But we are mindful of our supporters, our backers, and our audience. We know that many, many of you endured the same natural disasters, and in some cases with devastating results, and that many of you have struggled mightily with Covid. We think of you, and we very much look forward to contacting you when we do set our goals for staging  our New Plays Series and other projects.

We will certainly stage the 26 new plays that we announced on this blog in late May 2020. We look forward to that work and to celebrating these excellent playwrights, chosen from a submission total of 900 nationwide and internationally.  They submitted 10-minute and short plays to our series that addressed the theme of 2020:  “Life Inspired”.

A Happy Holidays to everyone. Please stay safe as you gather with loved ones and friends to celebrate Hanukkah, which begins today, and also Christmas.

~ Itinerant Theatre

Those 10-minute or short play entrants were from a year ago!

We’ve had a few setbacks.

First and foremost was Covid, a pandemic which is ongoing and which we shared with all of you. Our hearts go out to you who suffered losses from this dread disease.

On August 27th Lake Charles received a direct hit by Laura, the 5th strongest hurricane ever to hit the USA. This threw us into evacuation for over two months in north Texas. The evacuation of our family was challenging, as two of the five of us had special travel needs, and there were, of course, no EMT’s available to assist us in our departure.

About six weeks later Lake Charles was hit by Delta, a 2nd hurricane, a more high-water event. Then, in the wintertime, the Southwest and Southern states were hit with a great freeze, which also significantly compromised the homes of our supporters and audience base. Finally, just two weeks ago, Lake Charles experienced a torrential rainstorm/flood, the 3rd  strongest in city history, which unevenly flooded out homes still under repair from the storms.

Almost all of the region’s performing venues are non-functioning. Our primary base, home of our office and studio, Central School Arts Building, has been closed to the public for 10 months. Roof repairs are underway, but interior repairs will take another 6-10 months. Soon, we must empty our Studio 339 so that repairmen have access to the 100+ year-old building. Our studio, being on the topmost floor and to the east, was one of the two most heavily hit studios in the building.

In addition, and very, very significantly, while we were on evacuation in Texas, we lost Dolph, the older brother of our Executive/Artistic Director, Joy Pace.

The year has been most trying.

Nonetheless, be assured. We look forward to envisioning bringing affordable, professional theatre to audiences and to exploring new works and the classics.

Joy Pace, Exec/Artistic Director. will soon issue a new call-out for the sixth New Play Series: The Play’s the Thing. There will be a theme unique to this season. The accepted plays will be either 10-minute plays or short plays (under an hour in length).

See you at the show!

Yes, we are quarantined and our New Play Series 2020 productions are TBA.

But, tonight, right now our annual fundraiser musical feature, Rusty Metoyer and the Zydeco Krush are LIVE on Facebook!  They are the featured artists for Lake Charles’s virtual event, Downtown at Sundown.  (Usually a terrific outdoors event downtown.)

Go to your FB page, and locate downtownatsundown.

Enjoy the live performance!  Such a versatile, talented group of young musicians.

Rusty Metoyer and the Zydeco Krush will again perform for us January 2021, again at The Foundation House (thanks to Eddie Lewis, proprietor for the venue).  The hours are later, 10:00pm – 2:00am and it’ll be on a Friday night so as not to conflict with all of our wonderful local Mardi Gras events.  More details to come.

Selected Plays

Hello, Friends of Itinerant Theatre,

We are pleased to finally announce our selections for our “The Play’s the Thing:  Life Inspired” New Play Series.  The process was a difficult one, as we once again had almost 900 submissions, which is wonderful.  If you are a playwright, thank you so much for your interest and submission.  It was a difficult decision to make, but in the end we decided on these 26 that we hope will leave our audiences inspired.

I’m sure you are all expecting and understand that our dates have now had to change and are now necessarily indefinitely postponed until our stay-at-home orders are lifted, and our actors and audiences can all safely return to life in our new normal, whatever that may be.  We will announce those dates, as soon as they are known.

In the meantime, please stay safe, stay inside, WRITE A PLAY or SEE A PLAY via some virtual medium.  Take care of yourselves.  I may even soon be inspired to have next year’s theme and begin to accept next season’s submissions.  For that, playwrights, please keep your eyes out for submission call-outs from Itinerant Theatre.

Thank you all, dear playwrights.  Congratulations to the following 26 plays listed below (alphabetized by playwright).

~ Joy Pace                                                                                                                                                                             Artistic/Executive Director                                                                                                                                                           Itinerant Theatre

We continue to work through our really significant number of entries for New Plays Series 2020, The Play’s the Thing with a theme of “Life Inspired”.  We hope to announce finalists by late winter 2020.  Thank you to everyone for this really enthusiastic response.

See you at the show!

Rusty Metoyer & the Zydeco Krush are a young, really talented group of SWLA musicians taking time off from their busy music schedules to play for us and our crowd for one night, this coming Saturday.

Rusty leads on accordion, and the band plays a variety of fun music!  The crowd just likes to dance.  For a break there’s a cash bar in the lounge attached to the big dance hall.  There’s also a limited kitchen and a place to rest your busy, dancing feet!

The ticket is $20.  What a deal!  You can buy your ticket here on this website via Eventbrite, or pay at the door — cash or credit card, no checks.

Join us for a carefree evening this Saturday!  See you at 720 Enterprise Blvd. (Nellie Lutcher Parkway) just north of Broad St.  Park across the street.  There will be security.

Yes, Mardi Gras starts tomorrow, the Super Bowl playoffs are underway (bah humbug, Saints just lost!  How did that happen?)

Come and just dance!  We’re sponsoring Spotlight on Zydeco! — our 1st annual fundraiser — on Saturday night January 25th, 9:00pm-12:00midnight.  This promises to be an evening of zydeco (and some other sub-genres of Louisiana music thrown in) with Rusty Metoyer & the Zydeco Krush!

Eddie Lewis is our co-host.  The event is at Eddie’s Foundation House at 720 Enterprise Blvd.  Park across the street.

Tickets are only $20.  You can buy tickets on this website or at the door — cash or credit card only.  There’ll be a cash bar and a limited kitchen.  Security will be provided.

Have some fun!  Join us!

Two events to watch for:  1.  IT’s first large fundraiser:  Spotlight on Zydeco, a light-hearted evening of dance featuring Rusty Metoyer and the Zydeco Krush.  9:00pm- 12:00 midnight, Saturday, January 25 at the Foundation House, 720 Enterprise Blvd.  Tickets are $20.  Pay on this website via Eventbrite or by credit card or cash at the door.  Security will be provided.  We will have a good time, yes!

2.  IT’s New Play Series 2020, with the theme Life Inspired.  We’ve had a very, very large number of submissions from playwrights nationwide and internationally.  Watch for our announcement this winter of the finalists for the annual staged reading event which occurs in late spring 2020 in our Studio 339 at Central School A&H Bldg.  These short plays are so varied!  See you at the show.

Admission is a non-perishable food item for donation to a local food pantry.  IT will provide a festive atmosphere and have wassail and cookies.  Come join us to enjoy the season, learn a little about the holidays and feel inspired.

December 14, 2019 at Central School, Studio 339, 7:00pm.  Elevator is available.  Address of Central School A&H Bldg. is 809 Kirby St., Lake Charles.  Please park in back.

PS  Stay tuned for our “Spotlight on Zydeco” Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020 at The Foundation House on Enterprise Bl. with Rusty Metoyer and the Zydeco Krush!