Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           www.selu.edu/NewsEvents
    Date: 2/24/97
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple  98

EDITORS: A photo to accompany this release was mailed to you on 2/20
OPERA SET BOASTS "OLD FASHION STAGECRAFT"
     HAMMOND -- Pete Pfeil is using "good old fashion stagecraft" on the set of the
Southeastern Louisiana University Opera-Music Theatre's production of the comic opera
"Christopher Columbus."
     Pfeil, who is campus technical director, has reached back to stage techniques of the 1940s
and is using huge painted backdrops to decorate the stage for the zany opera, a modern work set
to the music of 19th Century composer Jacques Offenbach. 
     "Christopher Columbus" will be performed at Southeastern's Pottle Music Building
Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. March 5 and 7. Tickets --  $10 general admission and $5 senior citizens,
SLU faculty and staff and non-SLU students -- will be available at the door. SLU students are
admitted free with their university I.D.
     Pfeil said backdrops are an ideal set design solution for the Pottle stage with its high
proscenium and limited wing space. He used a worn out "cyc" -- or "cyclorama," the white
curtain that wraps around all three sides of the stage -- as the material for his two backdrops. One
is a giant map of the world -- the "flat" world of Columbus' era, which Pfeil designed based on
pictures of early maps. Monsters lurk at the earth's four corners and the undistinguishable land
mass is labeled, "Terra incognita." 
     To save the time it would take to block out the huge "world" scene, Pfeil hung the blank
material in place, projected an image on the drop and traced it using "very fat paint brushes," he
said. His 10-year-old daughter Roxanne helped him lay out the dimensions for the second
                                 (MORE) 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS -- Add One

painted drop, which portrays the deck and smokestacks of a 1940s-era luxury liner.  
     "I haven't painted scenery since I graduated from college in 1977," Pfeil grinned, "so this
was a little scary."
     He's happy with the results, however, and thinks "Christopher Columbus" audiences will
be, too. The audience, however, should not expect to discover the discoverer they learned about
in school. The Columbus of "Christopher Columbus" is played strictly for laughs. A "triple
bigamist," this Chris has three wives and a fiancee, his Santa Maria turns into a steamship and
lands in Manhattan -- where Columbus discovers CocaCola. 
     Pfeil's set for the Manhattan scenes was inspired by old fashioned CocaCola ads, he said.
The voyage in the Santa Maria will feature a huge sail and a ship's deck built on a teeter-totter to
simulate stormy seas. 
     "Christopher Columbus" is directed by Larry Gray with Scharmal Schrock as musical
director and producer. The opera will be conducted by SLU Director of Bands Frank Dubuy.
Pfeil's wife Anna is costumer. 
     For additional information about "Christopher Columbus," call the SLU Music
Department, 549-2184.
                                 - SLU -
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