Director | Makaylee Secrest
Stage Manager | Olivia Lunsford
Props Designer | Sarah Statham
Sound Designer | Haley Hughes
Costume Designer | Jordan Herbert
Lighting Designer | Kate Landry
Scenic Designer | Cole Clark
Make-Up Artist | Jenika Kolacz
French Dramaturg | Milan Williams
Accent Coach Landon Corbin
Sound Board Op Bella Rodriguez
Light Board Op Ethan Hood

Abby Alex Arnold
Zack Ryan Bailey
Alioune Amechi Obodoechina
Amina Allysan Cleveland

Belleville is a play about escapism, co-dependency, and privilege. Herzog reminds us of the dangers of lying to ourselves and others to cope with the pressures of stereotype and survival. Belleville critiques the entitlement of American culture while reminding us that the grass is not always greener on the other side. This past summer, riots in the Paris Suburbs sparked by the senseless murder of a young North African man named Nahel Merzouk highlight Belleville’s cultural commentary and have informed our exploration of privilege’s role in coping with disaster. Belleville is also an excruciating examination of the limitations of intimacy and the morality of deceit. Can we ever truly know each other? Can a lie be motivated by love? What kind of lies do we allow ourselves to believe to feel superior to others? While Belleville does not provide us with obvious answers or a central villain to shame when disaster strikes, two things become clear: avoiding confrontation can be just as destructive as confrontation itself and empathy and honesty are key in progressing society forward from its hostile and ignorant state.
 
- Makaylee Secrest (Director)

  • Drew Alvarez, Front Office & Box Office Coordinator
  • Jeremy Bernardoni, Instructor
  • Suzanne Chambliss, Instructor
  • Joe Chrest, Adjunct Film & TV
  • Sonya Cooke, Assistant Professor of Acting
  • John Michael Eddy, Professional-in-Residence Props
  • Nick Erickson, Associate Professor of Movement, Head of MFA Acting
  • Femi Euba, Louise & Kenneth Kinney Professor Black Drama and Playwriting
  • Melissa Fay, Business Manager School of Theatre
  • John Fletcher, Billy J. Harbin Associate Professor Theatre History
  • Jason Jamerson, Assistant Professor Virtual Production and Immersive Media
  • George Judy, Gresdna A. Doty Professor Acting and Directing
  • Kyla Kazuschyk, Associate Professor Costume Technology
  • Tyler Kieffer, Assistant Professor Sound Design
  • Vince LiCata, Adjunct Professor
  • Smaida Massatt, Assistant Professor of Lighting & Media Production
  • Jim Murphy, Prof. of Technology, Production Manager, Head MFA Technology/Design
  • Claudio Ribeiro, Professional-in-Residence Co-Head, Dance
  • Rocky Sansom, Assistant Professor Voice Assoc. Head MFA Acting
  • Alan Sikes, Associate Professor Theatre History
  • Amy Smith, Assistant Dean of Student Success Counselor
  • Kristin Sosnowsky, Executive Associate Dean, Chair & Professor
  • Vastine Stabler, Managing Artistic Director
  • Vanessa Uhlig, Visiting Assistant Professor of Film & TV
  • Becca Wagner, Student Success and Recruiting Coordinator
  • Shannon Walsh, Associate Professor Theatre History, Associate Dean D.E.I.
  • Apollo Weaver, Assistant Professor of Scenic Design
  • Chris Wood, Professional-in-Residence Scenic Technologist/Shop Manager

Alex Arnold

Alex Arnold

Alex Arnold (Abby) is a junior at LSU studying Theatre (performance). Her previous credits include Theatre Baton Rouge’s The Addams Family and the LSU Musical Theatre Club’s Heathers.

Ryan Bailey

Ryan Bailey

Ryan Bailey (Zack) is a junior theatre performance major with an arts administration minor. Previous shows at LSU that he has been in include the mainstage production of Airness, Musical Theatre Club's production of Heathers, a UTA staged reading of Circle Mirror Transformation, and the HopKins Black Box production of Alice: A Parable. He is also a member of the LSU Improv troupe.

Amechi Obodoechina

Amechi Obodoechina

Amechi Obodoechina (Alioune) is a senior Theater (Theater Studies) major. Previous credits include LSU Theater Zoom Production Anonymous; LSU Theater Lab's All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten. Amechi has also been in an UTA Staged Reading of She Kills Monsters.

llysan Cleveland

llysan Cleveland

llysan Cleveland (Amina) is a junior English major, concentrating in Creative Writing. Previous credits include starring in Annie and Hairspray.

Ethan Hood (Lighting Board Op) is a sophomore receiving a BFA in the Film & Television program. Previous credits include the LSU Geaux Films; The Dream List and There’s Something Wrong in Sugarland. Belleville will mark his theatrical debut.

Bella Rodriguez (Sound Board Op) is a sophomore Theatre (Tech and Design) major. Previous credits include assistant sound design for LSU Theatre Lab’s All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. She also designed and operated (sound) for LSU UTA’s My Body, No Choice and Hookman.

Sarah Statham (Props designer) is a senior Theatre: Design and Technology major and a history minor. Previous production credits include the Geaux Film The Dream List (Props assistant) and LSU lab series’ Wolf Play (Props designer). She also has experience as a stage manager including Swine Palace’s Sweat, LSU lab series’ The Goat, LSU School of Theatre’s Rachel, Dream Logos performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and 225 Theatre Collective’s The Shawshank Redemption.

Olivia Lunsford (Stage Manager) is a junior Theatre (Arts Administration) Major and Music (Experimental Music and Digital Media) Major with a Business Administration Minor. Her previous stage managing credits include LSU School of Theatre’s Craters, Airness, LSU’s Dance and Physical Theatre Showcase, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and The Wizard of Oz. She has also assistant produced Second Act Theatre Company’s production of 42nd Street.

Kate Landry (Lighting Designer) graduated from LSU in May 2023 with a degree in Theatre Technology and Design (and a minor in History if you can believe it). Previous credits include Swine Palace’s Craters and Sweat, LSU School of Theatre’s Dream Logos, LSU Mainstage’s The Wolves, LSU Musical Theatre Club’s Heathers, God Gun!, and Ascension Community Theatre’s productions of Matilda the Musical and Significant Other.

Cole Clark (Scenic Designer) is a 3rd year Studio Art major with a concentration in ceramics. They started as an actor and have previously performed in LSU’s Historic Black Box. This is their second designed show, however, having designed for LSU Theatre Lab’s To Stand in The Water in Spring 2023.

Haley Hughes (Sound Designer) is a senior Theater (design and technology) major. Previous credits include Assistant Sound Designer for Swine Palace’s Craters, and LSU Mainstage’s At the Wedding. She will also be Sound Designing the LSU Lab Season’s Antigone: Presented by the Girls of St. Catherine.

Jordan Hebert (Costume Designer) is a senior Textiles, Apparel, and Merchandising major and business minor. Previous credits include Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, Student Body, and Streetcar Named Desire. Upcoming credits include Antigone.

Jenika Kolacz (Makeup Designer) is a senior in the BFA Film and Television and BA Technical Theatre degree programs. Previous credits include stage managing for LSU Main Stage show
ANON(YMOUS) and designing makeup for LSU Lab Show Clown Bar. In her first year in the film program, she wrote and directed the university funded LSU Geaux Film 783 Bowman Ave. Jenika’s other LSU Geaux Films credits include LACED, Araignée, The Dream List. She is the secretary of LSU Film Club, Delta Rouge.

Landon Corbin (Accent Coach) is a graduate (2013) of the Manship School of Mass Communication with a concentration in Public Relations. Recent credits include Theatre Baton Rouge productions of Murder on the Orient Express, Godspell, The Rocky Horror Show, Blithe Spirit, and The Odd Couple.

Makaylee Secrest (Director) is a senior Theatre (performance) major and Psychology minor. Previous directing credits include the LSU Lab Series production of The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? Assistant directing credits include Theatre Baton Rouge’s Little Women, How I Learned to Drive, and Romeo and Juliet. This summer, Makaylee was a directing intern at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey where she assistant directed And a Nightingale Sang... and As You Like It.

For a full list of LSU College of Music & Dramatic Arts faculty and staff, please visit our college directory.