Southeastern NEWS
Southeastern Louisiana University
Public Information Office
SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
Date: 3/8/96
Contact: Christina Chapple 98
E NATURE OF WORK
HAMMOND -- Given the months of work and planning that go into a theatrical set, you
would think the designer would hate to see it trashed after the final curtain. But Pete Pfeil thinks
that's one of the best parts of the job.
"I find that very refreshing," laughed Southeastern Louisiana University's technical
director. "It's over with and you can forget about it and go on to something new."
A Milwaukee, Wisc., native, Pfeil joined the Southeastern staff last August. As technical
director, he designs lighting and sound, set up and strikes sets and generally makes sure that
Southeastern stages are ready for guest and campus lecturers, musicians, singers, dancers and
actors.
For the upcoming March 27-28 "Evening of One Act Operas" -- Puccini's "Gianni
Schicchi" and Milton Granger's "The Proposal" -- at the Pottle Music Building Auditorium, Pfeil
has added set designer to his job description.
"I've done a couple of sets, but I've never really been in a situation where I've had to do a
lot of scenery. I was always the lighting guy and production manager," said Pfeil, whose has held
those jobs at Jefferson Parish late great Beverly Dinner Playhouse, Tulane University's music
department and Summer Lyric Theatre, the New Orleans Symphony and the Orpheum Theatre.
"Now that I'm at Southeastern, I asked Scharmal Schrock (head of the university's Opera-
Music Theatre program) if I could do the set. She and director Larry Gray really stuck their necks
out and are giving me a rare opportunity," Pfeil said.
Pfeil got involved in show business early in life, thanks to his mother. "She was a
community theater person and would drag me to rehearsals when I was little," he said." As a
child Pfeil acted with a children's theater arm of the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. "It was a
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real top notch group," he said. Acting, however, was something that he simply grew out of.
"As a kid it was easy, but I didn't enjoy it as I got older," said Pfeil. Enrolling in the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he took technical theater courses. "I figured I knew about
show business and those tech guys were working all the time," he said.
"I fell in love with New Orleans through an acquaintance and moved down to the city in
1977. I didn't have a job so I started pounding on doors," Pfeil said. Persistence got him a
summer job on the prop crew of the Beverly Dinner Playhouse. Then, "the lighting designer left
and I talked them into letting me do lights. I did something right and they liked it and I ended up
being their lighting designer for the next five years."
The Beverly, said Pfeil, operated on the "star system," bringing in television personalities
such as JoAnn Worley and Artie Johnson of "Laugh In" fame and Hollywood stars like Lana
Turner, Ann Miller, Joan Fontaine, Vera Miles and Caesar Romero to guest star in light
comedies. The pay wasn't great, but he had a room on the premises and, "You didn't have to
make a lot of money because since it was a dinner theatre, they fed you!" Pfeil laughed. "We
were doing a show every six weeks, so it was kind of like an apprenticeship."
Pfeil had already moved to a job at Tulane University when the Beverly burned to the
ground. He's still nostalgic about the theatre, where he met his wife Anna, who was a waitress.
"It was a marvelous place, an exciting time," he said.
At Tulane, Pfeil was production manager for the music department, doing the tech work
for Dixon Hall events and also serving as production manager and lighting designer for Tulane
Summer Lyric Theatre. After another five year stint, he took his young family -- Anna and two
children -- back to Milwaukee for two years, but found himself homesick for his adopted
hometown, New Orleans.
"I moved back without a job, two kids and Anna was pregnant. It was a bonehead kind of
move, but I got really lucky again," Pfeil said. He was hired as production manager for the New
Orleans Symphony, which had put down roots in the renovated Orpheum Theatre just a half a
block from the French Quarter.
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Pfeil's luck did not hold, however. The Symphony, a 55-year-old arts organization, went
bankrupt. He was able to stay on as theatre manager at the Orpheum, however, until
philosophical differences with the theatre's owners brought the relationship to an end. The
owners wanted to keep the Orpheum as a "rental house," while Pfeil wanted to do fine arts
programming.
"It was probably the best thing that ever happened to me, but at the time I was very
depressed because now I had four kids and no job," said Pfeil. "I was very disappointed that I
wasn't able to make the Orpheum a big fine arts center." Pfeil decided to give up show business
and go to cooking school.
Since he was still freelancing as a lighting designer, he heard about the technical director
opening at Southeastern.
"This is a dream, the perfect job," Pfeil said. "I love the university, love being around
smart people, people who want to learn and are creative. I'm thrilled to find Southeastern to be
such a nice campus. Everyone here is so supportive, which I'm not really used to!"
Pfeil said he has enjoyed designing the sets for "Gianni Schicchi" and "The Proposal."
"At this point in my career, I'm looking for new things to keep doing," he said.
His set for Puccini's opera, a comedy set in 1299, is basically a room set, period
furnishings arrayed against a black backdrop. The half-hour contemporary work "The Proposal,"
however, has called for more imagination.
"A character called 'Herself'," said Pfeil, "is trying to decide whether to get married.
Other characters kind of represent parts of her personality -- a nun like Mother Theresa,
"Sensuous Woman," the Statue of Liberty, a crossing guard, a five-year-old kid." While other set
designers have used doors to represent the characters, Pfeil chose shoes -- very big shoes, which
he has cut from plywood. The set will be decorated by huge versions of footwear such as a
cowboy boot, saddle oxford, high heels and a tennis shoe.
"Why shoes?" said Pfeil. "Well, the characters are inside someone's mind or secret place,"
he explained. "To me the most secret place for a girl would be her closet and the most secret part
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of the closet would be something hidden in a shoe box."
Curtain time for the evening of operas is 7:30 p.m. Tickets, $5 general admission, SLU
students free with university I.D, go on sale March 25 in the Ralph R. Pottle Music Building.
Pfeil is enthusiastic about the production and openly happy with the opportunity to design
the sets. "I'm still trying to prove myself and be a valuable part of this community. They're
certainly giving me a lot of changes to do that."
Regardless of the success of his sets, Pfeil won't be sad to see them disassembled. "I
really do like the part that you get to throw it all away," he said. "It's kind of refreshing, like
ripping a page out of your notebook and then there's a new one underneath it. I like doing new
things!"
For additional information about the evening of one act operas, call Schrock at 549-2336.
-SLU-