Christian Leblanc, New Orleans native and three-time Emmy award winner for his role as Michael Baldwin in “The Young and the Restless,” will be Master of Ceremonies for “Celebrities, Comedy, and Cocktails.”The Louisiana Center for Women and Government will bring local and Hollywood celebrities to Nicholls for a convention, slated to take place Friday and Saturday.
The event will begin Friday with silent and live auctions. The items to be auctioned include a $9,000 dinner in the dining room of Oak Alley Plantation and a murder mystery dinner for eight.
For comedic entertainment, Bear Badeaux, Kaleena Massaker, Ed Schoen and Alex Sanborn from Los Angeles Connection Improv Troupe will perform Friday night in the Cotillion Ballroom.
“This will be an unscripted comedy show that is interactive with the audience,” Laura Badeaux, director of the Louisiana Center for Women and Government, said. “Scenarios will be picked out of a bowl, and the improv troupe will have to act the scenario out.”
Local celebrities that will be in attendance include Martin Folse, owner of HTV-10 in Houma; Eric Paulsen, morning show host and anchor for WWL-TV in New Orleans; and Laura Buchtel, WWL-TV meteorologist. Everyone in attendance Friday will have the opportunity to meet these and other local and Hollywood celebrities.
On Saturday, there will be an On-Camera Audition Workshop and an Improv Workshop. The On-Camera Audition Workshop will be from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and the Improv Workshop will be from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Each class costs $30, and applicants must be at least 16 years old to register. Classes will be divided by age due to the content of the scripts.
“This is an amazing opportunity for the local talent that we have in Louisiana,” Jean Sail, chair of the On-Camera Audition and Improv workshops, said.
Two of the acting coaches will be Bear Badeaux and Crystal Rivers. Badeaux, a Thibodaux native who performs in Los Angeles at The Comedy Store, iO West and LA Connection, has recently appeared in the films “Pretty Boy” and “Drama Kings.” He has studied with Jim Jarret, Paul Messinger, Roy Jenkins and Lou Diamond Phillips.
Crystal Rivers has starred in “Tape Worm” and “Enslavence.” Some of River’s other film credits include “High School Musical Dance-Along” and the television series “Jack and Bobby.”
Additional acting coaches include Ed Schoen, 2007 winner of Bravo’s Top Designer reality television show, Alex Sandborn, who studied and performed at the historical Second City Improv in Chicago, and Kaleena Massaker, who taught improv classes at LA Connection and performed in film comedies.
The On-Camera Audition Workshop is going to bring a Hollywood-style audition to Thibodaux. The audition will last five minutes, and the applicants will be given five pages of dialogue to audition with.
The On-Camera Audition Workshop will consist of two different auditions. The first will be a two-line audition and the second will be themed. The audition will be taped so the group can go back, critique it and offer comments.
“We want to teach you how to bring yourself to the scene,” Badeaux said. “We want you to learn how to dictate the script, not the script dictating you.”
Badeaux asked that attendees bring headshots and a resume so that his agent can view them. His company will be casting for a movie scheduled to film in Southern Louisiana.
The Improv Workshop will teach a variety of improv techniques. “You will learn how to listen to what people are saying,” Badeaux said. “Also, you will learn to act without thinking or judging yourself before.”
The workshop can help even if you are not interested in going into improv, Badeaux said.
“It will help you become a better listener and how to explore the moment. A lot of politicians and public speakers take improv workshops because they help you learn how to respond to an at-the-moment change or situation,” Badeaux said.
“All that I ask is, if you come to one of the workshops, that you give it 110 percent,” Badeaux said. “The workshops are going to be a fun environment and is going to be well worth it.”
These workshops are an amazing opportunity because something of this standard is usually only found in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, Badeaux said.
“Everyone knows what they want and has something unique about themselves,” Badeaux said. “These workshops are going to help you find that and help you bring it to your audition.”
To register for the classes, call the Louisiana Center for Women and Government at (985) 448-4770 or (985) 209-4221.
