Venturing out to Luling, on the west bank of the Mississippi River and opposite from Destrehan, many are surprised to find a multi-story, $30 million building with a mosaic of windows stretching from ground to roof. The building, a half-hour from New Orleans, is decorated with four large letters displayed vertically: A, R, T and S.
This is St. Charles Parish’s Dr. Rodney R. Lafon Performing Arts Center, a one-of-a-kind facility that immerses the parish school district’s nearly 10,000 students in the arts.
On school days, the building is full of children, bused in from across the district who are engaging in classrooms with state-of-the-art technology: a TV broadcasting class is taught by a former WDSU producer in a news studio replica; a sculpture and ceramics lesson makes use of two fully functioning kilns — and a piano classroom features students preparing for their semester recital, which they will perform on a beautiful Steinway piano that has starred in concerts around the world and has been signed by icons like Randy Newman and Tony Bennett.
But the Lafon Arts Center isn’t satisfied with glitz, glamour and cutting edge. It has a serious goal: to positively impact the lives of St. Charles’ students by providing them opportunities in the arts.
Aimee Braud, mother to 16-year-old Eva, said she has definitely seen a change in her daughter since she began attending Lafon, both during the school year and through the Center’s summer camps.
“Eva’s father and I were both into athletics when we were in school, and that was never 100% Eva’s thing,” Braud said. “But, through Lafon, she learned that theater is her sport.”
Braud says she’s watched the school and theater program help transform her daughter.
“Not just as a performer, but in the way she interacts with new people and new situations,” Braud said. “Her experience here has made her courageous.”
Cutting-edge in St. Charles Parish
The education wing is rounded out with classrooms teaching graphic design, photography, 3D printing, marketing, technical theater and dance.
But the education doesn’t stop in those classrooms.
The Lafon Performing Arts Center’s most impressive areas are its performance spaces. A sleek and intimate, 150-seat theater is perfect for community events such as evening comedy shows, but the center’s crown jewel is its 1,300-seat auditorium with a large stage, LED theatrical lighting — and a sound system that supports everything from rock concerts to Broadway-level productions.
Lafon’s executive director, Ned Moore, said these spaces host more than 55 school productions each year, including choir and band concerts, theater productions, dance/piano recitals, art galleries, workshops and joint performances with visiting artists from around the world.
“We’re inspiring St. Charles Parish students through the arts,” Moore said. “That includes giving them opportunities to perform, but also bringing in talent from across the globe.”
Recently, for example, 800 second grade students watched a performance by the puppeteers of Mermaid Theatre from Nova Scotia, Canada. Fifty sixth graders had the opportunity to perform alongside the Sharpe Family Singers, previously featured on American Idol and America’s Got Talent.
Ten national tours come through St. Charles each year, thanks to the center, and it all begs the question: how does a performing arts center like this exist in an American school district?
“Dr. Rodney Lafon was this gregarious, larger-than-life guy,” Moore said of the jazz trumpeter, music teacher and eventual St. Charles Parish district superintendent for who the Lafon Center was named. “He cared for his students and he was beloved — always invited into people’s homes for dinner. This center was his dream.”
When Lafon passed away in 2014, a year after retiring from the district, a fund was created in his name. When a tax millage was up for renewal, the people of St. Charles Parish voted to fund the construction of their former superintendent’s dream.
That school district funding, alongside a $5 million endowment by Shell Norco and donations from Hancock Whitney Bank and the St. Charles Parish Hospital, all help to ensure giving the community a world-class art center that will exist long into the future.
“Honestly, I think about him every day,” Moore said, “about what he gave this blue-collar town. People come up to me all the time and say, ‘This is exactly what he envisioned.’”
Changing lives
The Lafon Arts Center first opened in 2018. Since then, it has left an impact on countless students, such as 22-year-old Diavian Ceaser.
“I was a sophomore back then, and I couldn’t believe I had this opportunity to act in plays in this big, beautiful theater,” Ceasar said. “And to take classes in dance, and to learn how to be on a stage crew as a technician with all of this equipment.”
She said that the community’s willingness to invest in its children “says so much about the community.”
Caesar said her time at the center filled her with confidence and gave her opportunities she never imagined were possible for herself.
Then, when her Loyola University musical theater education became too expensive to continue, she was welcomed back to the center that she had always thought of as “a second home.”
“Two years ago, they hired me to work behind the scenes on productions, and now I’m a production coordinator,” Caesar said. “I get to work with and learn from some of the best technicians in the country when they come to Lafon on tour.”
Moore said several of the center’s students who found a passion in stage crew — working on the technical side of productions as a spotlight operator, stage manager, or deck hand, for example — have transitioned to jobs at the center operating its world-class equipment.
This upcoming semester, a lineup of talent will once again be coming through Lafon — including Broadway star Mandy Gonzalez singing the music of “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. Gonzalez will be accompanied by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.
“It’s an incredible opportunity for our students, but not only for our students,” Moore said. “Everyone is invited. Make the short drive from New Orleans or Baton Rouge. We have plenty of parking, world-class talent every month — and the ticket you buy will support the dreams of Louisiana children.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nola.com ’
