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 2025-2026 Preview program is produced for Performing Arts Serving Acadiana by Renaissance Publishing, LLC. Copyright 2025
and
Publishing, LLC. No part of this publication may be reproduced without consent of the publisher.
A Message from Lafayette's Mayor-President
reetings!
Monique B. Boulet, Mayor-President
Icons. Passion. Stage-shaking Shows.
From big stages to smaller spaces, PASA is ready for a season of bold moves that make for lively entertainment, the kind that makes our hearts—and yours—throb. 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!
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. Seven fantastic performances will take place in two venues, filled with enthusiastic concert-goers. You should be one!
It’s an unparalleled mix of talent, from floor-shaking flamenco to the music of Ben Folds and Postmodern Jukebox to drama. 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,
and we can also experience the audience response, 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 rigorous selection task that results in the energy and excitement expressed in PASA’s imaginative and auspicious lineup, and is what sets PASA apart from other performing arts groups in our community.
This season, PASA breaks out with “Ben Folds & A Piano,” bringing this wildly popular pianist to the Heymann Center.
“Avatar: The Last Airbender in Concert” follows, and “Postmodern Jukebox” is heading back to the PASA lineup with another imaginative concert. And just wait, “Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana” brings its floor-shaking dance to the Heymann, in a spectacular roundup of the spirt of Spain.
We’ll pop up again with three performances at the beloved Theater at Baranco. Robert Guenveur Smith returns to this intimate setting with a spectacular one-man show, another fun drama that explores the United States Constitution is scheduled, and we’ll finish out the Pop-Ups at Baranco with a musical tribute to Roberta Flack and Quincy Jones.
All of this staged entertainment is backed with other activities. Talks that illuminate the topics that inform some PASA performances are sketched out. Students in grades six through eight will fill thousands of seats at our Daytime Performances for Students. We’ll have master classes and activities for everyone, including you, so plan to be in your seat at the shows and meet up with PASA off the stage.
Cleo Parker Robinson Dance and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra.
Credit: Martha Wirth
From Cool to Cultural: This Season Hits All the Right Notes
September 24, 2025
HEYMANN CENTER
Ben Folds & A Piano
The spectacular singer-songwriter Ben Folds is heading to Lafayette’s Heymann Center at 7:30 p.m. on September 24 with his “Ben Folds & A Piano” tour.
What could be better than this intimate, live musical experience, with Folds performing past and current hits, and sharing stories from his more than three decades as a platinum-selling singer-songwriter and former frontman for Ben Folds Five?
This New York Times Best Selling author and Emmy-nominated composer has created an enormous body of music that includes chart-topping pop albums with Ben Folds Five, multiple solo recordings, and numerous collaborative releases with artists from Sara Bareilles and Regina Spektor to William Shatner.
Ben Folds is widely regarded as one of the major music influencers of our generation. For the past three decades, he’s toured as a pop artist, while also performing with some of the world’s greatest symphony orchestras.
A longtime advocate for arts and music education funding, Ben founded a music education charitable initiative in his native state of North Carolina entitled “Keys for Keys,” which helps existing nonprofits provide free or affordable piano lessons to underserved children. On the national level, he remains active with Americans for the Arts and the Arts Action Fund that fights for federal arts funding for communities, cultural centers and venues, the military, and public schools.
Lindsey Kraft is a multi-faceted artist - actress, singer, and composer. You may recognize her from various TV roles, including Netflix's Grace and Frankie, HBO's Getting On, and most recently Netflix's Obliterated. She continues as the opening act for Ben Folds, where she'll perform her brand of theatrical pop songs, including songs from her musical, “love, me,” a one-woman show workshopped recently in LA for a LIVE album.
During an opening performance for Ben at the Kennedy Center in 2023, she received a glowing review by DC Music Review, which wrote that the audience "was treated and transfixed by the performance of Lindsey Kraft. Within the first few moments of her piece, concertgoers realized how perfect the pairing was.
A burgeoning newcomer to musical performances, Kraft, in addition to her brilliant piano playing and songs, masterfully interacted with and entertained the audience with her witty and sincere songs." She characterizes her songs as deeply personal, funny, and sad, her sound inspired by Carly Simon, Carole King, Billy Joel, Bette Midler, Randy Newman, and Broadway (but like, only the good shows).
October 23, 2025
Avatar: The Last Airbender in Concert
Join the celebration when PASA presents “Avatar: The Last Airbender in Concert,” celebrating 20 years of elemental storytelling, unforgettable characters, and the epic journey that defined a generation.
“Avatar: The Last Airbender in Concert – 20th Anniversary Tour” presents a stunning live orchestral performance of the series’ beloved soundtrack, now elevated with a once-in-a-lifetime cinematic experience. Fans of the Nickelodeon animated series will love it!
This special anniversary tour features a two-hour visual journey through all three seasons of the iconic animated series, projected on a full-size cinema screen with new elements and artistic surprises crafted specifically for this special anniversary edition, offering fresh perspectives on the show’s legacy.
Preserving the original dialogue and sound effects, this concert replaces the recorded score with a powerful live orchestra, performing the legendary music of Emmy® Award-winning composer Jeremy Zuckerman, the creative mastermind behind the show's original music, in perfect sync with the action on screen. From taiko drums and erhu to soaring strings and delicate woodwinds, the music comes alive alongside the adventures of Aang, Katara, Toph, Sokka, Zuko, and more, all brought together by Zuckerman’s expanded arrangements and creative collaboration. With a few inspired additions and celebratory touches designed to mark this milestone tour, longtime Avatar fans and newcomers alike will experience Avatar: The Last Airbender like never before.
In Honor of Jean-Michel
Basquiat
STARRING
ROGER GUENVEUR SMITH
November 14, 2025
What better way to kick off the 2025-26 PopUps at Baranco than with this mesmerizing, one-man show performed by Roger Guenveur Smith, with a live soundscape by Marc Anthony Thomson. This drama unfolds as a tribute to Roger’s friend, the neo-expressionist artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, a bona fide star of the art world. His unmistakable graffiti-like style developed into large canvases with vibrant color, references to famous Black male cultural figures, marks, form, and text.
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 Soderberg, and other marquee names. Smith has a unique ability to completely embody the characters he portrays, infusing his audience with an undeniable emotional connection. If you were in the house last season, you will likely long-remember his portrayal of Otto Frank. If you missed “Otto Frank,” be sure to get tickets for “In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat.”
December 3, 2025
HEYMANN CENTER
Postmodern Jukebox
In “Postmodern Jukebox,” concertgoers can expect to enter a parallel musical universe where modern-day earworms and iconic pop hits alike are reimagined in classic genres like 1920s jazz, swing, doo-wop and Motown, and brought to life by a cast of some of the world’s best singers, dancers, and instrumentalists. Think “The Great Gatsby” meets “Sinatra at the Sands” meets “Back! …To The Future.”
When Bradlee started making YouTube videos that remade the hits of today in the classic styles of yesterday, a “viral” success story was born—one that quickly led to sold out shows annually across North America and Europe. The touring act receives rave reviews from industry publications and world-renowned artists alike.
“Postmodern Jukebox” has built a reputation as the “Saturday Night Live of singers,” by introducing audiences to dozens of exceptional musical artists and turning them into bona fide stars.
Ten years and two billion YouTube views later, a “Postmodern Jukebox” show has become something of an annual musical tradition for hundreds of thousands of dedicated fans, all over the world. This rare concert act appeals across generations. Younger fans will be thrilled by the fresh take on current pop culture and the sheer virtuosity of the performers. Older audience members will fall in love with the timeless sounds and nostalgic sensibilities.
Why not dress vintage for the full effect?
Postmodern Jukebox’s genre-bending musical collective reimagines today’s biggest hits through the timeless sounds of past eras. It’s a high-energy, nostalgia-soaked experience that blends vintage style with contemporary hits— bringing audiences of all ages to their feet with unforgettable arrangements, incredible vocals, and old-school showbiz flair. Whether you’re a vinyl aficionado or a TikTok fashionista, catch a ride with us for an unforgettable musical trip.
January 16, 2026
POP-UP AT BARANCO
PASA and the Black Theater Experience (BTE) are teaming up for a powerful production of “What the Constitution Means to Me,” a boundary-breaking play performed by a bold, local cast. This isn't your average history lesson. It's a play that breathes new life into the Constitution, challenging us to think about how it will shape the next generation of Americans.
This Pulitzer Prize-nominated play by Heidi Schreck, who earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States, is a hilarious, hopeful, and achingly human work. The show traces the profound relationship between four generations of women and the founding document—the Constitution—that shaped their lives.
Schreck's play became a sensation off-Broadway before transferring to Broadway, where it received two Tony Award nominations among countless other accolades. The New York Times hailed “What the Constitution Means to Me” as "not just the best play to open on Broadway so far this season, but also the most important."
March 10, 2026
HEYMANN CENTER
Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana
Fiery, fearless, and unforgettable, Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana will ignite the stage with a powerhouse ensemble of dancers, musicians, and singers.
Raw emotion meets stunning precision as bold rhythms, breathtaking athleticism, and dazzling costumes come together in Tablao Flamenco, featuring the company’s international cast. Named after the wooden floors of tablaos, this program harnesses the flamenco’s improvisational and virtuosic nature.
Hailed as “The Keeper of Flamenco” by Dance Magazine, Carlota Santana is an internationally-renowned flamenco and Spanish dance artist. She has been honored by the king and government of Spain with La Cruz de la Orden al Mérito Civil for her decades of "passion, excellence and dedication to the flamenco art," and has led the charge to preserve flamenco as a living art form and a vital part of Hispanic heritage.
It’s a rare opportunity to share the artists’ emotions up close and experience the dynamic interplay when the dancers, guitarist, and singer come alive together. It’s an explosive energy. You’ll love it!
March 20, 2026
POP-UP AT BARANCO
A Tribute to Roberta Flack & Quincy Jones
JILL BUTLER & HER JOYRIDE BAND
What could be better than Jill Butler and her Joyride Band lighting up the night with the music of two legendary icons: Roberta Flack and Quincy Jones?
Roberta Flack, the chart-topping singer and pianist, was renowned for her genre-blending ballads, including "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," "Killing Me Softly with His Song," and "Feel Like Makin' Love." And then there's Quincy Jones, the record producer, composer, arranger, and bandleader whose list of honors is nearly endless.
Get ready for soul, style, and serious groove when this group warms up the Theater at Baranco. Jill leads her band that includes songbird Teka Briscoe, Dion Pierre on bass, Frank Kincel on drums, Denny Skerrett on sax, Clinton Jones on guitar, and Herb Green on percussion.
SEVEN PERFORMANCES, TWO 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 Theater is a fine, intimate space. Cite Des Arts is a theater, gallery, and rehearsal complex in downtown Lafayette. Lafayette Elementary 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 also has a theater.
There’s much discussion about the Heymann Center, its needs, and its future. Still, we rarely hear conversations about the publicly owned venues that are perfect places to bring exceptional, intimate entertainment. Notedly, they are almost all located in areas of our community that lack cultural entertainment options.
In the 2024-2025 season, PASA stepped out of its comfort zone at the Heymann Center and headed to a new venue: the Theater at Baranco, a 400-plus-seat theater that’s located in Dr. Raphael J. Baranco Elementary, formerly known as N.P. Moss Middle School.
The building itself is one of Lafayette’s historic gems, built 100 years ago.
While PASA events have taken place in some of these other venues from time to time, our recent move reflects a purposeful plan.
We are on a path to activate dormant venues; develop intimate, inventive programming that puts local artists in the spotlight, attracts people to performing arts entertainment in their neighborhoods. Follow PASA as we head to the Theater at Baranco Elementary for Roger Guenveur Smith’s one-man show “In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat” on November 14, “What the Constitution Means to Me” on January 16, 2026 and Jill Butler and her Joy Ride band on March 20, with the roll out of a tribute to Roberta Flack and Quincy Jones. Of course, you’ll find us at the Heymann Center for “Ben Folds & A Piano,” “Avatar: The Last Airbender in Concert,” “Postmodern Jukebox,” and ““Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana.”
Tickets for all PASA shows are available at pasaonline.org, as always.
HEYMANN CENTER
PASAble Opening Doors for Everyone
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 exceptionalities.
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, families, friends, and others are behind the powerful team that has partnered with PASA.
This is essential 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 various ways.
PASA’s intention is to eliminate as many hurdles as possible that discourage people from attending live entertainment and participating 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, hindering many from attending events and making them feel unwelcome. Thanks to PASA, this will change, and many will come back to see their favorite performances.”
HERE’S SOME OF WHAT PASA HAS DONE:
Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble members from the company joined the Dance Challenge class led by Lisa Mann Breaux at Jill Listi Dance Studio. Both the professional dancers and the students in the class worked closely on signature moves, and many of the students turned out to see the professionals perform at the Heymann Center.
Omnium Circus, an all-inclusive troupe, led a juggling workshop at Sky Craft—a cool place on General Mouton in Lafayette. Regardless of age or ability, everyone learned a few juggling tips and experimented with feathers, lassos, and scarves.
PASA designated an accessible entrance at the Heymann Center. Infra-red listening devices, which amplify the sound from the stage, are available free of charge at PASA’s Welcome Station. Large-print program notes, early seating for those who require extra time to reach their
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
seats, a Quiet Zone in the lobby, and American Sign Language translation are available. The PASAble team will surely dream up more.
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.
Roger Guenveur Smith leads his Performing History workshop.
In earlier seasons, we brought in Layon Gray’s drama “Black Angels Over Tuskegee” and OperaCreole, Theodore Foster, Ph.D., gave talks that framed historical facts around the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen and the history of classical music performed and written by free people of color in New Orleans. These talks have taken place in public schools, at the University of Louisiana Lafayette, and in recreation and tourist centers.
In 2024, PASA convened a panel of members of Acadiana’s Jewish community, who shared a lively, engaging, and informative look at the impact of the Jewish community on the development of Lafayette and the Acadiana region. Later that season, Omnium Circus led a juggling workshop.
There’s been more. Seth Rudetsky, at the request of Shawn Roy from the UL School of Music and Performing Arts, was asked to conduct 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 demands 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, as well as 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 on the events we feature in our online newsletter. Don’t receive PASA’s newsletter? Head to pasaonline.org now and sign up! We’re confident that you will learn something new and that we will learn from you, too.
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 The Marriage of Figaro. 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 recoup some of the lost fee. It sounded like a fabulous idea. We quickly found financial support for this unexpected endeavor, and we were set.
Facing Page: Students in sixth and seventh grades attended daytime performances by
There were two performances. More than 3,200 middle school and high school students attended the events. 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 brief hiatus in 2015, resuming in 2022 with PASA bringing students back to the Heymann for world-class entertainment. Daytime performances for students are expensive undertakings. Love Our Schools understood the need for these significant opportunities and has provided generous financial support.
Since 2022, more than 21,500 students have filled the Heymann Center for PASA’s Daytime Performances for Students.
In the 2022-23 school year, the first year of this program, more than 10,000 fifth, sixth, seventh, and eight-grade students attended performances by Kyiv City Ballet; the concert musical Cross That River, Andre Courville and Sweet Cecilia; and Momix. In 2023-2024, students attended jazz and Broadway concerts.
In the 2023-24 season, the Heymann Center was packed again. Jazz was front and center, with jazz concerts by the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and the Sean Mason Quintet. In a unique twist, master
musician and Sirius XM Broadway host Seth Rudetsky, along with Andrea McCardle, the original Annie on Broadway, created an on-stage master class. With the assistance of Allison Barron Brandon, founder and director of Wonderland Performing Arts, six students performed Broadway tunes of their choice. In front of 1,560 of their contemporaries, they walked on stage, introduced themselves, gave a nod to Seth Rudetsky, their accompanist! They had no rehearsal. One by one, each performed. Rudetsky and McArdle urged them on, with tips that made their prepared work soar.
“It’s safe 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.
Omnium Circus and the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, in collaboration with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, filled the 2024-25 student slate, powerfully showcasing themes of inclusiveness, acceptance, resilience, and redemption.
“There’s a whole lot of learning going on amidst these performances,” observes
Above: The cast of “Cross That River,” a concert musical about the history of Black cowboys.
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 foundation skills: communication, problem-solving, resource accessing 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.”
The PASA Daytime performances are supported by Love Our Schools, corporate sponsors, grants, and donations to PASA. For information on how to get involved or support these extraordinary opportunities for students, please get in touch with PASA at 337-769-3231.
Omnium Circus in March.
Meet the Board 2025-2026
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 recruited others to join the effort to quickly build PASA. 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 numerous other duties, the commitment of the PASA board is the reason PASA has grown so quickly in its four short seasons. Join us in singing their praises when you see them at a PASA event or out in the community.
TOP PHOTO
Front Row:
Maria Doucet, Tammy Milam, Sarah McNamara
Back Row
Daniel Wiltz, Tim Basden, Mark Thomas, Eric Singleton, Joel Bacque
BOTTOM PHOTO
Front Row:
Chloee Bello, Carolina Rogers, Brenda Andrus
Back Roy:
Sandra David, Kyle Choate, Art Kilchrist, Janet Wood
NOT SHOWN
Jackie Burney
PASA Staff Small but 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 2022, the organization’s 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.
PASA’s Brunch Galas Raise the Roof and More
On September 7, PASA headed to the historic Wolff Hall in Washington, Louisiana, for its Broadway Brunch Gala. The fun began as guests poured into the lobby of the newly restored Hotel Klaus, delighted by the new life breathed into this historic landmark. With bubbly beverages in hand, the party-goers—some in Broadway-themed costumes— walked over to the Wolff.
As guests entered, they took their seats at themed tables, topped with towers of flowers created by PASA Board Member Jeanne Hudson. With a lavish menu and live entertainment, the Broadway Brunch was another PASA good time.
A talented team from Wonderland Performing Arts, including Allison Barron Brandon, Drew Hoffpauir, Nebu Nezey and Colin Smith, performed memorable renditions of Broadway hits. Hunter deBlanc em-
ceed the gala and keeping the energy high throughout the morning.
While guests enjoyed a beautiful brunch, the banter highlighted vital PASA initiatives that go beyond the stage: PASAble, which creates inclusive performing arts opportunities, PASA’s internship program, and daytime performances for students. It was a morning of great food, fantastic music and a shared commitment to the power of the performing arts.
We tip our hats to the team from Bon Temps Grill who worked side by side with the Broadway Brunch team, including Darrellyn Burts, Janet Wood, Jeanne Hudson, Joanie Hill, Sarah McNamara, Sandra David and Brenda Andrus.
Southern Glazer’s and Lee Michaels—both long-time PASA partners—joined by the Louisiana Seafood Promotion Board, all generously supported this important event.
Maria Doucet and friends dressed in tribute to Audrey Hepburn.
The scene at PASA's Broadway Brunch Gala at Wolff Hall in Washington, LA.
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. Maurice Heymann led the way, donating the land for the Lafayette Municipal Auditorium, which is now the Heymann Performing Arts Center. Aren’t we all grateful for his vision!
Our 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 were as much about sports as we were about performing arts. We cheered at McNaspy Stadium and rooted for the USL basketball team at Blackham Coliseum. We attended Community Concerts at the Lafayette Municipal Auditorium with my grandmother, who, as a volunteer, sold tickets to the organization’s performances. We loved USL’s productions of Broadway plays, and my mom, who taught at the university, also dragged us along to see opera, all of which were 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, performing three separate concerts that planted the seeds for the Fine Arts Foundation, which thrived during the heydays of the oil and gas industry. Ella Fitzgerald, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Dr. Billy Taylor, the soprano Roberta
Peters, and the tap dancer Gregory Hines all performed here. One by one, the ballet world’s marquee names--Mikhail Barishnikov, Alexander Goudonoff, and Rudolph Nureyev--performed in Lafayette.
When the Fine Arts Foundation closed its doors in 1988, I was the mom of young children—ages one, three, and five years old--whom I intended to bring to see great performers. Now what? I stepped onto the board of the new organization that would fill the void left by the Fine Arts Foundation. In short order, I left my position as advertising director of the Times of Acadiana and became PASA’s first executive director.
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 improv company, and Wynton Marsalis. It’s hard to remember it all, but you can find more information on PASA’s website at 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 happen in our community, just like they do in Houston, New York, Chicago, and other metropolitan areas in our country.
See you at a show!
Feu Follet: Elisa Monte Dance and Jeffrey Broussard and the Creole Cowboys
Support PASA Volunteer, Participate, Give
Every nonprofit that is active in its community relies on support that fuels organizations and makes it possible for them to grow and thrive. It’s no different for PASA. That support comes in many shapes, and it is not always money that an organization needs.
PASA thrives because of our volunteers, the people who participate in our performances and activities that take place off the stage, and the financial support we receive.
Why Not Volunteer? Because we have events and activities throughout the year, we always need helping hands that lighten our load. Greeters at master classes, workshops, talks and other off-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 it's 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!
Buying tickets, whether you subscribe to the entire season or purchase only what works for you, is a way to treat yourself to live entertainment and support PASA. Our future is somewhat dependent on the box office, certainly. Yours is too, especially if you take advantage of all of the events that we offer, rather than attend only those that seem familiar. We have more than 30 years of experience entertaining you, often leading down a path to something new.
If you value what we do, please donate to PASA today. We rely on the generous giving of your hard-earned money. Without donors, corporate sponsors, grant givers and other types of donations, PASA—and virtually every other nonprofit—would simply not survive.
There are many benefits to setting up a recurring gift.
IT’S SIGNIFICANT
Consider PASA’s Recurring Gift Program. It’s an easy way to support PASA through automatic monthly installments. No gift is too small or too large, for that matter. Perhaps you’ll consider a modest monthly gift that may be surprisingly generous as the months add up.
IT’S SAFE
You
IT’S MEANINGFUL
Looking Ahead Want to Help Us Dream and Plan?
The PASA staff and board are always looking ahead, with an eye out for exciting touring artists that we can book. We are also on the lookout for projects that we can support or amplify.
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 dancers Roxane Butterfly and her teenage daughter Zuly, who is bilingual, homeschooled, and who also teaches tap. By the way, Zuly has Down Syndrome. What a perfect performing pair for PASA, 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 reach the stage. We have an idea for a drama that tells the story of a Vermilion Parish family whose dad fought segregation laws: a 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. 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.
