ART AND STAGE NEWS

The latest New Orleans theater, opera and arts updates

Joseph at Slidell Little Theater, was an amazing show to see, I definitely recommend it to you, so check it out!

JOSEPH

Joseph at Slidell Little Theater, was an amazing show to see, I definitely recommend it to you, so check it out!

JOSEPH

Tickets are now on sale for the new musical revue Another Op'nin' (Celebrating the Songs of Cole Porter) featuring Kitty Cleveland and Chris Carey with David Ancar, Courtney Calato, Shannon Collins, Stephen Dale, Jack Duke, Jan Gardner, Rachel Rees and Weston Twardowski. A special preview performance on September 11 will benefit Northshore Families Helping Families and regular performances open on Friday, September 12, 2008.

Image courtesy of The Stephen Dale Project

Jefferson Performing Arts Society announces sign-ups for its Children's Apprentice Chorus through September 8. The Children's Apprentice Chorus is open to children in first and second grades and no audition is necessary.

The intriguingly titled "Ventriloquist Verses: Voices from Beneath the Water's Edge," will open the season at The Alamo Underground on Aug. 29, the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Actress-writer Diana Shortes says the "highly stylized spoken-word, movement and video installation explores the cycle of trauma: loss. forgiveness and renewal, experienced by so many of us in the wake of tragedy. It's an honoring, a commemoration of those who lost their lives and hopefully, a healing."

Steven Forester / The Times-Picayune ArchiveJohn Biguenet

JOHN BIGUENET, novelist, playwright ("The Vulgar Soul," "Rising Water"):

'When it comes to writing plays, you never know what you've got on the page until you hear it on the stage.'

The Slidell Little Theatre will hold auditions for Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" Sunday, Aug. 24 beginning at 5:30 p.m. and Monday, Aug. 25 at 6:30 p.m., at the theater, 2024 Nellie Drive in Slidell.

This week in The Reading Life, mysteries columnist Diana Pinckley talks with Bill Loehfelm, winner of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award for his thriller, "Fresh Kills."

And children's book columnist Marigny Dupuy surveys inspiring biographies in picture book form.

Susan Larson, Book editor

Kathy Anderson / The Times-PicayuneAuthor Bill Loehfelm's book "Fresh Kills," was chosen as winner of the first Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

New Orleanian Bill Loehfelm wrote most of his new novel at a small table near the window in the back of Rue de la Course because it was then the only coffee shop in his neighborhood that allowed smoking inside.