NEWS & EVENTS

UL Lafayette's Performing Arts Theatre Concentration hosted hometown Actress Faith Ford as a guest speaker. Ms. Ford has just completed the film ESCAPEE which was shot and produced entirely in Louisiana. Performing Arts students were also joined by Moving Image Arts students. Alexandria/Pineville native, Faith Ford stars in the film as well as acts as producer. Her husband, Campion Murphy, who wrote and directed the film as well also joined, as well as producer Scott W. Anderson. All three talked with students about their journey in the entertainment industry from college student to seasoned professional as well as discussed the many opportunities for students in the film industry within Louisiana. "Don't go to NYC or LA, stay home in Louisiana! There is work for you here!", was Ms. Ford's direct suggestion for the students.

Assistant Professor of Dance Marie Broussard parntered with Professor of Guitar Studies Dr. Jeff George and PASA to present a workshop to PFAR-Dance and School of Music students. The Flamenca workshop provided music and dance concentration students a rare opportunity to study Flamenca with Soledad Bario and Noche Flamenca. The workshop was made possible by a Faculty Development grant received by Professors Broussard and George.

Professor Broussard also partnered with Dr. Mark F. DeWitt, the inaugural holder of the Dr. Tommy Comeaux Endowed Chair in Traditional Music, during the Michael Doucet residency to present a workshop to PFAR-Dance concentration students. Michael Doucet provided insight to the history of his education and musical background/influences while Professor May Waggoner and Renaissance Acadien taught our students authentic Acadian and Cajun dances.

Summer of 2011, Dance major Emma Dietlein, Junior, auditioned for and was accepted to Joffrey Ballet Intensive in San Antonio, Texas.

Dance alumni Matthew Couvillon will be returning home this fall 2011 from the Japanese tour of A Chorus Line. Couvillon will be in residence to stage a new work for the 2011 State of LA Danse.

The Theatre Concentration will present "An Evening with Edgar Allen Poe" for its fall production in collaboration with Pasa "High school outreach". The production of "An Evening with Edgar Allen Poe" will also travel to the Louisiana State KC/ACTF Theatre Festival at McNesse State University in November.

The Performing Arts program will host workshops in collaboration with PASA for Aquilla Theatre Company and Complexions Dance Company in Burke-Hawthorne Hall Theatre. Please contact PASA for more information.

The Performing Arts Program will be the Featured Performing Arts Production that will open the College of the Arts' SPARK Festival of the Arts 2012 on Thursday March 22, 2012. The featured production will be a play by famed French Canadian playwright Antonine Maille, titled THE RABBLE [Les Crasseux].

The 2012 SPARK Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Joe Stewart, internationally recognized production designer based in Los Angeles. Joe is a Lafayette native, graduated from Cathedral Carmel High School and attended the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now UL Lafayette) where he studied architecture, art, art history and design. He completed his B.F.A. in Drama (Design) at Carnegie Mellon University in 1977, and embarked on a career in production design for television and live events that has garnered him, along with partner John Shaffner, numerous Emmy Awards, Art Director Guild’s Awards, and LA Area Emmy Awards. He has designed programs as diverse as the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Two and a Half Men, the Republican National Convention, The Magic of David Copperfield, Miss Universe Pageant, and the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus.

A Student Design Team has been created of approximately six students from the Architecture and Performing Arts programs to work directly with Joe Stewart to design the production of The Rabble. They will be supervised by full-time faculty members Hector LaSala and Travis Johnson. Their work will be documented through independent study courses,and they will perform the bulk of their work during Fall, 2011 with assignments continuing until the production opens on March 22, 2012. Mr. Stewart will be on campus for periods of 2-3 days approximately once each month from August through March to work with the student design team as well as present several public lectures focusing on practical issues for students establishing professional careers after graduation, as well as on artistic antechnological topics of interest to advanced design and performing arts students.

In Spring of '11, the Theatre Concentration brought in Master Teacher Matt Raines, from Studio Six in New York City for a weeklong workshop. Studio Six is an ensemble based theater company — the sixth studio to be born out of the Moscow Art Theater School, and the only American one. The company was founded in 2005 by the graduates of the only American class to have completed the four year course of study at the Moscow Art Theater School. The company is dedicated to a theater of strong ensemble acting, directorial vision and creating dynamic relationships with audiences. Mr. Raines is core company member of Studio Six and the Director of Outreach and Development. He is also a leading part of Studio Six's Moscow Art Theater training initiative, and has taught workshops and Master Classes at the New School for Drama in New York, CCM Drama at the University of Cincinnati, Morgan State University, Stonestreet Studios and the Baryshnikov Arts Center.

Summer of 2011, senior Theatre Concentration student David Huynh spent the beginning of his summer as a member of the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre company where he played Orlando in "As You Like It" and Lodovico in "Othello", his first professional roles. After his time in Conway, Arkansas, he spent five weeks in Cambridge, MA studying with the Moscow Art Theater with a focus on Stanislavsky's system. There he received well rounded training in Russian movement, theatre history, acting techniques and exercises as well as a workshop production of Anton Chekov's "The Cherry Orchard" in which he played Petya Trofimov. David also recently auditioned for L.A. casting directors for a lead role in the feature film PERFECT PITCH.