McNeese State University - Log Yearbook (Lake Charles, LA)

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Steven Duff assumes the role of the junk yard singer, who guides the audience through The Threepenny Opera with narra- tive song. (Photo by G. Edwards) A scene from William Saroyan’s The Time of Your Life is performed by a group of the cast members in the Ralph Squire’s Hall. (Photo by G. Little) Plays 31 —

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The production of four critically acclaimed plays by the McNeese Bayou Players gave the campus and community Great Entertainment McNeese University Theatre Bay- ou Players celebrated their Forty- fifth Season this year with the most successful season ever! William Sa- royan’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, The Time of Your Life, played to full houses every night — a gleeful, heartbreaking, tender and hilarious, probing, elusive play about a man’s search for happiness and answers to the far-reaching enigmas of life. Set in a waterfront saloon in San Francisco, a bizarre collection of barflies become entangled as they try to help solve each other's prob- lems. This American Theatre classic was overwhelmingly received by University and Lake Charles audi- ences. Dan A. Plato directed The Time of Your Life, completing his third year at McNeese teaching and directing in the Theatre Depart- ment. The second production was an 30 Student Life Original play by Shelley Fitze, Daughters of Heaven, a docu-drama that captures the challenge and courage demonstrated in the lives of America’s first women pilots — Amelia Earhart, Louise Thaden, and Ruth Nichols. This was an experi- mental production recapturing the sights and sounds of the 20's and 30's, directed by Dr. Susan E. Kelso, visiting lecturer, who will join the Theatre faculty in the fall of 1985. The Bayou Players had the privilege and pleasure of having the play- wright attend a performance fol- lowed by a Reception honoring her, the 99’s (an international organiza- tion for women pilots), and McNeese University Theatre An- gels. A Play Writing Workshop was conducted by Ms. Fitze during her stay on campus. The workshop was sponsored by the Theatre Depart- ment and the Calcasieu Arts and Humanities Council. Other guests during the run of Daughters of Heav- en included Edna Gardner Whyte, an original 99, and Donna Yancey, a free-lance writer. The production was received with enthusiastic re- sponse by audiences each night who came from as far as San Anto- nio and Baton Rouge! The Threepenny Opera was the third musica l in cooperation with the Music Department and was the . most successful to date with packed houses every night. Three- penny Opera addresses politics, ethics, ideas of love, and standards of art within the twentieth century society. Yet, for all its satire, itis a vastly entertaining and engaging work, as popular today as the day it was first performed. With Kurt Weill’s music, the tunes are at once catchy and haunting. Brecht’s un- Continued

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In The Threepenny Opera, Crookfinger Jake (John Barbry) has a hearty laugh in response to a threat of arrest. (Photo by G. Edwards) Maggie (Sherri Phillips) is consoled by Mae (Joanna Dunlap) and Gooper (Riki Plai- sance) after learning the disgruntling news about her lover in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. (Photo by G. Edwards) Amelia Earhart, portrayed by Sherri Phil- lips, is scolded by Correspondent, played by Brett Downer in Shelley Fitze’s play, Daughters of Heaven. (Photo by G. Little) 32 Student Life