SYLVIA NASAR HEADLINES FANFARE’S FOURTH WEEK
      HAMMOND  -- Author Sylvia Nasar will talk about the tragic and triumphant life of economist John Forbes Nash Jr. – the fascinating subject of her award-winning book, “A Beautiful Mind,” and the hit movie it inspired -- during the fourth week of Fanfare, Southeastern Louisiana University’s annual arts festival.
      Nasar’s lecture, “A Beautiful Mind: Genius, Madness, Reawakening,” is the headliner in a week that also spotlights an innovative string quartet; a pair of operatic gems; art and jazz in downtown Hammond; quilts in neighboring Ponchatoula, and a lively look at how Hollywood treats history.
      Nasar’s Fanfare lecture is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 22, at the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts. A journalist who has covered the economy for “Fortune,” “U.S. News & World Report,” and “The New York Times,” Nasar first learned of John Nash in 1994 on the eve of the announcement that he would be awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics.
      “I heard a rumor that a mathematical genius who had suffered from schizophrenia for three decades might be on a short list for the prize,” said Nasar. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, this sounds like a Greek tragedy, Shakespeare play and fairy tale rolled into one.’” 
      Nasar wrote the biography, her first book, because “I was sure other people would find his story fascinating, too,” she said. “Nash's miraculous remission is so inspiring.” Nasar’s “A Beautiful Mind” subsequently won the National Book Critics' Circle Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography. 
      Tickets for Nasar’s presentation are $15 for adults; $12 for senior citizens, Southeastern faculty, staff and alumni; and $8 for non-Southeastern students. Admission is free for current Southeastern students with their university I.D.
      To set the stage for Nasar’s evening lecture, faculty from Southeastern’s College of Business and Technology and Mathematics Department will discuss Nash’s amazing career and work in a panel discussion earlier in the day. “The Mathematics of John Nash: Some Beautiful Work” is scheduled for 2 p.m. in the Student Union Theatre.
      Critics cannot say enough about the innovation and spirit of Fanfare’s Wednesday, Oct. 23 guests, the Turtle Island String Quartet. 
      “It must have been like this when Beethoven was taking Vienna by storm -- the exhilaration of seeing the future of classical music unfold before your eyes and ears," the “St. Louis Post Dispatch said. "The niche they fit into best might be labeled ‘Wow!’” “Billboard Magazine” described the four musicians’ artistry as “bow-etry in motion."
      Formed in 1985, the Turtle Island String Quartet mix jazz, bluegrass, blues and rock with the European musical tradition. The group’s debut recording, released in 1988, introduced the music world to a new phenomenon, the jazz string quartet, and inspired the devoted following TISQ has today. The group’s adventurous and surprising blend of styles creates completely new musical textures and forms that have been praised by the likes of acclaimed cellist Yo Yo Ma. 
      Tickets for Turtle Island String Quartet are $12 for adults, $10 for senior citizens and Southeastern faculty, staff and alumni, and $5 for all students.
      The quartet also will offer a jazz clinic at 2 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 24 in the Music Recital Hall.
      The musical troupe Tales & Scales has created a new style of performing and even coined a new word for it – “musictelling.” This unique group will bring an afternoon of unique family entertainment to the Columbia Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 26.  Tales & Scales is the nation’s only ‘musictelling’ ensemble. Since 1986, the troupe of instrumental musicians have worked with the brightest emerging composers, writers and  directors to create innovative new works designed to ignite the imaginations of children and family audiences. 
      Using minimal sets and costumes, the uniquely-talented musicians of Tales & Scales spin music, story,  and dance into an unforgettable ‘musictelling’ performance experience that dazzles audiences of all ages. 
      Tickets for the 2 p.m. performance are $7 general admission and $5 for children under 12 years of age.
      Southeastern’s Opera-Music Theatre Program, always a hit during Fanfare, will contribute a double bill of entertainment, two short operas by Gian Carlo Menotti, to the 2002 schedule.
      “The Telephone” and “The Medium,” which will be sung in English, present a double bill of hilarious comedy and thrilling tragedy. “The Telephone” comically examines modern romance. Ben, sung by graduate student James Flick of Kent, Conn., wants to propose to his girlfriend Lucy, portrayed by Patricia Ramirez of Hammond, but is having a maddening time trying to get off of the telephone. 
     “The Medium” explores the world of the supernatural as the fraudulent Madame Flora, (Daveda Karanas of Mandeville) in the midst of conducting a séance, feels a spectral hand on her neck. She accuses her daughter Monica, Jacquie Brecheen of Ponchatoula and mute assistant Toby (Hammond High School student Simon Pfiel) of playing a cruel trick. The eerie tale explores whether or not Madame Flora is going mad, or whether the other world is extracting its revenge. 
      “The Telephone” and “The Medium,” directed by Larry Gray and produced by Charles Effler, will be performed at 7:30 p.m., Oct. 24-26 at Southeastern’s Pottle Music Building Auditorium. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for senior citizens, non-SLU students, and SLU faculty, staff and alumni. Admission is free for Southeastern students presenting a university I.D.
      Hammond’s First Christian Church will be the Week Four host of Fanfare’s Music for a Sunday Afternoon concert series. Pianist and Southeastern graduate Lucien Zidaru and actor Bill Haley will present an afternoon of music and poetry, “The Permanence of Romantic Themes,” at 3 p.m., Oct. 20, at the church’s Reimers Auditorium, located on the corner of E. Charles and N. Cherry streets. 
      The history and political science department’s “Then and Now” lecture series continues with “Bad History Goes to the Movies, Episode Two.” At 1 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 23, in  Pottle Music Building Auditorium, Michael Kurtz, an award-winning author, historian and dean of Graduate Studies at Southeastern, will take a look at the Hollywood version of history in movies such as “JFK,” “Bonnie and Clyde,” and “The Godfather.”
 On Monday, Oct. 21, the Jane Austen Film Festival will continue with the 7 p.m. showing of “Persuasion” at the East Gate Café and Cinema on North Oak Street, across from the Southeastern campus. The free film is rated PG.
      Two community events join the Fanfare calendar during the festival’s fourth week.
      From 5 to 10 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 24, the Downtown Development District will sponsor “Art and All 
      That Jazz” in Hammond's historic district. DDD Director Marco Monoc said approximately 40 businesses and restaurants will participate in an art stroll from 5 to 7:30 p.m. and will distribute discount coupons to kick off the holiday shopping season in the downtown district.
      From 7 to 10 p.m., the DDD is sponsoring a free concert in Cate Square by the hot young jazz group "Ingrid Lucia and the Flying Neutrinos."
      Downtown Ponchatoula will be festooned with hundreds of colorful quilts on Saturday, Oct. 26 when Louisiana’s Antique City celebrates the beautiful, practical art of quilting during for the “Great Invitational Quilt Expo.” The day-long quilting celebration includes activities for children, a quilter-merchant’s mall, antique shopping, food, and the raffle of a patriotic quilt made by the Southern Samplers. Lectures on dating quilts, dying fabric and quilt making begin at 10 a.m. at the Fleur de Lis, 111 N. Sixth St. For more information, contact Expo chair Marie Carroll at 225-294-2673.
      In conjunction with the event, the Louisiana Furniture Gallery, located in the old Acadian Cypress building on SW Railroad Ave., will host an exhibit paying tribute to Ponchatoula Artists. The exhibit will be open during the Quilt Expo and will culminate with  “Jazzing Up the Arts,” featuring the music of Reg Sanders from 6 to 8 p.m. For additional information about the exhibit, contact Carol Siekkenin at 985-386-0471.
      For a Fanfare brochure and ticket order form or for additional information about Fanfare events, contact the Public Information Office, 985-549-2341, publicinfo@selu.edu, or Fanfare, 985-543-4366, fanfare_ctpa@selu.edu. Fanfare information is also available online at www.selu.edu/fanfare. 
      Fanfare tickets are available at the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts box office, 220 East Thomas St., Hammond, 985-543-4371. Tickets can also be purchased online at www.ticketweb.com. Box office hours are noon to 5 p.m., weekdays. The box office is open until performance time for events at the Columbia Theatre.