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
5 comments:
Maybe we can map where the audience comes from as well? It would be nice to convey how important these arts institutions are not just to the city, but to the region.
Ooooo! (That's a note of excitement - hard to convey in a blog post.) If we want to take the map idea literally, we could actually have a super-duper large map somewhere in the installation where you "mark" your hometown or leave your own message. It could be a great visual way to capture the sense of exchange that we've been discussing, would allow people to respond in a "permanent" way to our work, and would be something that we could leave as a reminder of our Re:Actions.
Love it!
Lisa, as installation guru, do you have any thoughts on this?
Love the map ideas. Let's think of a way to make it work! I like the ideas of marking one's home town and leaving a message. Let's see what we can do!
I like the idea of a big map because it's concrete and will help people to understand where the hurricane hit and how this affected the theatre scene in the area in a practical way, complementing our more conceptual stuff in the performance, maybe. Hmmm...
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