Let Us Entertain You, Act II

52nd Annual Tulane Educational Conference Saturday, February 26, 2005

We watch them – and their handiwork – on screens large and small, and on the stage. The drama, the laughter, the music, and the beauty give us food for discussion and food for thought. They enrich our spirits, and feed our souls. They are the entertainers.

To give us a second round of peeks behind the curtain, the 2005 Tulane Educational Conference brings together world-renowned designers, artists premiering new work, familiar faces and new talents.

Whether you sit before the screen or yearn to be the talent, you'll want to hear this year's crop of producers, actors, designers, writers, filmmakers, singers and scholars. These Tulane and Newcomb alumni and faculty artistes will ponder their careers, reminiscence about the stars you love and grant you access for a day to Hollywood 's brightest, Broadway's luminaries and Louisiana 's prospects.

Come and meet Jerry Springer and Harold Sylvester live, hear about Louisiana 's burgeoning film projects from Malcolm Petal, enjoy selections from the life of Martin Luther King in John Baur's new opera, and hear about producer Al Salzer's myriad filming projects. Find out what Disney's been up to in town with George Bott, meet TV actors including Emil Lawrence, chat with local luminary Liz Argus, and enjoy nostalgic looks at the Club My-Oh-My and Broadway costumer to the stars, Jeanne Button.

Don't touch that dial! Tune in to the Time of Your Life, Saturday, February 26, 2005, for the 52 nd Tulane Educational Conference – all under one roof, at Dixon Hall, Newcomb College campus, Tulane University – just a little off Broadway!

SCHEDULE

8:30 a.m. Registration Begins
9:00 a.m. Conference Welcome
9:30 – 10:30 a.m. Session A or B
10:40 - 11:40 a.m. Session C or D
11:45 - 12:45 p.m. LUNCH
12:45 - 1:45 Session E: Panel Discussion

Following the final session, dessert and coffee will be provided by The Tulane Associates.

SESSION A: 9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
I REALLY HATED THAT DRESS, SO…

Jeanne Button, professor emerita, Tulane Department of Theater and Dance, was one of the earliest female professional costume designers. She's costumed hundreds of shows, including fifteen on Broadway (Equus, Wings) ; designed costumes for opera, film, television and dance; taught at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and the Yale University Drama School ; and co-authored the definitive teachers' reference, A History of Costume in Slides, Notes and Commentaries with Stephen Sbarge, 1978. She will reminisce about a career in which she has not only rubbed shoulders with the famous, but also clothed them!

SESSION B: 9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
THE TIMES OF OUR LIVES: YOUNG ACTORS CLIMBING TO THE TOP, PAYING DUES, AND BUILDING A CAREER

Elizabeth ‘Liz' Argus , N'89, G'91, a frequent performer with the Tulane Summer Lyric Theater, is a singer, dancer, actress, choreographer, director, teacher, and voice-over talent. Her parents and all her grandparents are Tulane alumni. With her sisters, she is a co-founder of Loeber Entertainment and the Loeber Center for Dramatic Arts, where she teaches acting and voice. She recently relocated her family to her native New Orleans .

Emil Lawrence (Beheshti) , B'93, is a bi-coastal actor who has appeared off Broadway and on episodes of “CSI Miami”, “Rock Me Baby”, “The Stones”, “Hidden Hills”, and “Greg the Bunny”, a project of fellow Tulane alumnus Dave Jeser (B'95). He has co-starred with Jimmy Gary (“Two Weeks Notice”, “From Other Worlds”) in the 2003 film, “Know Chance”.

SESSION C: 10:40 – 11:40 a.m.
VINTAGE DRAG AT THE CLUB MY-OH-MY, 1937 – 1972:
FEMALE IMPERSONATORS IN COLD WAR NEW ORLEANS

Thomasine Bartlett (G'93, '97, '04) and

Michael Mizell-Nelson (A&S'87, G'91, '01)

remind us that if you lived in New Orleans in the mid-1900's, chances are good that your out-of-town visitors insisted on going to see the female impersonators on the lakefront at West End. Tucked amid seafood restaurants, the Club My-Oh-My was a risqué tourist destination for many decades. Mizell-Nelson and Bartlett show a short video documentary on the club, share their research into the club's history, and trade stories about the My-Oh-My with audience members.

SESSION D: 10:40 – 11:40 a.m.
DELIVERING THE PROMISE: MARTIN LUTHER KING'S STORY AS OPERA

John Baur, former Tulane faculty member and current faculty at the University of Memphis , presents selections from his new opera, The Promise. Singers Valetta Brinson (Coretta Scott King) and Allen Todd (Martin Luther King, Jr.) and pianist Mark Ensley give us scenes from the Montgomery bus boycott and the “I Have a Dream” aria. Baur discusses his reasons for writing the opera and some of the obstacles along the way. The work, which explores Dr. King's inner turmoil, shows the great preacher through his human frailty and his oratorical greatness. This is one of the most powerful stories of the 20th century, related for the first time in an operatic setting.

SESSION E: 12:45 – 1:45 p.m.
PANEL DISCUSSION
The Formula for Success?
Hollywood and TV-land are fickle mistresses where a lucky few consider making a living by doing what they love success enough. Some get famous in the process. On this panel of producers, actors, and directors, Tulanians in the biz share thoughts on defining and achieving success and the interesting journey along the road.

Moderator: George Bott (UC'91,'95) is an assistant director whose crew credits range from A Lesson Before Dying (1998) and Brother, Where Art Thou? to locally filmed movies Runaway Jury and Ray. He has shot six Disney projects in 2004 and is a member of The Directors Guild of America.

As CEO of Louisiana Institute of Film Technology Productions (L.I.F.T.), Malcolm Petal (L'98) has become the state's largest feature film, music video, and commercial producer. He is a Tulane attorney who also attended Cornell and Cambridge Universities . His company was busy in 2004, producing at least seven TV movies, including The Brooke Ellison Story, the last movie directed by the late Christopher Reeve (A&E) and filmed on Tulane's campus. Visit www.lift-la.com.

Al Salzer (A&S'66), Crescent City Pictures President and Louisiana Film Commissioner co-founder, started at Tulane as the first undergraduate to direct a Broadway musical with his production of Damn Yankees in Dixon Hall. His work includes Dukes of Hazard and the ABC series, Elvis, the Early Years. He is most proud of producing the HBO movie, Double Crossed , starring Dennis Hopper. His most recent productions, Heart of the Storm (with Melissa Gilbert), and Torn Apart were shot here in New Orleans. Visit www.crescentcitypictures.com/credits.htm.

Jerry Springer (A&S'65) is host of The Jerry Springer Show , now in its 9th season in 190+ U.S. markets and 30 foreign countries. He worked as Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign aide, served on the Cincinnati City Council (1971-76), and was elected Cincinnati 's mayor (one of the nation's youngest) in 1977. As Cincinnati 's number one news anchor, he received seven Emmy awards. A concerned humanitarian, he works with the Muscular Dystrophy Association, is on the advisory board of the Audrey Hepburn Hollywood for Children Fund, and established a scholarship fund at the Kellman School ( Chicago ) for inner city youth. He is also a country singer/songwriter and an Elvis impersonator. For more information on Jerry, visit www.jerryspringer.com.

Emmy award winner and panelist Harold Sylvester (A&S'72) is a familiar face on TV and will be starring in upcoming episodes of City of Angels (CBS). He wrote Passing Glory (1999), the made-for-TV movie about the historic 1965 St. Augustine v. Jesuit basketball game. Currently, he teaches a screen-writing class at Tulane which will result, in cooperation with Xavier and Dillard Universities , in a film for distribution. For more information, visit www2.tulane.edu/feature_curtain_b.cfm .

Joseph Wolf (B'50), producer of Nightmare on Elm Street, Children of the Living Dead, Halloween II & III and a dozen other movies.

Rick Hurst (A&S’68), was a member of the Tulane University Theatre from ’65-’68 and served as their president in ’67 and ’68. He also served on the board of Campus Nite and appeared in their roductions from ’65-’68. After graduating in 1968, in theatre and psychology, from Tulane, he went on to Temple University, where he received his MFA in acting in 1970. Hurst has appeared in feature motion pictures such as W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings, Steel Magnolias, Anywhere But Here, and guest starred in dozens of TV shows like Gunsmoke, MASH, Murder She Wrote, Little House on the Prairie and The Guardian. He has had starring roles in three TV series – “Cleaver in On the Rocks, “Earl” in Amanda’s by the Sea, as well as “Deputy Cletus Hogg” in The Dukes of Hazzard. Currently, he is developing a movie for television based on the life of Dr. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, founder of the hospice movement and author of On Death and Dying. For more, visit http://alumni.tulane.edu/edcon/bios/Rick Hurst2.pdf

Hosts/Moderator

Session A - Kirche Zeile (N'98), a costume designer currently working in New York city and regional theatre. For Kirche Zeile's resume, visit http://alumni.tulane.edu/edcon/zeile_resume.pdf

Session B - Rob Steinberg (A&S'81), who works in the music industry, involved with marketing, promotion, publishing and management. His most noted acts include the Scorpions, War, Bob Marley & the Wailers and Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers. Rob's is also adept with improvisation and has numerous impressions, voice characterizations, and dialects in his repertoire.

Session C - Dean Chiarelli, is a health educator and the Director of Wellness and Health Promotion at the Tulane Student Health Center.  A graduate of the Tulane School of Public Health, Dean completed his Dietetic Internship in 2000 to obtain Registration as a Dietitian. 

Session D - John H. Barron, M.A., Ph.D., Professor Tulane Department of Music; The Louise Rebecca Schawe and Williedell Schawe ’16 Memorial Professor of Music; Head of the Musicology Graduate Program; M.A., historical musicology, Harvard University, 1959; Ph.D., historical musicology, Brandeis University, 1967.

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Curious about last year's Educational Conference Act I, click here!