Script Group Update

I hope things are becoming a bit more clear as we start doing what we do. Lisa went through and figured out our sites based on the votes - Union Street, Marie Laveau's tomb/cemeteries/voodoo museum/plantation, and Congo Square. The script team is thinking of adding in a Tourist Shop in the French Quarter as a final place for the epilogue (where we can make use of our awesome postcard idea) and Storyville/Rampart St as a connector between sites (playing on the historical reality of Storyville and the idea of storytelling, I hope). I'm not totally sure how this will come together, of course, but I think we will have a better idea once we start drafting scripts for our stops.

I've volunteered to write the prologue for our performance, and am planning to pull some text from a historical document sent to the King of France on NOLA. It speaks about the river and NOLA location to the fine ports to the South, and its promise to be the best city. I plan to interweave some text from contemporary writings on NOLA (and the flooded rivers, and how the flood may save her). As the rest of the script comes together, I will probably add in some lines addressing the major themes we explore. As soon as I have a rough draft of the prologue, I will post it here and relish all the feedback I can get.

The script team includes: Shelley, Bryan, Jayetta Slawson, David Callaghan, Erin Moss, and Susan Russell.

Performance Group Update

Just so we are all on the same page, I'll keep posts up about what is happening with the performance group. Louise, any additons, or clarification you want to make would be great. The P-Team coordinator is Michael Ellison: MBELight@aol.com. The rest of the team is:

DRAMATURGY
Megan Sanborn Jones: msjones@byu.edu
Louise Edwards: louisesedwards@gmail.com

THEATRE HISTORY
Dan Smith: dansmith_251@yahoo.com>
Marla Carlson: marlacarlson@earthlink.net>

MUSIC/DANCE/THEATRE
Michele Dunleavy: mfd10@email.psu.edu
Greg White: gregistall@cox.net

Our first job was to take the list of suggested site locations and rank order our top three. Marla, from theatre history, pointed out that she thought it was okay to have different sites since we'd all be "touring" in smaller groups. I've having a hard time right now telling the difference between touring=walking around NOLA and seeing actual sites and touring=our friday night performance tour with sites.

THE ANSWER:
We're picking the sites that we will actually go to visit--there'll be
3-5 of them, and subteams will visit these sites (one per subteam) on
Thursday afternoon. So you're voting for the ones you'd like to go to.
We'll pick the top vote getters, and send groups to them. And then these
will also be the sites that we use as "tour sites."

(Maybe this was clear to everyone else, but it wasn't to me. But now it is.)

AGWE

Just finished Agwe. Gotta figure out how to transport these pieces without breaking them and them putting them together in NOLA but it's a start.

Am having very productive conversations with the installation people. Sounds like Jules wants to blow up a the NY Times article about the "Corpse on Union Street" into a 6'x6' photo - ought to be compelling!

Interview with Aimee Hayes, Managing Director of the Southern Rep:

First, three questions about the event itself:

1. Was your physical plant (theatre) damaged by Katrina? Has it been rebuilt, and if so, how was this financed?

Southern Rep was not damaged in Katrina. However they did not know this right away and had a very scary time of it waiting when Canal place caught on fire, and people looting all but destroyed it. They didn’t know until they came back whether it had burnt down. The Artistic Director came back in October to see what had happened and subsequently the Southern Rep worked out of Atlanta and Miami to do part of the season in Miami, a partner in the National New Play Network, Miami’s New Theatre, premiered in April 2006, Miami herald voted it best new play. Jan 17 2007 it premiered at the Southern Rep.

2. Did your organization hold any specific events directly after the event to encourage rebuilding of physical and/or social structures?

They held a welcome back party where they invited all the subscribers and friends of the theatre, and because they had no shows they rolled over the subscriptions for the last season to this one.

3. How did the disaster affect your patron base?

They went through their mail service, and found that due to K they had lost 1/5 of the people on their members' list. Aimee says this is a rolling phenomenon and she expects the list to go up and down as it regularly does, though it was hit hard by K as so many people left town.

And a few questions about post-K regeneration:

1. How has your programme of events changed since Katrina? Is there a new focus in your work at all?

Southern Rep commissioned 2 plays after the storm: worked with John Bigunet, first guest columnist for the NY times after K and wrote a great many columns for them. The AD at Southern Rep, Ryan Rilette, encouraged him to write about Katrina, see http://www.southernrep.com/news_20070325.php for how wildly successful it was. It won the National New Play network's prize that year, the play is called “Rising Water” and it ran this past spring, and was the theatre’s best selling play in their theatre's history.

Approached by, his plays are always socially centre, issue based plays, Joe Sutton, Catherine Silloux, Tirell McCraney, the original idea was that they would work on 3 separate stories that would deal with the aftermath whereas Rising Water was during, but The Breach was given several prestigious grants, the ideas that they would do readings of this along with gulf coast, they did 5 readings in dec and January of this last year, just had a reading of it at the Alliance in Atlanta and the Arena Stage in DC, and it was just picked up by the Seattle rep, but the world premiere of the show will be at Southern Rep. Rising water is being picked up by lots of theatres. 1sth show of 0607 season; with “Callie’s Tally” by Betsy Howie. And, it was the theatre's 20^th anniversary last year.

New Plays for New Orleans is their mission, and has been since Ryan Rilette took over. He came in and was the founder and AD of a theatre in NY, had a lot of experience doing New Work, and when he first came they focused on southern voices, so at their theatre they only do plays classed as world premiere or at least a southern premiere. This season they are doing Doubt, because there is a tour of it going on, and the major theatres in NOLA where it was supposed to be on but the theatre was destroyed, so the Southern Rep were given the rights. (one positive thing coming out of K!)

[I asked if the closing of the big theatres had caused an influx of those theatres' audiences on SR's audience but she says that the Big theatre in town was the Saenger, but it was never really the competition as SR focuses on new writing and Saenger used to do major musicals and big shows like that, drawing a different audience base.]

TCG ranks them as tier 2, almost tier 3 company.

2. Has theatre attendance bounced back? How do numbers compare to before the event?

Numbers are completely skewed; Rising Water was biggest hit in history, and their "city series" has been very successful too. One show which may tie in to the Storyville connection although the story is not set there, “the last madam” is the story of how in the 50s, there was the last madam of a local establishment...the play was written by a local playwright and local director, ran for 8 weeks and was a huge huge hit.

Aimee said that "People have really turned to the arts for solace, that’s a big word but they have turned to them for distraction. It’s really a grind dealing with insurance companies and crooked politicians, people want to see NOLA and they want to remember, and they want to get away. The Rabbi District Variety Show, and that is my contribution to getting it away for a while." And note that this will actually be part of ATHE's productions on the 28^th or 27^th. Something going on that may be of interest: Vote Lear: a theatrical manifesto, by the same person who wrote "the last madam." He really things Lear is the perfect play to use for where NOLA is right now.

3. Is there anything special that your theatre is doing/has done since Katrina that ATHE should know about? What do you want the larger theater base to know about your current work?

The Lieutenant of Inishmore: we’re doing something ridiculous and there were jokes and the special effects guy from the NY run is coming, anything with a live cat has got to draw interest...

Mainly, what questions do you want the rest of us to be asking (of you/ourselves?) What do you want us to take back to the classroom/stage?

One thing that should be said in a conversation about SR is that after the hurricane, Ryan Rilette had to let go of everybody. Aimee says, we’re not the kind of company who can afford to hold on to people without selling any tickets so Ryan ran the company by himself for 9-10 months, one MD stayed 5 months and then they got Aimee. Tech is back, lighting, but they are running on a skeleton crew and only very slowly coming back to the number of staff they used to have (they used to have development, marketing, all that kind of staff, now they are just a few interns and Aimee and Ryan with the technical folk back bit by bit).

The University, Tulane let all of its adjunct professors go, people in every field were laid off, and it was a very difficult time for professionals as many just outright lost their jobs.

In terms of the theatre's Future goals,:a lot of people moving here, well, a small trickle of activist-minded people are moving to NOLA, wanting to do something to help the city, getting the work commissioned and touring it. Southern Rep is part of the National New Play network, look at website www.nnpn.org, how they work is that "a tree doesn’t fall in a forest and no one hears it...we don't want plays to open in Oklahoma, do one show, and never be heard of again." That's why they operate under the "rolling world premiere," we’re always sharing plays with each other, Magic Theatre, Wooly Mammoth, Playwright Theare in NJ, mixed blood in Minneapolis, a great mix. get our work done, get local playwrights involved, conference is next weekend. it was born in 1999, 25 plays, 60 productions, great for productions. sunnekn living room, one of our nntn premiere there, etc.

For playwrights: check out the Marin theatre 2 playwriting awards with a cash award. in CA.

We're welcome to go and check them out when we visit; I can get back in touch with Aimee with people's further questions or to elaborate on anything of interest above, or if anyone would like to meet her when we're in NOLA.

Rock on.

Erzulie

Hey all --

I've been reading your posts but haven't had much of a chance to respond, most of my attention has been on mosaics.

Here's one of Erzulie... A veve of the Goddess of Love... trying to conjure a reconciliation between love and water. One of Agwe soon, when I have it grouted.

I just started my summer theater camp. I teach 70 kids aged 7-14 theatre and we stage a full production over five weeks. I'll be working and contributing but I may not be able to communicate as regularly as I like.

Love the chatter and pix!
Lisa

Storyville, a book, and NOLA colleges/theatres--a brainstorm..

I'm brainstorming here; I would have to dig deeper on each of these thoughts:

--I'm not sure if we are still looking into academic theatres, but I'm thinking of script material and wondered if the colleges in the area had any letters, responses, etc., from the college president or theatre/arts departments regarding their progress/actions post-Katrina. I know I saw one letter from the president at Dillard a while ago, but I wonder if there are more of these around--maybe a graduation address or maybe even responses from the local professional theatre companies. It'll take some searching, but could be worth looking. Maybe an installation or transitional material?

BTW, the Dillard costume project I mentioned a couple months ago went very well. My mentor, Tisch Jones (U. of Iowa) said that they shipped over a dozen boxes from UI, and at least three other colleges in the state followed suit. She is hoping to maintain a correspondence with Dillard through an exchange of resources and people over the next few years. I can share more specific info about any of this if anyone is interested.

--I also found a book of interest: "Cities of the Dead: Circum-Atlantic Performance" by Joseph Roach. The book focuses quite a bit on New Orleans, including Storyville, Mardi Gras, the Black Indians, and a historical area outside of the NO border called Congo Square, which was an unofficial public marketplace and was known for dances and music for African slaves, free people of color, and Native Americans.

The book also has many pictures of Storyville, black Indians and other events/rituals, which I will try to scan or find online later. They also mention some historical newspapers (inc. The Mascot and The Daily-Pacayune), which might be of interest if they have archives.


As I said, this is brainstorming (thinking in the shower really does work), so I have to research further later today; I'll keep you posted...

--bryan m.

Photo Essays about Hurricane Katrina and its Aftermath

Here are some additional sources of photo essays about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. I think these nicely mirror the Polidori photos that Shelley shared, and I like that they link to a kind of timeline of events. So in many ways, images become an important part of the "mapping" we've been discussing. Thought these could be helpful for the installation and/or postcard images. Let me know what you think!

Time's website has a number of photo essays, some dealing specifically with New Orleans, others with the Gulf region in general.

Hurricane Katrina - "An American Tragedy." A visual narrative of the hurricane and its aftermath. After you've looked at all the images from the timeline, be sure to click on the other links to see more photo essays. "Calamity Waiting to Happen" is a fascinating interactive map that reflects Karen's early ideas that New Orleans simultaneously CANNOT exist and MUST exist.

The Day After Katrina - "Assessing the damage after the hurricane hits the Gulf Coast."

Katrina's Toll - "Rescue, recovery, and restoring order two days after the Gulf area hurricane."

The Crisis Continues - "Katrina relief efforts intensify as Bush says early results 'not acceptable'."

Multimedia: Surviving Hurricane Katrina - "Residents and emergency workers share their stories through words and pictures."

The Scars of Katrina - "TIME photographer Anthony Suau captures the Gulf Coast's struggle to recover months after the levees broke."

The Show Must Go On - "New Orleans celebrates the first Mardi Gras since Hurricane Katrina." I like the theatrical reference in the title.

A Year of Disaster - "New Orleans is still reeling from the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina."

Illinois Photo has another large collection of images, subtitled "Photos of America's Greatest Heartbreak."

U.S. Department of Defense has its own photo essay on Hurricane Katrina. I think it's interesting to see how the various groups in the country "saw" the event and reported it, and the discrepancies between these reports and representations, especially over time.

19th Century Jazz, Nudity, and Political Corruption

I was thrilled to see how my research paralleled Shelley's post on Storyville. The dates and locations both overlap. I focused my interest on what some researchers call the "Golden Age" of New Orleans (1870-1930). Three sites (that correspond to actual physical sites) also parallel (generally) the 3 points of Jazz, Nudity, and Political Corruption. Oooh. I love it when things work out like this.


JAZZ (MUSIC)
Site: St. Charles Hotel
Images: Krewe Invitations to Mardi Gras Balls

"Completed in 1842, in the American sector, and proclaimed one of the largest and finest in the world, the first St. Charles Hotel was a grandiose testament not only to the economic and politclal ascendancy of the Anglo-Americans, but to their version of New Orleans style. In 1851, the palatial building was burned to the ground in thre hours. From tis ahses rose the second magnificent St. Chalres, and it ws to the fescoed, gold-leafed ballroom of that horol also desroye by fire long ago, that guest wre summoned to a "Soiree Dansante" on a January evening of 1854--with the oldest extant invitation to a New Orleans Carnival ball" (Schindler 8).

The St. Charles Hotel was host to the Mardi Gras Balls of the Mistick Krewe of Comus, who initiated the Mardi Gras celebrations that evolved into today's celebrations.

For more on Mistick Krewe, wiki has a good intro: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistick_Krewe_of_Comus


NUDITY (PROSTITUTION)
Site: Rampart Street
Images: Watercolor series by Édouard Marquis



I've already mention the placage system in a response to an earlier post. While the quadroon mistresses were certainly not prostitutes in the Storyville sense of the term, the highly codified system of creating and placing young women of color as mistresses to upper-class Creole men served the same function.






POLITICAL CORRUPTION
Site: Oak Alley Plantation
Images: Plenty of postcards here.



Owned by Jacques Telesphore Roman, this plantation is remarkable for its gorgeous restoration (and 300 year old trees) that allows it to serve as THE nostalgic antebellum fantasy. Completed in 1841, the plantation was one of 3 owned by the Roman family along the great river row. The Roman family were political: J.T.'s brother Andre was the frist Creole governor of Lousiana (and the first to serve 2 terms). Romans served under General Beauregard in the Civil War, and only sister Josephine married Valcour Aimee, the "Sugar King of Louisiana." The consolidation of wealth and power in this family was made possible by the culture code of New Orleans that valued pure-blooded French Creole as the highest caste. This was underlined by the odd (socially corrupt) political situation that brought New Orleans into the United States.

"Louisiana, meanwhile, had become a ping-pong ball on the political table of Spain and France and in a few short weeks bounced from the Spanish flag, where it had been since the transfer from French hands by secret treaty in 1763, to the French Tri-Color, to the Stars and Stripes where it remained, achieving statehood in 1812. However, in the brief 3 weeks of the post-revolution French regime (November 30 - December 20, 1803) the Napoleonic Code was introduced, establishing a precedent that would remain and create a legal system in Louisiana distinct from the rest of the Nation."

for more information see http://www.oakalleyplantation.com/

Here is some amazing history of the Jefferson Performing Arts Society

After Katrina landed on August 29, JPAS set a goal of January 1, 2006 to re-emerge. Out of our three spaces, the Community Center sustained the least amount of storm damage. We outfitted the space with new equipment and acoustical silencing materials. The Community Center has been renamed Teatro Wego! Dinner Theatre, and remodeling this space enabled us to rise from the wreckage with renewed vigor to salvage our 28th season. In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the subsequent levee failures and all the uncertainty that followed, we opted to suspend all student performances for 2005-2006. Traditionally, The Arts Adventure Series (AAS)serves thousands of students throughout Louisiana.Programs for students have always been central to JPAS. We ended our 28th season with a renewed commitment to this vital outreach, focusing on the redevelopment of these educational endeavors, especially AAS, summer and school programs.

In spite of setbacks, most events in our 28th season surpassed expectations especially in terms of audience attendance and ticket sales. Despite the wide-spread destruction in the wake of hurricanes and levee failures, thousands attended from all over the region: St. Bernard Parish; St. Charles Parish-Boutte, Luling; Jefferson Parish-Gretna, Harahan, Kenner, Metairie, River Ridge; Orleans Parish; St. Tammany Parish - Covington; Terrebonne Parish - Houma; Washington Parish; Mississippi: Carriere, Laural, Bay St. Louis and Picayune. Additionally, despite the suspension of AAS programming, many students received tickets, 1,252 in total. We always make available free tickets to the Magnolia School, We Care for Special People, and DAWN - Disabled Adults with Needs. Support enabled JPAS to provide students of Magnolia School, We Care for Special People, and DAWN - Disabled Adults with Needs with 522 complementary tickets to all main stage productions.

from: http://www.jpas.org/about.php?ID=2

Hi Team,
Some of the theatres I've contacted in the past few weeks have gotten back to me, and some have not, so I'll just post some of what I've found out so far so that you can incorporate the useful bits into your script and installation planning ideas.

Basically I'm on a mission to find out about the regeneration of theatre attendance in NOLA and it seems to have been vibrant and enthusiastic. The highlights include:

Le Chat Noir Cabaret
This is a little off our beaten path but as Shelley's been posting about Storyville, I thought the first theatre I would tell y'all about should be a Cabaret in keeping with the theme. Here are some clips from my conversation with "Sue" at Le Chat Noir:

During the time that we are there, they have Steve Ross on, who is a great show and you can find out more about that on their website (http://www.cabaretlechatnoir.com/performances.html). There's a great restaurant called "Herb Saint" nearby which Sue recommends...
but more to the point, they had a show the Saturday night before the hurricane hit. The water came within a half of a block of the theatre but the building sustained no damage. On the Sunday they came in and
"bagged up the piano like a gift"
and the theatre was closed until the last week of October. When they came back in
"it smelled like Grandma's closet"
but
"it was a major knock-wood time" that they were not damaged physically by the hurricane.
"The Cabaret goddesses were totally on our side"
as the doormen on the hotel across the street looked on and the cabaret wasn't touched.

Sue's apartment building was flooded, and as she was up on a higher level the water came up to the top step and trapped them, so they had to stay home until the water subsided. Once she could leave, she hopped on her bicycle and came down to the cabaret, where the two doormen from the hotel told her how close it had been.

The theatre opened up again on All Saint's Day, (1 Nov) with a cocktail party for the inspectors going around looking at all the buildings, and anybody in town that was part of their "cabaret family". Sue told me that in New Orleans it is traditional to clean off the sepulchres and graves of family members on that day, but they weren't able to do that because of the damage, so they "just cleaned off ourselves!" and began with their first cabaret show. In the beginning it was nothing but wacky benefits one after another; the "cabaret family" of performers who had moved out to other areas of the states all came home and put on shows there, and the owner of Le Chat Noir set up an Actors' Fund which helped cabaret actors come home.

It would be great to visit Sue at the Cabaret...she'll talk your ear off and seems like a real font of information and great stories.


The Southern Rep
By far and away the most interesting venue in terms of Regeneration, because it has completely revitalized its mission since Katrina. Since K I'm most interested in how they've specifically endeavoured to put on work by local playwrights. I'm in touch with the dramaturg, Bryan Sands, there and he's getting back to me with answers to my questions this week.

Anthony Bean Community Theatre and Acting School

This is a good contact for regeneration in Education, they said that during the week that we are in New Orleans they have a youth summer camp production, "Soulville II" which is written and directed by Anthony Bean, so those members of ATHE who are interested in young people’s theatre could certainly get in touch, and I can follow this up for more details if we think it would be a good idea.

Perhaps more directly relevant in terms of direct regeneration after Katrina, Anthony Bean Community Theatre staged a production of Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” which starred Councilman-At-Large Oliver Thomas, which was a big hit and also showed the city government taking a direct stand in the arts to support the community. They gave this press release which may be of use to the script-writers in our group:

We at the ABCT are proud to produce an August Wilson drama and to stage it at this
time in New Orleans. It has significant meaning to the staff and cast. Its in honor
of the passing of August Wilson, for whom the theater community would suffer a great loss, but also it says something about us as Orleanians. It says we been tested
and in many cases, devastated, but we are determined to move on and to show the
world, we've been knocked down but not out. We will survive and come out of this
thing stronger and a much better City in spite of it. We would like to thank you
for your continue support and hope to see you at this wonderful production.

Direct comments from theatres, like the above, might be useful in our installation or script?

Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre

616 St Peter St (Cross street: Chartres St)

www.lepetittheatre.com

Currently active; see their listing on bestofneworleans.com

This is one of the more interesting theatres in terms of physical plant regeneration. They have bounced back from Katrina with a renovated theatre, a new orchestra pit, and a season of musical performances. They are an inspiration. They are currently rehearsing for the opening of their next show and so no one is around to answer questions, though I’ve been directed to try the director Sonny Borey upon his return, and I’ll do that.

Presentation order

Great questions, Karen, ones I've been pondering myself! We don't know what the room is going to look like, how many people will be there, what the other groups will be setting up and how we'll be able to maneuver in the space. This has me worried about taking people on an actual physical tour of the performance.

I'm sorry to be the voice of dissent here, but I've never been on a tour-guided performance that was interesting or that really worked. I think the main reason I haven't liked them is because the idea works practically but there's seldom little more thought that goes into the meaning making part of this role. Do you know what I mean? I worry too, that we're starting to put in stone things that the performance group (Which of you are taking this on?) should really be brainstorming about and researching.

As far as working on the installation goes (Which of you are working on that with me?), I'd like to have some space between installation and set. I'd like to have a separate area where the audience can engage with our research (in the form of an installation) in their own time, in their own way, as they're milling in, during break, whatever... That said, I also think it would be nice to have some of our installation work function as set pieces or props or some such thing. If the space doesn't allow for actually moving the audience through our set/installation, maybe we can create three/four installation areas around/in front of which the performative action can take place? ... As soon as I have a group to work with, these are some concerns we can address.

Hope it's ok that I air these concerns. Thanks for your feedback!
Best,
Lisa

Mixing up the presentation order..

As we start thinking about script and collaborating with the other focus groups, I was pondering the potential size of the audience and the possibly limited space we would have in some of the locations/rooms. If we plan to move the audience around, I wonder if the audience could be divided into groups and the presentation could be presented in a different sequential order for each group? I think I have "Fefu and Her Friends" on the brain; different experience for each group/person. Since it sounds like each installation is independent, it seems like an option to consider.

Storyville, New Orleans

This location is an important part of the history of NO that contributed in significant ways to the city's current culture. Perhaps we could consider using it as one of our installation locations...

Storyville was an iconic neighborhood in New Orleans from 1897-1917. The buildings from this historic area of town, which is not far from the French Quarter, have mostly been destroyed, though the importance of the district is still felt today. It was the only legal red light district in the U.S. and could be seen as connected to the inhibition-free, New Orleans cultural tradition of "laissez les bon temps roulez!" Three key features of this district that (arguably) still thrive in the city today are jazz, nudity, and political corruption.

Below you will find a map of the neighborhood (perhaps a visit is in order?) and two images taken by a photographer named E.J. Bellocq. He was a commercial photographer who also took several photos of the women working in Storyville. He kept this collection of photos a secret—none of them surfaced until after his death. The most famous jazz performer to come from Storyville is Louis Armstrong. I am going to try to get my hands on two helpful books about the area: a collection of posthumously printed photographs by Bellocq entitled Bellocq: Photographs from Storyville, the Red-Light District of New Orleans and a history text from 1974 by Al Rose entitled Storyville, New Orleans: Being an Authentic, Illustrated Account of the Notorious Red-Light District.

Below is a brief article from archaeology.org giving an overview of the history of this neighborhood.
—Shelley

Tales from Storyville
Volume 55 Number 6, November/December 2002
by Eric A. Powell
http://www.archaeology.org/0211/abstracts/storyville.html

America's most notorious red-light district, Storyville was also the nation's only legal one, courtesy of carefully worded Ordinance No. 13,032, which absolutely forbade any and all prostitution in New Orleans outside of a tightly defined district just northwest of the French Quarter. The ordinance was pushed through in 1897 by Alderman Sidney Story, who hoped that consolidating prostitution in one area would salvage property values in neighborhoods where brothels were sprouting unchecked. Though known at the time as simply the "District," local wags quickly dubbed the area Storyville. The name stuck, much to the alderman's enduring mortification.

Storyville prospered for 19 years, attracting everyone from sailors and traveling salesmen to luminaries like P.T. Barnum and Babe Ruth. Louis Armstrong delivered coal to the district as a boy, and lingered to hear the great jazzmen who performed in elegantly appointed bordellos and scruffy saloons. Madams like Lulu White and "Countess" Willie V. Piazza became local celebrities, paying rent that lined the pockets of New Orleans' most respected businessmen and enriched institutions like Tulane University and the Archdiocese of New Orleans, neither of which shrank from owning property in the district. According to one estimate, in its heyday Storyville brought in profits of one million dollars a month. Connections to powerful clients that frequented their "sporting clubs" ensured Storyville's madams a role in New Orleans politics.

All that came to an end in 1917, when a wartime federal order meant to eradicate prostitution near naval bases shut the district down. Most of Storyville's bordellos, saloons and "cribs" (residential buildings where prostitutes rented rooms) were razed to make way for the Iberville federal housing projects in the 1940s. In 1949, jazz historians made a bid to save one of the last of the brothels, Lulu White's once-ritzy Mahogany Hall, immortalized in "Mahogany Hall Stomp," a jazz standard recorded by Armstrong and others. Despite their efforts, the building was demolished. Today, only three forlorn structures from the Storyville era remain. By all appearances the physical legacy of the district has been swept away, but the past has a way of surfacing at unpredictable moments, no matter how hard you try to bury it.

Eric A. Powell is an associate editor of ARCHAEOLOGY.

Another Performance Idea

Not sure how the "stops" on the tour will be selected, so perhaps this is a question for the script masters. I'm wondering how far afield we'll want to go with the stops, and what kind of time/travel frame we'll be dealing with as a result. It could be nice to have them all within walking distance of the conference, but there may be good reasons to expand beyond that. In doing some more tourist sleuthing, I came across a self-guided French Quarter walking tour guide on the NOVCB website. Thought this could be something we might like to create for our own "tour" of the city. I'd be happy to help put something like this together (perhaps with a map, other images, other bits of things we've collected) as a way to help direct the movement of the piece. Thoughts?

Check out the NOCVB website to see what kinds of tours are currently offered in the city. Click on Brochures/Coupons on the left to take you to the page where you can download the French Quarter Walking Tour PDF.

http://www.neworleanscvb.com/

A Performance Idea

I've been thinking about postcards ever since Louise posted her amazing pics. I think it would be great to make use of this tourist object in our performance.

My idea is that we buy a lot of postcards when we get to NOLA. On our working days (Thursday and Friday morning), I think it would be really great if we went out and asked people - New Orleanians and tourists alike - to write on the postcards - just a sentence or two describing the city, telling what they want the rest of the nation to hear/know about New Orleans, where they see the city in 10 years, etc. We can each fill out one as well and perhaps pull information from some of our research. The postcard writers could sign their postcards (probably first names only, maybe with their home city if they are tourists) or leave them anonymous. My thought is that at one of our installation sites, we could distribute these to the ATHE audience. In fact, perhaps one of the sites could be a "tourist shop" in which we comment on the tourist trade in NOLA (I'm sure we could fill it out with lots of knick-knacks that one finds in NOLA, or perhaps even bring some of our own tourist objects from NOLA that we may have found elsewhere (I have an offensive Mammy magnet, for example)). How do these images/objects construct an understanding of NOLA, and how might the text (of both the peerformance script and the postcard messages) subvert or resist that understanding?

Thoughts?