Let Us Entertain You, Act I

51st Annual Tulane Educational Conference, Saturday, January 31, 2004

Open to public & Tulane community; Conference FEE: $35 if pre-registration is RECEIVED BY FRIDAY, JANUARY 23 (includes parking at Loyola Garage on Freret Street, upscale continental breakfast & concession style snacks). After January 23 IF SPACE ALLOWS, $40. All high school students and all area college students, Tulane and St. Augustine faculty and staff may attend for $10. Call Office of Alumni Affairs 504.865.5901, or toll free 877.488.5263 for details.

For brochure cover, click here!

The 2004 Tulane Educational Conference sparkles with panels and presentations by creative types, entertainment entrepreneurs, and industry veterans. This convergence of entertainment professionals represents a wide spectrum of functions - from songwriters to agents, from jugglers to set-designers. They assemble with the goal of being helpful and accessible to those starting careers in entertainment as well as those who are well established. Most important, they are here for those who hold the most vital job of all, the audience!

Filmmakers, writers, actors and producers provide insight into the dynamics of the business to-date. They'll discuss how in the continuing morphing and evolution of the entertainment industry, Tulane and Newcomb alumni will continue to elevate and expand its horizons. From emerging artists, to seasoned performers renegotiating their latest personae within the industry, Tulane's alumni and faculty members offer engaging takes on their professions, colleagues and passions.

Guest celebrity presentations by Harold Sylvester, Linda Mintz, Stocker Fontelieu, Nell Nolan, Ed Nelson, Bryan Batt, Michael Arata and others offer opportunities to meet newly-in-the-news talent, and to celebrate retrospective appreciations of talents the community has enjoyed for decades. Scholars have used more than 28 definitions of the concept of entertainment - as an activity, performance or spectacle that provides fun, amusement, and pleasure: define it for yourself January 31. Come, partake, and indulge. Let Tulane be your ticket to entertainment!

8:00 am

Registration (pre-registration by Friday, January 23 strongly suggested: late fee of $5 thereafter if space remains available) & Continental Breakfast - Dixon Hall. All sessions held on Newcomb College campus, Tulane University, between Freret & Willow. Right off Broadway!

8:15

Welcome! - Nell Nolan Young (N'66, G'70,'72), The Times-Picayune social columnist, teaches French & English and has performed in France (in French!), London and Tblisi, Republic of Georgia, and locally on a dozen stages. On January 16 & 17, she co-stars in Love Letters (her tenth year) at Le Chat Noir (visit http://www.cabaretlechatnoir.com/), and on January 23 performs in a Shakespearian revue.

During the 8:40, 9:50 and 11:00 sessions, presentations run concurrently. Please select only one presentation per person in each time's session.

8:40

A) Producing a Weekly TV Series. Panel moderated by Lea Ellison (N'69), a producer and president of Strong Hearts Entertainment, Inc., with 28 years experience in television, theatre, arts festival production, management and marketing. For twelve years, Ms. Ellison worked as art director or assistant art director in network series television. Her credits include ABC-TV's SOAP, Benson, It's a Living, Oh, Madeline!, I'm a Big Girl Now, Charlie & Company, and Off the Rack; NBC-TV's Night Court, and Amen; and Louisiana Public Television's Justin Wilson's Louisiana Kitchen. Ellison was an assistant art director on SOAP in 1978 when it won the prime time EMMY Award for Best Art Direction in a Comedy Series. (See more about Lea on http://www.strongheartsentertainment.com/) Panel participants include: Michael Price (G'86), writer and co-executive producer of The Simpsons. Other recent credits include co-executive producer of What About Joan, an ABC sitcom starring Joan Cusack, and Disney's Teacher's Pet, an ABC and Disney Channel animated show, and supervising producer of The PJs, a Fox Animated comedy starring Eddie Murphy; Todd A. Erlandson, AIA (Arch'87) architectural consultant on the Discovery Channel's reality series Monster House, now in its second season, helps conceptualize each scenario, appearing on camera for each "design shoot" with host Steve Watson, the production designer and an illustrator putting the plans for the week's house on the design boards. The first season houses were themed as a tropical hideaway, a '70s disco, the Old West, an English castle, a Zen retreat, a car racetrack and Hollywood entertainment. Erlandson, who just finished shooting for the current season in Las Vegas, is a partner at (M)Arch. strategic architectures, a collaboration of architects and marketing professionals in Santa Monica, CA. He is a guest critic and lecturer, has taught at SCI_ARC, Otis College of Art and Design, Woodbury University and Vico Morcote, Switzerland, and worked for Richard Meier and Associates on the Getty Center and the Wolfgang Puck Food Company developing concept restaurants. Read all about him at http://www.marchstudio.com/aia_mon.htm; Harold Sylvester (A&S'72), a familiar face on television, including appearances as Griff in the series Married… With Children. (see E below for more...); Ed Nelson (A&S'53, UC 2000), who just received his sidewalk 'star' downtown at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, for his Peyton Place role as Dr. Michael Rossi. (see G below for more…) Get the inside track on behind-the-scenes production of four-plus decades of TV!

B) A Real Duke of Hazards. Robert F. Perrin (A&S'59), a veteran award-winning cinematographer, offers a glimpse into the perils, follies, and rewards of being an "indie." He's filmed over 100 documentaries, as well as news, commercial and corporate films. He's made documentaries for the ESPN fishing series, In Search of Flywater, children's environmental specials for Boston's Public Broadcasting series, NOVA, and for WVUE, assisted by his wife, Mary T. Perrin (N'60). Bob has filmed documentaries for BBC, Channel 4, HBO, PBS, A&E and Discovery. His credits include: The Killing of Medgar Evers, which won two Cable Ace Awards and the New York Festival Award, Jimi Hendrix, a film on Karen Silkwood, The Farm: Life Inside Angola Jail, which won an 1999 Emmy Award for Best Cinematography, and Best Editing, Night Rider, which won an ACE Award, Fatal Vision, nominated at Cannes, and The Assassins, also named Best Documentary at the New York Film Festival. He has done films for The Corning Glass Museum, The Constitutional Museum, Lewis & Clark Museum, and the Flyfishing Museum. Bob was supervising producer for JFK Assassination: The Jim Garrison Tapes and filmed the controversial Collectors, about people who collect artwork created by serial killers.

C) Remembering John Morrissey & his Contribution to Music. Don Mackenroth (A&S'51) and Maurice J. Picheloup III (A&S'39, B'42) offer an appreciation of the man who directed Tulane's band for decades. From 1941 until his retirement in 1968, Tulane held world premiers of his over 100 original compositions during annual spring concerts of the band. Working from an extensive personal collection of 33 and 78 rpm records, the archives of John's widow, Rose Mary Keating Morrissey (SW'47), and recollections of players in Morrissey's marching bands, they will explore the now internationally acclaimed legacy of one of the finest composers of symphonic band music.

D) New Orleans in the Movies: Cinema Sites from Real to Reel. Carolyn "Pani" Kolb (N'63), a former president of the Newcomb Alumnae Association, screens video clips of our local scenes and venues used in movies and television! Kolb, who worked in Tulane's Ransom Hogan Jazz Archives while a student, has served as Director of the New Orleans Jazz Museum, designed a multi-media exhibit on jazz parades for the Smithsonian Institution, written articles in The Tulanian, Louisiana Life, New Orleans, Southern Living, and Woman's Day magazines, as well as numerous travel and food articles in The Times-Picayune and contributed articles to The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. She is author of the Dolphin Guide to New Orleans, and updated Louisiana: Off the Beaten Path: A Guide to Unique Places. She has designed two walking tours of the French Quarter: a "Litera-Tour" focusing on writers and their works, and the tour this presentation is based upon - an exploration of locally filmed movies.

9:50

E) Being Black and Southern in Both LAs: Louisiana and Los Angeles. Harold Sylvester (A&S'72) discusses the long road from being a St. Augustine basketball star, then Tulane's first African American athletic scholarship student, thru a film career appearing in Night of the Strangler, Fast Break, Sounder Part 2, Uncommon Valor, An Officer and a Gentleman, Inside Moves, Fast Break, A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich, Vision Quest, Space Rage, Innerspace, Hit List, In the Deep Woods, Corrina, Corrina, The Reluctant Agent, The Sixth Man, Trippin', and Missing Brendan (2003). His television work includes appearing in many shows, and writing Passing Glory (1999), a TNT made-for-television movie about the historic 1965 St. Augustine vs. Jesuit basketball game. He was screenwriter and co-executive producer of On Hallowed Ground, and has even played God in What Wouldn't Jesus Do? (2002) His latest venture is a movie currently entering production.

F) Writing A Love Song For Bobby Long. Grayson Capps (A&S'89) recounts the surreal experience of having an interlude of his life immediately after he left Tulane turned into the raw stuff of a movie, now starring John Travolta and Scarlett Johansson. Episodes Capps experienced, people he knew and songs he's written will appear in the film to be released by Sony Pictures, based upon an unpublished book by his dad, Everett Capps. Grayson previously did the music for the documentary, Anthem, regularly plays music in various New Orleans venues, and has a new CD, Grayson Capps.

G) Voices of Experience: Early Television & Community Theatre in New Orleans. Group Discussion. Stocker Fontelieu (A&S'49), an icon in local theater as director, manager and actor for over five decades, shares his reminiscences of various enterprises, productions and personalities. He is currently assisting the Historic New Orleans Collection in identifying some of their vast holdings in the Performing Arts, particularly images from the Gallery Circle Theater. Linda Mintz (N'55) has been seen on many local stages over a varied career in theatre and musical productions. Her films include Sweet Charity with Melissa Gilbert and Cecily Tyson, Malpractice and Jake Lassiter: Justice on the Bayou. Her television career began as a seamless transition from her radio career with Let's Tell a Story when she was only nineteen. Along with pal Terry Flettrich, she defined the early years of local children's programming, enchanting generations as Romper Room's Miss Linda until she was forty. She reprised her child-friendly persona as recently as two months ago with a TV special, Miss Muffin's Thanksgiving. Her reminiscences include her later television work on the Passionate Poet and Dark Secrets. Ed Nelson (A&S'53/UC 2000) once sat between Walter Pigeon and Victor George on the Screen Actors' Guild board of directors. Now he's teaching: at Tulane, The Art & Craft of Film, and Introduction to Screenwriting, and at UNO, Acting for Camera. But in the beginning, he was the first floor director at WDSU when Mel Leavitt was doing news live, Flettrich was doing children's TV, and Tulane had a Peabody Award winning live program called Tulane Close Up, on which Ed also acted. He spent 6 years in local community theatre before heading to Hollywood, when Le Petit & Gallery were the only serious theatres in town. Nelson is a member of the Academy, currently judging tapes for the Awards. Starting off with monster pictures, then westerns for nine years and a soap for five, he has possibly done more television and films - over 1500 television shows and 60 movies - in 45 years in Hollywood, than any other New Orleans Tulanian. Plus he did live theatre during the summer breaks! Bryan Batt (A&S'85), whose family owned Pontchartrain Beach, offers a glimpse into his transition from local stages to Broadway, where he's been called 'wickedly versatile,' and 'playful' in eight Broadway and nine Off-Broadway shows. He's appeared in movies, including Paul Rudnick's Jeffrey, and Kiss Me Guido. He's worked with Glenn Close, Trevor Nunn, Betty Buckley, Patrick Stewart, Nathan Lane, Leslie Castay (N'85) among others and done dozens of local productions, including five at Le Petit and four for Tulane's Summer Lyric Theatre. He's done television stints on The Guiding Light, Law and Order, As the World Turns and The Cosby Show, and musical recording. Hazelnut, a Magazine Street interior design shop, is his newest enterprise. Read all about it on www.bryanbatt.com Nell Nolan Young (N'66, G'70,'72) (see Welcome), seen on local stages recently in Monologues and Music…for the Money, Honey, a one-woman show she wrote and uses as a charity fundraiser; The Confederacy of Dunces; and in waltz & tango routines, reminisces.

H) The City & State of Entertainment: Bringing An Industry Home. Joint session. Ana M. Lopez, associate provost, and former head of Tulane's Film Studies program, Department of Communication, discusses Tulane's role in grooming the film creators of today and tomorrow. Joining her is Stephanie Samuel Dupuy, of the New Orleans' Mayor's Office of Film & Entertainment, daughter of J. Raymond Samuel (A&S'37) and sister of law professor Cynthia Samuel (L'72), examining the issues and pluses of economic development via greater participation in the entertainment industry, and new city and state programs and legislation aimed at increasing our share of the television-and film-making dollars, a natural fit for the city with the nation's first movie house, Vitascope Hall, and the first public showing of a motion picture in America! (Hosted by George Bott, Assistant Director)

11:00

I) The Beatles Are Coming: The Birth of Beatlemania in America. Bruce Spizer (A&S'76, B'77, L'80), the world's leading expert on the Beatles in America, is the author of five critically acclaimed books on them: The Beatles Records on Vee-Jay, The Beatles' Story on Capitol Records (parts 1 & 2), The Beatles on Apple Records, The Beatles Solo on Apple Records, and THE BEATLES ARE COMING! The Birth of Beatlemania in America, his most recent book being released January 16, with a foreword by Walter Cronkite. Bruce's articles on the Beatles are featured regularly in Beatlology Magazine and Beatlefan. Join this tax man by day, paperback writer by night, to kick off the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the fateful day, February 7, 1964, when the Fab Four set foot on our shores and their historic first appearance two days later on the Ed Sullivan Show. Visit his website at www.beatle.net

J) Sights and Sounds of Early Jazz. Robert McIntyre (B'52) and his band, The Original Last Straws, will show images from glass lantern slides and other views of the city and musicians who founded the art form, and perform early jazz from the formative years. McIntyre is one of eight founding members of the New Orleans Jazz Restoration Society dedicated to the preservation of traditional jazz and its places, music and people. The Society is currently working on the restoration of a roaring 20s jazz joint known as The Halfway House (halfway between Canal and the Lakefront) and the 400 block of South Rampart Street. In this block are the Eagle Saloon (site of Louis Armstrong's earliest paying gigs), Karnofsky Furniture Company (whose owners' sponsored Armstrong into the Waif's Home, setting him on his musical career) and site of the Iroquois Theatre (the first vaudeville theatre in the US). Other Tulanian founding members are Bob Ice, a former A.B. Freeman adjunct professor and the band's bass player and sometimes band-member John Joyce (G'66,'75), assistant professor of music. The late John Chaffe (A&S'61), the band's former banjoist, was a co-founder of the band with McIntyre, in 1957. The Last Straws have been frequent performers at numerous Tulane events as well as about town, out-of-state and abroad. Tulanians may also recognize clarinet player Bris Jones, the talented tonsorialist for 30 years at the Tulane barbershop!

K) The Crossroads of Art & Commerce: Part I: How Agents & Lawyers Enable Entertainment. Evan M. 'Fogie' Fogelman (A&S'82, L'85), literary agent and entertainment lawyer discusses the role of agents and lawyers in the entertainment industry. He is the author of a recent book on publishing, and member of The Sports and Entertainment Law Association. Visit http://www.fogelman.com/evan.htm Part II: To Market, To Market. Sherry Hoffman (N'84), marketing and advertising executive in Los Angeles and New York, shares her experience in developing marketing strategies and positioning for major motion pictures and directing the brand management process for studio franchises across television, consumer products, theme parks and beyond. Formerly a consultant at Universal Pictures and leading the cause-related marketing efforts for event films and existing franchises, including The Grinch (First Book) and E.T. (Special Olympics), she will also discuss partnering non-profits with entertainment properties and celebrities. See her bio at http://www.marchstudio.com/bios.html

L) Celebrating 15 Years: The New Orleans Film Festival. Michael Arata (A&S'89, L'92), a member of the festival board of directors, a producer and actor often seen on local stages, offers a portrait of the current festival, its history, beginning in 1989 and a preview of coming attractions. (Alumnus David Zalkind (A&S'75, L'77) was its first president in 1991-92.) Arata is executive producer of two feature documentaries; The People's Story, about the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch in Central America; and Shalom Y'All, about Southern Jewish heritage. He's the executive producer of Tony Bravo, an indie filmed and financed in New Orleans. He has appeared in films, including Runaway Jury, Tempted, Above and Beyond, Malpractice, Crazy in Alabama, The Badge, The Scoundrel's Wife (of which he is also co-producer) and most recently in Unchain My Heart: The Ray Charles Story, currently in post-production. He's made guest appearances on TV, in French Silk, Madame le Consul, and The Old Man and in series, The Big Easy, The Fugitive, and Orleans. He is a member of Circle In The Sky Productions, was chairman of the board of Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre (1996-98), is a director of the nationally recognized Dog and Pony Theatre Company, co-founded Louisiana's only theatre for the disabled (Art A La Carte, Inc.), and is an entertainment lawyer with the New Orleans firm of Montgomery Barnett. Visit http://www.neworleansfilmfest.com/

M) Juggling 101. Sam Falchook (E '00), Rick Posin & Jeanette Patterson (N'01, G'04), manipulate objects in 3-D space for your amusement & edification! Sam, a computer programmer working with geographical information systems, Rick, proud to be a liver transplant recipient and son of Law School faculty member Daniel Posin, and Jeanette, a current graduate student and instructor in the French department, will perform during break as well as coach this class in juggling fundamentals.

Noon

Intermission. Your favorite movie-concession style refreshments including popcorn, hot-dogs, soft drinks, nostalgic candies and goodies included in conference cost. Autographs, book-signings, CD sales and Juggling during the break!

12:30

Special feature presentation: Louis Prima. Joseph Maselli (UC'50), founder and past president of the American Italian Renaissance Foundation, and its Maselli Library and Museum, brings very special guest Gia Prima, widow of the star, and head of Louis Prima Enterprises, with Ron Canatella, archivist of the star's estate, and consultant on the documentary, Louis Prima: The Wildest. Canatella, best known locally for radio interviews on WADU-FM from 1984-2000, and nationally for shows on the American Classics Network, has also produced radio programs on Prima. Using rarely - or never before - seen footage comprising his entire career from the 30s to the 70s, Gia will discuss Louis Prima, winner of the first Grammy Award (for That Old Black Magic), and the revival his music is enjoying in contemporary media from David Lee Roth covers, to Pennies from Heaven opening the current hit movie Elf. Prima has been nominated for one of the Top 100 Songs in Film from the 20th Century for AFI for I Want To Be Like You in Disney's The Jungle Book. So while waiting for the envelope, enjoy the first academic treatment of Louis Prima ever done is his hometown! Visit www.AIRF.org, http://louisprima.com/ and http://afi.com/ for more information.

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