus.”      “The Liebeslieders actually open the show with a vocal overture, accompanied by the orchestra, instead of the traditional overture played by the orchestra alone. The singers continue to weave their way in and out of the scenes, commenting on the characters’ actions and emotions,” Effler said.      Cast as the Liebeslieders are Wendy Kinchen and Cassandra Arnold of Ponchatoula, Kristin Glass of Walker, Cameron Bishop of Oak Grove, and Simon Pfeil of Hammond.       Also is the cast are Brad Barrios of La Rose as Frederick Egerman; Jacquie Brecheen of Ponchatoula, Anne Egerman; Brian Martinez of Montz, Henrick Egerman; Amanda Tarver of Gonzales, Desiree Armfelt; Scharmal Schrock of Hammond, Madame Armfelt; Emily Stokes of Covington, Frederika Armfelt; James Flick of Gonzales, Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm; Sarah Osterberger of Baton Rouge, Countess Charlotte Malcolm; Betty Turner of Hammond, Petra; William Musso of Gonzales, Frid; Christina Babin of Prairieville, Malla; Amber Whitfield of Walker, Osa; and Brandon Wear of Slidell, Bertrand.      Curtain time for “A Little Night Music” is 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12, adults; $8 senior citizens, non-Southeastern students and Southeastern faculty, staff and alumni. Southeastern students are admitted free with their university I.D.      Advance tickets are available at the Fanfare box office in the lobby of the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts, 220 E. Thomas St. in downtown Hammond, (985) 543-4371. Tickets will also be available at the door before each performance.