Southern Rep Announced LOUISIANA LADIES - WOMEN WORTH CELEBRATING

As Louisiana approaches its 200th anniversary of statehood, LOUSIANA LADIES launches a new series of events by Southern Rep, celebrating the people who have made our region famous for speaking its mind and making great art. This event features historical monologues and songs by some of the most well known female voices in our city: Troi Bechet, Margarita Bergen, Leslie Castay, Tari Hohn Lagasse, Diane Mack, Barbara Motley, Nell Nolan, Janet Shea, Susan Spicer and Carol Sutton - with more still to come!

I have had the pleasure of matching this cast of New Orleans ladies with icons from our rich and storied Louisiana history. What fun to hear Chef Susan Spicer read from renowned Louisiana Cookery author Mary Land's journal of a life celebrating Louisiana cuisine or listen to that velvet voiced lady of WWNO's morning show Diane Mack give life to the mysterious voodoo queen Marie Laveau or revel in performer Troi Bechet's mighty voice as she recreates a Mahalia Jackson hymn. Expect to also "hear" from Kate Chopin, Clementine Hunter, Baroness de Pontalba, Blaze Starr, and Mother Henriette Delille among many others. Working on this project has definitely proven that Louisiana women are exceptional, memorable, funny and fabulous!
-Aimée Hayes, Artistic Director

The event will be held at The Louisiana State Museum's beautiful Cabildo space, right in the heart of Jackson square. The portraits of female icons lining the staircase to the second floor venue provide the ideal setting for the event.

Last December, we attended a Louisiana Partnership for the Arts meeting in which guest speaker Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne asked cultural institutions to think about how we might contribute to a year of programming that would celebrate the 200th anniversary or our state, officially celebrated April 30th, 2012. This event is the beginning of a new series that was born from that call.
-Marieke Gaboury, Managing Director

LOUSIANA LADIES is a one night only event: June 27th 7:00 - 8:30pm. Location: The Cabildo, 751 Chartres Street. Tickets: $45 for reserved seating, $25 for general entry. For more information, or to reserve your tickets, please call 504-522-6545 or go online to www.SouthernRep.com.

Southern Rep strives to enlighten, educate and entertain our audiences. We create a dynamic and nurturing home for theatre professionals in our Mainstage Season and with programs like THE NEW PLAY BACCHANAL, PLAYLAB, The 6x6 New Play Slam, and our monthly soap opera, DEBAUCHERY. And we offer exhilarating learning opportunities through innovative education and outreach programs like YO NOLA, a program that trains underserved youth to run their own theatre company; or our new play award for women of color playwrights, The Ruby Prize. As New Orleans' only year-round professional theatre, we are woven into the city's rich and diverse cultural fabric.

Southern Rep continues to show that it is staging the most important, challenging, and downright mesmerizing pieces of theater New Orleans audiences are graced to experience. - Theodore P. Mahne, The Times-Picayune