Toups Family Meal (TFM), Chef Isaac and Amanda Toups’ non-profit and mission for change dedicated to providing food security for families in need, is hosting its First Annual Pumpkin Drive. This event will take place on Saturday, October 5th, from 1PM-5PM with the goal of bringing a little seasonal sweetness to 500 children and families in need by delivering 500 free big pumpkins and festive decorating kits. 

Volunteer delivery drivers will set out in their vehicles filled with pumpkins and decorating kits; a mobile pumpkin patch. These festive gifts will be distributed  throughout New Orleans. 

What began as a grassroots effort in March 2020 to provide meals during the COVID-19 crisis has evolved into a dedicated organization committed to addressing hunger. To date, TFM has served over 175,000 meals and continues its efforts through initiatives like the summer meal program. For additional information or to support this cause, visit www.toupsfamilymeal.com. To donate, click here. To register to be a volunteer driver, click here. Follow Toups’ Family Meal on social media @toupsfamilymeal
 
The Toups Family Meal First Annual Pumpkin Drive will begin at the TFM distribution facility,  located at 845 North Carrollton Avenue in New Orleans. The truck will depart at 1PM and distribute throughout the city until 5PM.

The Substance
​(dir. Coralie Fargeat)
Review by Jeff DeRouen

As a good gay, I’m here for an acting swing from Demi Moore and happy to lay my money down to experience the magic that made her one of the nineties biggest stars.

I’d heard The Substance was not typical “I’m back” fair, that writer/director Coralie Fargeat had crafted something special, and that Demi Moore gives a brave, compelling performance. Holy moly – what an understatement. This is a momentous work inspired by the likes of Cronenberg and Kubrick and absolutely one of the most batsh*t movies I have ever seen.

Moore plays an aging fitness star who takes a secret serum and splits in two – her younger and older self. They are both HER and she must change bodies every week or complications take place (and I wouldn’t dream of giving you any more details than that).

The Substance is a sci-fi/body horror allegory where Fargeat lays bare her view of how
society affects women giving us top notch gore and career-best performances from both
Demi Moore AND Margaret Qualley.

It’s a riveting, unsettling, hilarious, and absolutely disgusting sci/fi body horror masterpiece that must be seen with an audience in a theater – I can’t wait to go again.

A Survivin' Thing: Out of the Boil, A Climate Change Musical @ The New Marigny Theatre
Review by Todd Perley

​The setting: a New Orleans dive bar. The players: neighborhood working folk—a nurse, a teacher, a tech guy, some service industry, etc. The conversation: climate change, education, local infrastructure, and why doesn’t the Algiers ferry run twenty-four hours anymore? Sound familiar?

It should. I think we’ve all been to this bar with these people and discussed these things with similar passion. Except in Rel Farrar’s new play, these aren’t people; they’re crawfish. Socially aware crawfish, dressed in red, complete with little red claws. And they sing. They sing their P.O.V.s to the tunes of E.L.O. songs. Okay, so maybe we haven’t been to this bar.

The conflict: Chef Bezos (played by local treasure Ratty Scurvics) is offering a sizable grant to the crawfish that pitches the best socially-conscious scheme. I’m sure that will work out well. Clearly, the chef has the crawfish’s best interests in mind.

The characters are intellectual, hilarious, and self-aware, reminiscent of classic Woody Allen films. The arguments are tight and multi-faceted, never preaching to the choir. Tech Guy waxes rhapsodic on the philosophy of Ayn Rand to his girlfriend. When rebuffed, he sings his angry response to her via the song 'Evil Woman'.

While the arguments are mature, there’s a childlike joy throughout. All the props are over-sized. Picture a crawfish holding human-sized cups, beer bottles, cigarettes, or scissors, an effective offset to the serious themes when the lines are delivered by someone drinking from a shot glass the size of a paint bucket. The table is a board set upon a bottle of Mod Podge (those crafty crawfish!)

Danielle Small directs this serious piece with campy lightheartedness. The mood matches the tongue-in-cheek vibe of her 'Waterworld', which has played, hilariously, in local swimming pools for years (I look forward to these annually). Neal Todten as musical director pounds out E.L.O. hits on the piano beautifully.

But it’s the cast that brings the Zatarain’s to this crawfish berl. They’re all just having so much fun, and the actors’ joy is infectious. Whenever things get dark, someone starts playing darts…with dart props made of four foot pool noodles.

The goofiness never detracts from the message. As Rel tells us in her author’s note, “This show is about believing you can make things better…maybe pigs can fly (metaphorically speaking).”

You can suck da heads of these concerned mudbugs at the New Marigny Theater, October 3–6.
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The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) and Congo Square Preservation Society kick off a new season of the Elders Sacred Talk Series with Luther Gray and Jamilah Yejide Peters-Muhammad, co-founders of the Congo Square Preservation Society. Poet and author Kelly Harris Deberry moderates the conversation. The program also includes a drumming performance by Timothy Brown and Wesley “Kamau” Phillips. 

Wednesday, September 25, 6:00–7:15 pm 
New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins C. Diboll Circle

Costera, the Coastal Mediterranean Uptown restaurant and bar by Chef Brian Burns and Reno De Ranieri, is pleased to announce its Fall Wine Dinner Series. Showcasing a different region of the Iberian Peninsula each month from October through December, the decadent three-course pairing dinners are certain to tantalize the palates of oenophiles and foodies alike. The series will kick off on Thursday, October 10th, showcasing the wines of Parés Balta – a third-generation organic and biodynamic family-owned winery in Penedes, Spain.  

With only 20 seats available, the intimate and exclusive dinner, crafted by Chef de Cuisine Kathryn Searcy (click for our interview with Kathryn), will feature perfectly prepared dishes alongside beautiful wines curated by General Manager Steve Groom. The family-style tasting will feature an array of specialty plates not found on the Costera menu, as well as some signature classics. Priced at $125 per person (includes tax and gratuity), the menu will be:

First Course
Jamon Iberico, Pan Con Tomate, Scallop Crudo
Second Course
Crispy Duck Pappardelle, Seared Gulf Tuna with Calabrian Chili Salsa, Roasted Heirloom Carrot & Cauliflower Salad
Third Course
Chef’s Choice of Assorted Desserts
 
The Costera wine dinner will occur on Thursday, October 10, at 6:30 PM. For reservations, please call 504-302-2332. Costera is located at 4938 Prytania Street.

A group of seven young whooping cranes is being raised at the Freeport-McMoRan Audubon Species Survival Center, part of an ongoing effort to save these endangered birds from extinction. The youngsters hatched earlier this year, and five of them will be released to the wild this fall to help build a sustainable population.
 
The chicks are being hand-raised by keepers wearing crane costumes to limit their exposure to humans. Five of the birds will be released to the White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area in Vermillion Parish, the remaining birds will be kept in human care for breeding. All of this year’s chicks are named for types of pasta: Fiori, Capellini, Ziti, Vermicelli, Gemelli, Gigli, and Lasagna.
 
“Every whooping crane chick that is successfully raised for release or breeding is one critical step in the preservation of these species,” said Richard Dunn, Assistant Curator at the Species Survival Center. “We are encouraged to see birds grow to adulthood and released to our Louisiana population.”
​
Audubon Nature Institute is an active part of whooping crane conservation and works closely with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and other partners with the goal of developing a self-sustaining population of whooping cranes in Louisiana. 

More from the Audubon Nature Institute

Tumble deeds: Cirque du Soleil's Songblazers @ The Saenger Theatre
Review by Dorian Hatchett

Is there anything French clowns and acrobats can’t do?  If you said “pay homage to the uniquely American art and culture that is country music without seeming condescending or silly” I would posit that you are wrong.  The proof is in Songblazers, a Cirque Du Soleil Theatrical production currently on tour across the US.  

With a forty-year history of wowing audiences around the world, Cirque is currently operating nineteen different productions, either touring or resident, in ten countries. Their shows are the gold standard for production level, and this one was no different. The sets are designed to be more than backdrops, and the costumes tell stories all their own. Cirque owns its own music production company, just to make the show that much more seamless, and you won’t find a better produced stage outside of Broadway.  

Songblazers tells the story of an aspiring country music songwriter, set in Nashville Tennessee. There’s a slow wind-up, as the environmental entertainment while awaiting the curtain smoothly transitions into the show proper, and we’re greeted by a massive, complicated set featuring balcony stages for a live band, and a giant moving steam engine that is occasionally a stage and occasionally the moon and is always the center of the action.  

I am always excited to see how a traveling show will use the stage. The flexibility, the professional knowledge, that must be used to shift the blocking and lighting and props for every single location on a tour is a source of wonder for me. The performers made it look like they grew up on that stage, using every single inch, never looking crowded or sparse. Dancers and acrobats confidently chewed up scenery and there wasn’t a bad seat in the house.  

There was real genuine laughter and joy from the audience. What country music backed show doesn’t have a full-cast bar fight? It hits a little different when the actors are acrobats. A juggler performs feats of midair organization, with a whole stack of red solo cups, set to the song Red Solo Cup. Toby Keith would be proud. There’s no way someone doesn’t love that bar.

There was a carnival strongman advertising nails by driving them into a board with his hands, and I cannot stress how very difficult it would be to do aerial silks in a cowboy hat, but they pulled it off with aplomb. They might have friends in low places, but they are at the height of their craft. 

More information about Songblazers and Cirque du Soleil
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​Domestic Abyss: A Doll's House at the Marquette Theatre
Review by David S. Lewis

It is more than passingly uncomfortable that a play written about gender dynamics in 1879 feels perfectly relevant today. 

Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, credited with many of the most important dramatic works such as Peer Gynt and Enemy of the People, was accused of feminist propagandism for A Doll’s House, in which Nora, a married woman realizes that her value to all of the men in her life is based exclusively on her conformity to reductive societal ideals - especially her relationship with her paternalistic husband, Torvault. 

While the original is in three acts, Amy Herzog’s Tony-winning revival (a rarity for a translation) condenses the work to around 90 minutes, which somewhat impedes the repetitive rhythm of the original,  in which deliberate redundancy serves to reinforce the boundaries of the Nora’s world. Herzog also updates the language, transforming quaint idiom like “wretched” into something more contemporarily acidic. 

Herzog’s version forces us to deal with the familiarity of the characters’ interactions; most of us have seen these play out in the relationships of people we know intimately, and the effect is shocking.

In Crescent City Stage’s presentation, director Jana Mestecky, with two decades in the New York theater scene, shows us the play from the eyes of the couple’s children, encouraging us to see ancient dynamics from a symbolically innocent perspective.

In casting Elizabeth Newcomer and Michael A. Newcomer as Nora and Torvald, a couple married in real life portray the dysfunction of the married characters vividly: the chemistry is real and familiar, which permits the pain and outrage felt by the characters to come through incisively.  

The play here feels loaded and modern, and what vestiges of the work’s Old World origins remain imbue the minimalist production with a surreality the serves to heighten the tension. Secondary characters in this are also wonderfully cast: Douglas Scott Streater’s Dr. Rank, a family friend with several important secrets, is genial and warm, and so his revelations land like a blade. 

Sue Jin Song’s Kristine, whose attempts to rebuild her own life upend Nora’s, gives an earnest that makes her character feel complete. And Doug Spearman provides his Krogstad, a brooding and embittered former loan shark trying to turn a new page, with a dignity and affection well-reserved for this false antagonist, seemingly a threat to Nora’s bourgeoise idyll but ultimately the key to unlocking her life’s prison.

Hurricane Francine affected this play's schedule, so please consider supporting them on September 22 @ 2:30p.m. Click here for information and ticketing.  
You can follow David S. Lewis: @allaboardnola
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Dreads or tales...
PENNY DREADFULS: THE REMARKABLE ROOMING-HOUSE OF MADAME LE MONDE 
Review by Dorian Hatchett

Tennesee Williams never stopped writing.  His most popular pieces stunned Broadway audiences from the 1940s through the 1960s, but his body of work spans his entire life, as wildly diverse as it is prodigious. The three plays performed in Penny Dreadfuls: The Remarkable Rooming-House of Madame Le Monde are among his most esoteric, and for good reason.  

Williams’ work is entertainingly clever and complex, the characters deeply flawed in all the most (and least) relatable ways. There’s never just a story happening on the stage, though. Williams was a gay man who lived in some of the worst times to be gay in America.  He was a sickly child in a dysfunctional family. He had a schizophrenic sister and puritanical family. He saw first hand how humans treat the people who they consider “other” and it informs every word.  

His most popular work was a delicate balance of artful plot and social commentary. The escapism of theater was maintained, and one could enjoy the production and then dissect the deeper narrative at their leisure (or choose not to, and remain entertained by the characterizations alone). Later in his life, though, the critical acclaim was more sparse, and Williams sank his entire might into the power of the stage to deliver that societal critique.  

Instead of subtle, unspoken undercurrents, his stories became morality plays screaming from the rooftops of the pain and mistreatment of society's most maligned, most oppressed, most overlooked. These shows are meant to make the audience uncomfortable; to pour misery directly into your hands and make you sit with it, squirming in the reflection of stage lights and the smell of plywood.

The Tennessee Williams Theatre Company (about to start their 10th season) has a sterling reputation for their candor and sensitivity when interpreting this work. In their hands, these pieces are treated with respect bordering on veneration, the audience becoming their beneficiary.  

Truly appreciating this writing demands the correct application of dark humor, and the Penny Dreadfuls are apex gallows comedy. The audience writhes internally, and nervous laughter is the near constant over quiet contemplation or rapt attention, the small cast of actors radiating unhinged savagery from their pores. 

The laughter is genuine at first. The show’s master of ceremonies is none other than Jigsaw from the Saw horror movie franchise. The action on stage descends with furious speed, to the limits of what an audience can silently accept, and their discomfort is the most high praise a show like this can receive. 

Monica R. Harris (Madame Le Monde, Mrs. Yorke) commands the stage with her facial expressions, and the other actors' apparent distrust of her is so palpable it may be genuine. Adrienne Simmons (Lily, Jigsaw) is physical theater personified. Her shoulders offer entire soliloquies. Cody Keech (The man with the size 11D, the Boy) seduces more than Miss Simple with his promises of a life fully lived, with all its messy imperfections. 

Accolades must be given to the set design, and its brilliant geometry. Backdrops that fold into themselves is a masterful use of a tiny space, transforming in the blink of an eye. The interaction between stage and audience is effortless, as if the fourth wall simply does not exist. We are acutely aware that they, and their suffering, are part of the show as much as Mint’s mobility hooks, propping up the dialogue with reflected energy.  

I was not immune to the uncomfortable silence, the awkward shuffle of my feet, the nervous laughter, the awareness that I didn't know what to do with my hands. Like many audience members, I made uncouth jokes as I filed out of the auditorium. 

With a declaration that the characters in the rooming–house were none other than Clive Barker’s cenobites, if they were portrayed by tubercular victorian children, I unintentionally reasserted that horror as a genre is rooted in a human need to explore hell as a place we have manufactured, through our own faults. Sartre was right, and it is indeed other people.

PENNY DREADFULS: THE REMARKABLE ROOMING-HOUSE OF MADAME LE MONDE runs at The Lower Depths Theatre @ Loyola University through Sept 28th. Click here for more information and ticketing
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