Southeastern NEWS
Southeastern Louisiana University
Public Information Office
publicinfo@selu.edu
SLU 10880, Hammond, LA 70402
504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
Date: 10/18/00
Contact: Christina Chapple
Editors: Photo accompanies release Please note local interest
DANCEWORK'S "UNICORN" BORN OF CREATIVE PARTNERSHIPS
HAMMOND -- "What is exciting about the production of 'Unicorn,'" said Martie
Fellom, "is the collaboration and the originality."
Fellom, director of the Southeastern Louisiana University dance program and of
Danceworks, the university's resident dance company, has been a part of Fanfare, since the
inception of the university's annual arts festival 15 years ago. "Unicorn" is Danceworks -- and
Fellom's -- latest contribution to the Fanfare schedule.
To create "Unicorn," Fellom brought together a creative team of writers, composers,
choreographers and designers, many of whom have worked with her before. The ballet's
choreographers are Danceworks members -- senior dance major Grace Latino of Metairie, junior
dance majors Heather Breland of Abita Springs and Donya Chavenel of LaPlace
and senior general studies major Nichole Brown of Tickfaw. Writer Sean Alan Marsh also
penned "The Water Maiden," Fanfare 1999's Danceworks production. Southeastern technical
director Pete Pfeil, who designed sets and lighting, has performed the same creative tasks for
many Danceworks concerts, as has his wife, Anna, who will construct the costumes.
And the "collaboration" between Fellom and costume designer Artie Fellom Brown is a
natural. Not only are they twins, but Fellom and Brown have been partnering for three decades
in Fellom Ballet, the local ballet school that they run with their sister, Cynthia Fellom Tricou.
Fellom has long been intrigued by the mythical unicorn. "Years ago I saw the famous
unicorn tapestries at the Cloisters in New York City and at a small museum in Paris," she said. "I
wanted to do a story that dealt with a unicorn, but also with another supernatural creature: a
fairy."
"After being asked by the dance department to create a mythology, I conducted extensive
research," said Marsh, who has also written a novel, "Kings of the Night," a children's book,
"Where the Dinosaurs Are," and several short stories, including"Paradise," which won the Gulf
Shore Life Fiction Award for best fiction in 1997.
He has peopled his "Unicorn" story with "Forest Fairies," who dwell of the deep forest;
"Gargoyles," denizens of darkness and appointed guardians, and "Jinns," playful wind spirits
who once lived in the desert.
His principal characters include the once and future fairy queen, Aneau (Nichole Brown),
the gargoyles Dozon (Tim Muller of Covington) and Intero (Leslie Comeaux of Violet); the
child fairy, Willo (Maggie Rownd of Hammond) and the child gargoyle, Oree (Aaron Pfeil of
Hammond). Conor McGibboney of Hammond portrays "Nightmare," a creature driven mad,
who effects all it touches, even in their dreams, and the Unicorn itself, described as "a creature of
all understanding, ruler of the nether world of twilight in the division times of dawn and dusk."
Fellom said choreographers Breland, Brown, Chavanel, and Latino worked with Marsh to
develop a deeper understanding of his characters and story of two worlds. "They also worked
with Lenny, who created the music to blend with and enhance the magic of the characters and the
story," Fellom said.
Mastascuso has played with a variety of musicians in many styles during a 13-year
performing and recording career. A Texas native who grew up in the New Orleans area, he began
playing piano at age eight and trumpet at age 12 and participated in jazz bands, Louisiana Music
Educators Association festivals and in the Southerners Drum Bugle Corp. He currently plays
with "Bones," a blues, funk, and jazz band, and continues to compose and record.
"My imagination was soaring when I read the first manuscript of 'Unicorn.'" Brown said.
"I could actually see a magnificent beast with small fluttering wings, almost invisible to the
human eye, and fairies of pale hues. The Jinn's created in my mind a vision of what the wind
would look like, if we could capture it with a camera, colored in the sky's cool blues and grays.
The Gargoyles became the color of stone, mottled shades of gray. And Aneau, Queen of the
Fairies, is an apparition in the pale colors of the forest, shining with a crown of natural peaks and
covered gently in a silk cloak with all the colors from her fairy kingdom."
The cast of "Unicorn" is made up of Danceworks members and young dancers from the
area. Gargoyles are Diana Enxing, Slidell; Caree' Hawkins, Covington; Karen LeBlanc, Kenner;
Jonathan Majoue', Baton Rouge; Roxanne Pfeil, Hammond; Elise Sipos, Abita Springs, and
Anastasia Wesley, New Orleans.
The Jinns are Caitlin Kearney, Sadie Mannino, Audrey Sibley, Sarah Starns and Rebecca
Tallo, Hammond, and Je'Nae Peters, New Orleans;
Dancing as the Fairies are Cristina Brandon, Elizabeth Hodge, Covington; Heather and
Jessica Breland, Abita Springs; J.B. Buck, New Orleans; Sheree Cannino, Melissa Landry and
Mary Elizabeth Wilkinson, Hammond; Carolyn Fulton, Reserve; Lesley Kernan, Prarieville;
Grace Latino, Metairie; Bridget Lyons, Ponchatoula, and Debbie Rodriguez, Harvey..
"Unicorn" will be performed at 7:30 p.m., Thursday and Friday, Oct. 26-27, at Vonnie
Borden Theatre in D Vickers Hall. Tickets are $5 adults, $3 for senior citizens, Southeastern
faculty, staff and alumni, and non-SLU students. Southeastern students will be admitted free with
their university I.D. Matinees for local schools also will be performed at 10 a.m. and noon on
Thursday, Oct. 26.
For additional information, call Southeastern Public Information at 504-549-2341 or
Fellom at 549-2132.
-SLU-
Press release available online at www.selu.edu./NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsf00.htm