WHEN THE PASA CURTAIN RISES, THE WORLD’S BEST PERFORMERS ARE ON STAGE
ALL THE BEST OF THE PERFORMING ARTS
Editor Erika Hahne
Art Director Rosa Balaguer
Production Designers
Ashley Pemberton Czarlyn Trinidad
Sales Manager
Rebecca Taylor rebecca@acadianaprofile.com (337) 298-4424
CEO Todd Matherne
Renaissance Publishing, LLC 128 Demanade Blvd. Suite 104
Lafayette, La 70505 (337) 235-7919
Performing Arts Serving Acadiana P.O. Box 51974 Lafayette, LA 70505 (337) 769-3231 pasaonline.org
The 2024-2025 Preview program is produced for the Performing Arts Serving Acadiana by Renaissance Publishing, LLC.
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Cleo Parker Robinson
PHOTO BY Martha Wirth
A fromMessageLafayette's Mayor-President
Lafayette Mayor-President, Monique Blanco Boulet
Starry Nights, Great Entertainment
Anticipation. It’s what makes our hearts throb. That’s what your heart will do—you’ll feel the rush—when you walk into the theater for a night of live entertainment. PASA's heart has been throbbing since we began planning the new season. Yes, we're ready to raise the curtain!
That's what Performing Arts Serving Acadiana (PASA) does. Every performance in PASA’s new season will give you a rush. No two seasons are alike. No two shows are alike.
This sweeping lineup guarantees great artists— local to global—whose performances will surely bring laughs, gasps, cheers and maybe a few tears. Six fantastic performances will take place in three venues, as PASA expands its reach through partnerships and purposeful pursuit of new spaces and faces.
It’s an unparalleled mix of talent, from dance to jazz, from drama and R&B, and yes, we’re bringing in a circus, too.
Passion: that’s the common thread that ties the shows together - passion: yours, the artists’ and ours.
“Choosing artists to bring to our community is quite fun, but at the same time is very challenging. The hallmark of our mission is local access to great performing arts, so we look for performers and ensembles who would not likely appear here unless PASA brings them in,” says PASA Executive Director Jacqueline Lyle.
“In fact, of the artists who perform for PASA, few also perform anywhere else in Louisiana. We see almost every artist or group that we offer in a live performance or showcase before we book them. Of course, we can judge the merits of the performance, but we can also experience the audience respaonse, gain some instantaneous ideas that can later support our marketing, and— importantly--meet the artists. There’s nothing like seeing it live!”
It's a challenging selection task that results in the energy and excitement expressed in PASA’s imaginative and auspicious lineup, and it is what sets PASA apart from other performing arts groups in our community.
This season, PASA breaks out with a new series we call Pop-ups at Baranco, where you’ll see drama,
R&B and an interesting collaboration between Beausoleil’s front man Michael Doucet and John Warner Smith, a Louisiana poet laureate.
Opera returns to PASA’s schedule in September with OperaCréole at Angelle Hall, in partnership with the UL Concert Series. Our prized new work "Sacred Spaces," will be in the spotlight at the Heymann Center in January when Cleo Parker Robinson Dance and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra share the stage. And who will want to miss Omnium Circus in March?
All of this staged entertainment is backed with other activities. Theodore Foster, PhD, will give a series of talks that illuminate the topics that inform some of our events. Students in grades six through eight will fill venues at our Daytime Performances for Students. We’ll have master classes and activities for anyone, including you, so plan to be in your seat at the shows and meet up with PASA off the stage.
Kyiv City Stage Photo
PASA SEASON:
September 28, 2024
OperaCréole
ANGELLE HALL
Great news! The staff of Performing Arts Serving Acadiana (PASA) and our espionage team that searches for great performances has scoured the landscape for touring opera and we found it! Just up Interstate 10 in New Orleans, which OperaCréole calls home.
This award-winning crowd favorite is led by the mother-daughter team of Givonna Joseph and Aria Mason, named Southerners of the Year by Southern Living, and has revived lost operas and rarely performed works by free 19th century New Orleanian composers of color. OperaCréole performs these works in New Orleans—of course—and across the U.S. and in Europe. Their performances promote Louisiana’s Creole language and culture when their voices soar. We can’t wait to share the selections from Edmond Dédé’s opera "Morgiane ou Le Sultan d’Ispahan."
If you’ve never been to an opera—by the way, attending one is way different from only listening to operatic recordings—don’t let that stop you. Opera can be very romantic, dramatically tragic, or down-right funny. You won’t miss a beat of this musical moment. The New Yorker Magazine, National Public Radio and NBC Nightly News have given their thumbs up. You should, too! Oh, and there’ll be projections that provide instant translations of the libretto.
This project is funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Louisiana Division of the Arts.
October 18, 2024
Nebu Nezey
POP-UP AT BARANCO
Who else but Nebu Nezey would we pick to kickoff our Pop-ups at Baranco performances? She's a spectacular performer who belts out blues, R&B, jazz and more, in a high-energy show that will electrify the theater at Baranco Elementary. Get ready for a fun night with Nebu and her backup band and singers in a venue where most of us have never seen a show. Some of us also know her as the choir director at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, and all who know her know hers is a voice that everyone should hear.
There are about 400 seats in the Theater at Baranco, so you’re well advised to order tickets early. We hope you’ll be there to help PASA usher in live entertainment to this relatively dormant venue that’s tucked away in one of Lafayette’s historic buildings. You’ll find the Theater at Baranco inside Baranco Elementary, located at the intersection of Moss Street and Mudd Avenue in the Sterling Grove neighborhood.
November
14, 2024
Otto Frank
POP-UP AT BARANCO
Anne Frank’s father, Otto Frank, was the only member of his immediate family to survive the Holocaust. Actor Roger Guenveur Smith performs this moving one-man show, portraying a father addressing his daughter beyond her time and his own, navigating his shattering loss.
Smith’s credits range from the small screen ("A Different World") to the big screen ("Malcolm X," "Get on the Bus," and more), working with directors Spike Lee, Stephen Soderbergh and other marquee names. He’s quite a talent: he wrote, starred in and produced "A Huey P. Newton Story," a one-man performance based on the life of Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton.
This show fits perfectly in the Theater at Baranco. Intimate in scale, this performance draws the audience in. As PASA Operations Director Maleah Bocage and board member Daniel Wiltz attest, Smith’s performance of Otto Frank is a passionate portrayal that draws on the emotions of theater goers and drama lovers.
Cleo Parker Robinson Dance & the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra
January 29, 2025
HEYMANN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
The legendary troupe Cleo Parker Robinson Dance opens the program with a palette of stirring modern dance. When the curtain rises on the second half of the program, the dancers join the prestigious New Orleans Jazz Orchestra for a breathtaking performance of “Sacred Spaces,” inspired by the burning of three Black churches in St. Landry Parish and the reconciliation and redemption of the congregations that followed.
This powerful night of modern dance and exquisite jazz was originally envisioned by PASA Executive Director Jackie Lyle, whose idea was enthusiastically taken up by these two ensembles. "Sacred Spaces," which has now toured, combines dance, live music, and the spoken word, with a backdrop of the photography of acclaimed Louisianian Debbie Fleming Caffery.
Cleo Parker Robinson is one of the most important women in dance and Adonis Rose, artistic director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, is making tracks around the globe. Robinson and Rose collaborated on every phase of this inspiring work.
February
20, 2025
Michael Doucet & John Warner Smith
POP-UP AT BARANCO
Beausoleil’s front man Michael Doucet breaks out his fiddle when he joins former Louisiana Poet Laureate John Warner Smith in this pair’s first-ever collaboration of music and the spoken word. PASA heads back to the Theater at Baranco for this Pop-up show that was dreamed up by PASA and its team of thinkers.
Doucet has been a fixture on stages large and small and near and far for more than 50 years. John Warner Smith has blazed trails through local government and the banking world, and stretched his talents into poetry and writing. He is now the executive director of the Shadows-on-the-Teche in New Iberia, LA.
March 14, 2025
Omnium Circus
HEYMANN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Omnium Circus brings its jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring and uplifting show, "I’m Possible," to Lafayette.
What better family and friends night out! Spectacular entertainment celebrating diversity, creating joy and enriching empathy will make this an unforgettable night. Performed by a talented mosaic of performers who are among the finest circus artists in the world, the troupe’s gravity-defying aerial acts, mind-blowing contortion, unbelievable acrobatics, hysterical comedy, dazzling dancers and more will make for a lively night of fun.
Omnium means of all and belonging to all. Representing the best in family circus entertainment, it is a comprehensively inclusive and accessible performance, every time. World-renowned, Omnium Circus sparks excitement, thrills and joy in people of all ages as only a circus can!
The Heymann Center is the place and Omnium Circus is the troupe that helps everyone discover the world of all things possible through the power, the passion and the perseverance of the human spirit within each one of us!
Sacred Spaces PASA’s Latest Visionary Project On Stage in January
PASA’s executive director Jacqueline Lyle has directed the organization’s commissioning of several new works of dance and music, beginning in the 1990’s when Elisa Monte Dance and the Cajun band Mamou came together for “Feu Follet,” a new ballet that told the story of the settlement of south Louisiana by the Acadians.
The success of this endeavor led to more. PASA’s most recent commissioning, "Sacred Spaces," will take the stage of the Heymann Performing Arts Center in January 2025.
In 2019, after the news of the arson of three Black churches in Opelousas, Lyle and the PASA board began to consider its responsibility as a bearer of community concern and how it could lead an exploration of this current-day repeating of the long history of violence against communities of color in the United States, and particularly the violence inflicted on houses of worship.
Lyle was familiar with the legendary choreographer Cleo Parker Robinson and the quality of her company, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble (CPRDE). She was also involved in deep conversations with composer Adonis Rose, the artistic director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (NOJO). She launched a discussion with Robinson and Rose, which continued by phone and online. The trio decided to embark on this project, envisioning it as an important, artistic message-bearer, a community discussion-builder and as a touring platform for both the dance company and for the jazz orchestra.
Work began on grant writing and the project was awarded funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, South Arts, Arts Forward, and more generous givers.
In order to inform the work, PASA and the creators held reflective gatherings. One took place in the Fellowship Hall of St. Mary’s Missionary Baptist Church in Port Barre, to which the membership and leadership of the three congregations, as well as anyone interested, were invited. More than two hours of the discussion were transcribed by retired UL professor Joe Riehl that night.
The very next day, local dancers responded to a public call to participate, and gathered in the dance studio of McLaurin Hall on the UL campus. Cleo and her associate artistic director Winifred Harris began to experiment with movement to Rose’s nascent score.
The group headed next to the Acadiana Center for the Arts for another public gathering, where more public comments and thoughts from PASA
leadership, the creative team and those who attended were shared. Riehl was on hand, again, to transcribe more dialogue. His transcriptions are used as a narrative for the new work.
When acclaimed photographer Debbie Fleming Caffery learned of the new work under development, she offered photos that she had taken of the grounds of the churches just a few days after the fires. Those photos are incorporated in the new work.
“This is how this type of new, powerful work that reflects is developed,” states Lyle. “Yes, it is far easier and significantly less expensive to just book a show. However, PASA is an important thread
in our community and it is our responsibility to respond to stories and events by creating new work when we see opportunity.
The project’s development continued, costumes were created, lighting was designed and Cleo Parker Robinson Dance and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra premiered "Sacred Spaces" in September 2022 at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver, CO.
“We can’t wait to see "Sacred Spaces" in January,” says PASA Board President Tim Basden, who attended the Denver premiere. “This work is beautiful, poignant and—in its conclusion celebratory and joyful.”
Wirth
Beginning with the first performance of the 2024-2025 season—OperaCréole--PASA is stepping out of its comfort zone at the Heymann Center and heading to different venues.
It’s easy to conclude that our community has only a handful of venues, with the Heymann Performing Arts Center, Angelle Hall on UL’s campus and the theater at the Acadiana Center for the Arts topping the list. However, there are at least 12 venues scattered across the parish. UL’s Burke-Hawthorne Theatre is a fine, intimate space. Cite Des Arts is a theater, gallery and rehearsal complex in downtown Lafayette. Lafayette Middle School, Judice Middle School, Baranco Elementary and Lafayette High School all have theaters. Southside High School and Ovey Comeaux High School have black box theaters. St. Pius Elementary has a theater.
There’s much discussion about the Heymann Center, its needs and its future, but we rarely hear conversations about the venues that are publicly owned. There are actually 12 theaters that are perfect places to bring exceptional, intimate entertainment, and they are almost all located in areas of our community that lack cultural entertainment.
While PASA events have taken place in some of these other venues from time to time, this season’s moves are purposeful.
We are on a path to activate dormant venues; develop intimate, inventive programming that puts local artists in the spotlight and attracts people to performing arts entertainment in their neighborhoods, and deepens our relationship with the UL Department of Music and Performing Arts. Follow PASA as we head to the Theater at Baranco Elementary for Nebu Nezy’s bluesy, jazzy R&B show; for "Otto Frank," starring Roger Guenveur Smith, and for the unique collaboration that Beausoleil’s Michael Doucet and poet John Warner Smith will unveil as the season moves along.
Of course, you’ll find us at the Heymann Center in January, when Cleo Parker Robinson Dance and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra performs a stunning program that includes Sacred Spaces. We’ll be back there in March with Omnium Circus.
HEYMANN CENTER
THEATER AT BARANCO ELEMENTARY
ANGELLE HALL, UL'S CAMPUS
PASAble
Opens More Doors to PASA Events
When Performing Arts Serving Acadiana (PASA) opened its new season with Mutts Gone Nuts in October 2023, the organization also launched its latest initiative, PASAble, designed to create inclusive theater and community experiences for all of Acadiana’s entertainment fans, including people with disabilities.
A team of representatives of organizations that serve people with disabilities came together to find ways that PASA can help normalize participation in PASA events and activities. D.R.E.A.M.S. Foundation, Affiliated Blind of Louisiana, Families Helping Families, LARC, the Life Learning program at the University of Louisiana Lafayette, the Down Syndrome Association, the Acadiana Autism Association, individuals with disabilities, and families, friends and others are behind the powerful team that has partnered with PASA.
This is important work. In Lafayette Parish, eight percent of our population is disabled, according to U.S. Census data. That means that approximately 16,000 of our neighbors have limitations that can present challenges in a variety of ways.
PASA’s intention is to eliminate as many hurdles as we can that discourage people from attending live entertainment and taking part in PASA activities.
As Donielle Watkins, founder of the D.R.E.A.M.S. Foundation, writes: “We are happy to hear that Performing Arts Serving Acadiana (PASA) is addressing issues of accessibility at performing arts events and activities, many of which make it difficult for many people to participate. In fact, it has been an issue for many years, and it has hindered many from attending many performances and made them feel unwelcome. Thanks to PASA this will change, and many will come back to see their favorite performances.”
Interested in sponsoring PASAble, being a part of this effort or learning more? Contact the PASA office at 337-769-3231 or email info@pasaonline.org
HERE’S SOME OF WHAT PASA HAS DONE:
Our main venue, the Heymann Performing Arts Center, is an ADA-compliant venue with handicapped restrooms and accessible entrances and seating areas. Our team has added more accommodations. It now has a designated accessible entrance. Infra-red listening devices, which amplify the sound from the stage, are available free-of-charge in the lobby. PASA also provides large-print program notes.
We’ve added early seating for those who need extra time to get to their seats, and we’ve created a Quiet Zone in the lobby for those who may need a break from the show.
We’ve taken a look at touring performances that showcase outstanding artists with disabilities. When we learned about Omnium Circus, whose cast includes able-bodied individuals and people with disabilities, we immediately secured a date. When Omnium Circus performs in March 2025, ASL and audio descriptions will be part of the show. It’s going to be fun for everyone, and we do mean everyone!
In this new season, American Sign Language translation will be available at every event. The PASAble team continues to dream up activities and other ways to amplify its impact on all of our community.
Omnium Circus
Time to Talk, Play, Move & Learn
We know that the unique performances PASA brings to our venues are almost unheard of in a city this size. What is even less likely to take place are the types of activities that PASA offers off stage.
When we brought in Layon Gray’s drama "Black Angels Over Tuskegee," Theodore Foster gave talks that framed historical facts around the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen. These were offered at Lafayette Middle School for students, at the recreation center in Washington, LA, and at Our Lady of Wisdom Catholic Church on the UL campus. Foster conducted similar talks about the history of Black Cowboys in four locations, including Maison Freetown, before PASA’s presentation of “Cross That River.”
Seth Rudetsky, at a request from Shawn Roy at the UL School of Music and Performing Arts, asked for a question and answer session for music and theater students. In short order, Rudetsky explained just how much of an inside path was required to get a seat in a pit orchestra on Broadway. Answer: it almost requires an espionage approach, because there are no auditions. Who knew? These students know now.
In 2019, when Ailey II performed, some of its dancers led multiple activities: a master class in Youngsville that attracted dancers from New Iberia; and a discussion with UL dancers about how to prepare for post-graduate studies and dance company auditions. They also performed a lecture demonstration at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, an early partnership with Women of Wisdom and the McComb-Veazey Coterie. More than 170 people attended, many walking from their homes to the church’s gymnasium. Holy cow!
Check out PASA’s website, www.pasaonline.org, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and keep an eye out on the calendar of events we feature in our online newsletter. Not a subscriber? Head to the website now and sign up! We’re confident that you will learn something new and that we will learn from you.
Daytime Performances for Students
There’s no business like show business! And there’s no education like the one that show business offers, either. That’s what PASA’s daytime performances for students are about. Here’s how it all began.
In 1993, PASA—then the Performing Arts Society of Acadiana--offered its first daytime performance for students, the New York City Opera National Company’s “La Traviata.” The touring company learned about 90 days before its tour began that it had lost the date on its tour after PASA’s public presentation. The National Company needed to fill the date and recover a bit of the lost fee. It sounded like a fabulous idea. We quickly found financial support for this unexpected endeavor and we were set.
There were actually two performances. More than 3,200 middle school and high school students attended. It was fabulous, and as teachers were leaving the Heymann Center, they asked, “What’s next?”
Thus began a long-standing tradition that took a little breather in 2015 until today’s PASA got students back into the Heymann. Daytime performances for students are expensive undertakings. Love Our Schools understood the need for these important opportunities and has provided generous financial support since these events began.
In the 2022-23, the first year of this program, more than 10,000 fifth, sixth, seventh and eight graders in Lafayette Parish Public Schools attended six events, including the Kiev City Ballet, "Black Angels Over Tuskegee" and tk. In 2023-2024, students attended jazz and Broadway concerts.
The Broadway performance for students was led by Sirius XM Radio host Seth Rudetsky and
Andrea McArdle—the original Annie. Rudetsky’s Broadway credits run the gamut. When we asked him to do a daytime performance for students, he flipped our plan and suggested that PASA audition local students who were active in musical theater. We chose six, with the help of Wonderland Performing Arts Executive Director Allison Barron Brandon. Each took a turn on stage in front of 1,600 eighth graders. Without rehearsal and with Rudetsky as their accompanist, they walked out on stage; introduced themselves and the piece they were about to perform; gave a nod to Rudetsky indicating they were ready to begin; and started their performance. When they were finished, the two Broadway stars each gave constructive criticism and tips. Then, the student performed again and sometimes again.
“It’s easy to assume that this “Master Class” on stage was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for most of the six singers, as well as for the student audience,” says Jacqueline Lyle, PASA’s executive director.
“There’s a whole lot of learning going on amidst these performances,” observes Lyle. “It’s easy to see how these events support arts learning. However, performing arts events also support the core curriculum with direct connections to what teachers teach and students learn. Plus, these events and the support materials we provide are designed to reinforce the mandated foundational skills— communication; problem solving; resource access and utilization; linking and generating knowledge; and citizenship.
“We realize that school days are busy and filled with other activities,” says Lyle. “However, these performances open students’ minds by exposing them to cultures, history and stories that can eliminate prejudices and inspire new ways of thinking and reacting to the greater world.”
“So many students have never had a chance to attend a performance in a theater, which is dramatically different from attending an outdoor festival, a sports event or an arena show,” says Lyle, as she explains the additional importance of these presentations for students.
In advance of each performance, PASA provides a study guide for students, which is designed to enhance their experience with information and activities for use in the classroom before and after events.
“Teachers and principals appreciate that our materials connect these performances to foundational skills,” Lyle says.
This season, PASA’s daytime performance series expands its reach when PASA brings OperaCréole to Angelle Hall, in partnership with the UL Concert Series. This performance is open to students in grades six through twelve in public, private, parochial, charter and home schools in Lafayette and surrounding parishes. Admission is $5 per student.
The PASA Daytime performances are supported by corporate sponsors, grants and donors to PASA. For information about how you can be involved or support these extraordinary opportunities for students, contact PASA at 337-769-3231.
Meet the PASA Board
The Board of Directors of Performing Arts Serving Acadiana (PASA) began as an energetic trio determined to reignite lively arts performances—dance, drama, and music—at Lafayette’s Heymann Performing Arts Center. Founding board members Renee Ventroy, Daniel Wiltz, MD, and Jackie Lyle grew to more, as they recruited others to join the effort to build PASA quickly.
PASA Board President Tim Basden leads this exceptional group of volunteers, along with Vice President Tyler Patin, Secretary Tammy Milam, and Treasurer Janet Wood. The small, robust team quickly grew to the vibrant group that makes up PASA’s working board today, and work they do! From artists hospitality, to ushering at daytime performances, planning events, recruiting volunteers, fundraising, researching grant opportunities, scouting performers and countless other duties, the commitment of the PASA board is the reason that PASA has grown so quickly in three short seasons.
Top row (left to right): Joel Bacque, Janet Wood, Kyle Choate, Tim Basden
Middle row (left to right): Brenda Andrus, Sarah McNamara, Tammy Milam, Renee Ventroy, Sandra David
Bottom row (left to right): Art Kilchrist, Daniel Wiltz, MD, Jeanne Hudson, Chad Ortte
Not pictured: Mark Thomas, Beth Finch, Tyler Patin, Eric Singleton, Setareh Miriam-Delcambre.
The PASA Staff Small and Mighty
JACQUELINE LYLE
Executive Director
The PASA staff is a lean machine, led by Executive Director Jacqueline Lyle. With more than 30 years of performing arts experience and a background in sales, marketing and newspaper publishing, she enjoys a national reputation for excellence and innovation in the performing arts field.
Under her direction, PASA programming encompasses a range of outreach and residency activities that engage audience members, diverse community segments and philanthropists. She sets the community standard for prospecting, recruiting and sustaining corporate support. In addition to scouting the highest quality entertainment, she also designs unique projects that enrich schools, including projects that serve academic areas at the University of Louisiana Lafayette.
Her imaginations of new performances have led to new partnerships and tours between artists: opera star Denyce Graves and the Girls Choir of Harlem is one example. Elisa Monte’s Feu Follet , has toured for decades. She brought together Parsons Dance Company and the Ahn Trio for a beautiful pairing that resulted in Swing Shift . Quite a collection of these PASA projects have had New York debuts.
As a hobbyist, her pursuits include musical performance not for public consumption, painting, fashion design and sewing, and Pony Tale photos. She’s a mom, a grandmother, a spouse and many people are surprised to learn that she can cook.
MALEAH BOCAGE
Operations Director
Maleah Bocage, a graduate of the University of Louisiana’s Music Business program, stepped into the doors of the PASA office as an intern. A native of New Orleans, Bocage is a graduate of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, a public high school arts conservatory, where she focused on vocal performance.
She was instrumental in producing PASA’s performances in 2021-2022, its first season, and quickly learned the ropes of marketing, navigating the news media and so much more. She graduated in December 2021 and remained with PASA as a part-time assistant to the executive director. In August, 2022, PASA brought her on in a full-time capacity as operations/production assistant. Her thorough understanding of PASA’s work and vision for efficient operations led to her promotion to the position she holds today.
In addition to her work at PASA, Bocage is also an R&B composer and singer who performs and records her own work and shares the stage with other artists.
NANCY SUROSKY
Development Coordinator
Nancy Surosky, a native of Maryland who is a seasoned sales executive and advertising consultant, headed west five years ago and quickly found her niche here in the Hub City. Like many others, her move to Louisiana was sparked by her desire to be closer to her daughter and her grandchildren.
In her tenure with Alter Communications in Baltimore, MD, she developed integrated marketing opportunities to promote customer brands, and to increase their revenues through partnerships, digital media, promotional events, and brand development, consulting with clients to help them reach their goals.
Her resume includes service as a special assistant in the Office of Community Engagement for the Baltimore County Executive, where she worked with a variety of stakeholders. In the local non-profit world, Surosky worked as the development director/donor relations officer for the Acadiana Center for the Arts and later became the field director for Monique Blanco Boulet’s successful mayoral campaign.
Surosky brings a passion for performing arts— especially Broadway—to PASA, as she influences decision makers and builds new relationships within our community.
The Gospel Brunch Gala
Oh, Happy Day!
Photography by Jeffery Mitchell
Dressed in their Sunday best, PASA enthusiasts turned out in high spirits for PASA’s Gospel Brunch Gala, our first-ever fundraiser, that took place on Sunday, September 8, at L’Eglise, just south of Youngsville, LA.
As guests arrived, spirited brunch beverages were served. Teka Briscoe and friends were tuned up and ready to go with gospel music that ranged from traditional tunes to contemporary sounds. This decommissioned Catholic church, which was transformed years ago by Merilyn Crain into an event center, was certainly the perfect spot for this merry event.
Tables were set in gold and white, with sweet centerpieces. Guests took their seats as the L’Eglise staff served a multi-course brunch, with bubbly beverages flowing. From start to finish, it was a fabulous feast that ended with a lively tambourine raise that attracted additional donations to support PASA’s deep impact on our community.
The Gospel Brunch team of Darrellyn Burts, Janet Wood, Beth Finch, Jeanne Hudson, Merilyn Crain, and Joanie Hill planned the event, along with the team from L’Eglise. The first-ever event ended with a rousing farewell from the singers and musicians, as guests headed home, looking forward to PASA’s season, which would begin in late September.
We tip our hats to the owners of L’Eglise who worked side by side with the PASA team. Southern Glazer’s—a long-time PASA partner—was right there with us, also.
CONTINUING the Legacy
BRINGING THE WORLD’S FINEST PERFORMERS TO LAFAYETTE
by Jacqueline Lyle PASA Executive Director
Lafayette civic leaders have known for decades that it was important for our community to have access to the greatest performers in the world. Boy, am I glad they did!
My family spent its earliest years in the small Allen Parish town of Oberlin, LA, yet performing arts has always been a part of my life. From Oberlin, we rode to Kinder for dance lessons. My mom brought us to see "The Nutcracker" in Lake
Charles. We had music in our house and I grabbed a makeshift baton and conducted as a record played. Am I the only person who remembers the 45 RPM, "Tina, the Ballerina"?
We moved to Lafayette when I was seven and I attended Community Concerts at the Lafayette Municipal Auditorium with my grandmother, who— as a volunteer—sold tickets to that organization’s performances. We loved USL’s productions of Broadway plays, and my mom, who taught at the university, also drug us along to see opera, all of these produced by Beaman Griffin, himself, a legend.
In 1975, just as I was graduating from high school, the pianist James Dick brought his Festival Institute to the auditorium and he performed three separate concerts, planting the seeds for what would become the Fine Arts Foundation.
The Fine Arts Foundation thrived during the heydays of the oil and gas industry, bringing in Ella Fitzgerald, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Dr. Billy Taylor, the soprano Roberta Peters, the tap dancer Gregory Hines, and, one-by-one, the ballet world’s marquee names: Mikhail Barishnikov, Alexander Goudonoff and Rudolph Nureyev, all of whom defected from Russia to the United States in their pursuits of freedom and robust careers.
The Acadiana Symphony was born about 40 years ago and brought orchestral programming to the auditorium each season. Great performances have been in that building since it opened its doors in 1960.
Touring Broadway has been a mainstay for decades.
The world’s finest performers have appeared on that stage, which reopened in 1989 as the Heymann Performing Arts Center, after an 18-month renovation. Performing Arts Society of Acadiana (PASA), a predecessor to the current manifestation of PASA--a stalwart in the lineage that includes the Fine Arts Foundation, Community Concerts and others--christened the new stage with its first-ever performance: North Carolina Dance Theater. Then came the legendary Roberta Flack, the world-famous violinist Itzhak Perlman, Dance Theater of Harlem, Parsons Dance Company, the Ahn Trio, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the London Chamber Orchestra, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Tony Bennett, Michael McDonald, classical Indian dance, flamenco, fully-staged operas—some of them eye-popping—performed by the New York City Opera National Company and the Stanislavsky Opera Company. Chicago City Limits, the Second City and Wynton Marsalis more than once. It’s hard to remember it all, but you can find more on PASA’s website: pasaonline.org
The shows, this type of parade of performers, must go on, and PASA is committed to putting these types of artists on stage here, in our city, in our venues for our community, its family and its children. Join our commitment. Try not to miss a show. Make great performances in our community happen, just like they do in Houston, New York, Chicago and others of our country’s metropolises.
See you at a show!
Kyiv City Ballet
Support PASA Volunteer, Participate, Give
Every not-for-profit that is active in its community relies on support that fuels the organization and makes it possible for it to grow and thrive. That support comes in many shapes and it is not always money that an organization needs. Performing Arts Serving Acadiana (PASA) is no different. We thrive because of our volunteers, people who participate in our performances and activities that take place off the stage, and financial support.
We are confident we have a place for almost anyone and, in return for the gifts that our supporters bring to us, PASA attempts to reward their generosity with experiences that show our gratitude and showcase our depth.
Why Not Volunteer? Because we have events and activities throughout the year, we always have a need for helping hands that lighten our load. Greeters at master classes, workshops, talks and other off-the-stage events are valuable because they personalize participants’ experiences. A willing volunteer who helps with artists hospitality is a blessing to our staff, especially when its time to pick up more cases of water. Remember? There are only two of us who work full time! Yes, it’s an easy task, and meaningful on performance days, which tend to be busy and long.
Volunteers can also help with surveys at activities and provide feedback that informs our future planning. And, they usher at performances! Want to see a show? Ushering means a free ticket to the show, because we cannot do it without our ushers!
Participating in activities, both on and off the stage, is another important way to support PASA. When Theodore Foster, PhD, gives his talks around the performances of OperaCréole, "Otto Frank" and "Sacred Spaces," plan to attend! These forums, whether offered in the days before a performance or a few days later, always shed new light on the performance, the artwork and the history behind the theme.
Buying tickets, whether you subscribe to the whole season or buy only what works for you, is a way to gift yourself with live entertainment and to support PASA. Our future is somewhat box office-dependent, certainly. Yours is too, especially if you take advantage of all of the events that we offer, rather than hover over to only those that seem familiar. We have more than thirty years of experience entertaining you, often leading you down a path to something new.
Of course, we rely on your generous giving of your hard-earned money. Without donors, corporate sponsors, grant givers and other types of donations, PASA—and virtually every other not-for-profit— would simply not survive. If you value what we do, please make a donation to PASA today. No gift is too small or too large, for that matter.
Looking Ahead Want to Help Us Plan?
The PASA staff and board is always looking ahead, with an eye out for exciting touring artists that we can possibly book. We are also on the look out for projects that we can support or amplify. We have binoculars on for new management strategies, new tools that economize the energy that our work requires and new ideas for partnerships that can be mutually beneficial.
There’s an intriguing dance company from Taiwan. Their show is called Birdy and you can use your imagination on that! We’d love to bring in the inspirational tap dancer Roxane Butterfly and her teenage daughter Zuly, who is bilingual, homeschooled and who also teaches dance. By the way, Zuly has Down Syndrome. What a perfect prospect, as we continue our accessibility pursuit.
On the horizon, already, are visionary projects that will take months to develop and a couple of years to get to the stage. We have an idea for a drama that will tell the story of a Vermilion Parish family whose dad fought segregation laws. Heavy topic and an exhilarating story, all in one. A look at the history of Blackham Coliseum and its association with risk is another. And there was that time that PASA’s executive director was driving on Interstate 80 from Oklahoma to Denver and the juxtaposition of wind turbines and oil field grasshoppers—the kind that pump oil out of the ground—got her started on another new dance project.
Will these ideas come to fruition? With support from our community, governmental agencies, grant givers and exceptional teams of artists, they just may.
