Forget about the gloom of hurricane season. It’s time for theatre season once again in Louisiana.Two large, multi-million dollar renovation projects on both the Student Union Theater and the Mahalia Jackson Theater in New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong Park will finally give locals the option to satisfy their cravings for a live stage production.Starting in October, the Mahalia Jackson Theater will begin New Orleans’ first touring Broadway show season since flood waters from Hurricane Katrina rose to levels of 17 feet, flooding the basement and destroying essential production equipment and some of the first floor and lobby. The water damage caused the renovation project of the theater to cost $23 million with an additional $6 million required to revitalize and restore the surrounding park, according to David Skinner, the Mahalia Jackson Theater general manager.The Jackson Theater plans to draw more than 100,000 patrons during the course of its five-show Broadway series, which includes Cats, The Color Purple, Mamma Mia!, Wicked and the irreverent puppet musical Avenue Q. The theater also plans to host a speaker series in the coming months with appearances from such personalities as Anthony Bourdain, Garrison Keillor and David Sedaris.In addition to attracting New Orleans area patrons to come back to live theater, the Jackson Theater hopes to have students from the University and other southern Louisiana schools travel to see a show, Skinner said. The quality of the shows coming to the theater in its reinaugural season and the lack of opportunity to see touring shows elsewhere already has some students excited.”I am so thrilled that Broadway is coming back to New Orleans,” said Sarah Schaff, animal science junior. “I am most excited to see Avenue Q, and I have seen Wicked already, but I would love to see it again. Live theatre has a creativity and energy you can’t find anywhere else.” While New Orleans has been hard at work to bring live theater back, University students and Baton Rouge residents are not without their own local theater overhaul to observe.As a part of the Student Union renovation contract, the University is spending $24.5 million on a complete facelift for the Union Theater, a facility when last open had outdated technology and was unable to live up to its full potential as the University’s main performing arts venue.Once the new Union Theater is complete, the venue will feature state-of-the-art sound and lighting equipment, and the common areas like lobby space and restrooms will be expanded, allowing for easier handling of capacity crowds.The Union Theater is scheduled for completion late in spring 2010 with the grand opening occurring sometime in fall 2010.”You will not recognize the theater when it’s done.” said Student Union theater manager Michael Derr. “The great new acoustics will also be a great improvement as this theater was not originally built with sound in mind.”The Union Theater is also planning a series of speakers and concerts in addition to the touring theater shows. “Live theatre is unique because there is nowhere else where someone can see so many types of art at the same time.” said Douglas Walker, theatre junior. Although students seemed excited about the idea of touring shows coming as close as the Union, the excitement for the other programming planned, like the possible speaker series, was more subdued.”While I would not normally go out of my way and see people speak if it was off–campus I would probably go and see someone if they were right here at the Union,” added Walker.Tickets for the first Broadway show to take the stage in New Orleans, Cats, are now on sale, ranging from $20 to $60. Sales for Cats, which runs from Oct. 27 to Nov. 1, as well as  season tickets for the entire Broadway series, have been “phenomenal” so far, Skinner said. He said the theater anticipates every seat to be sold out for each show.On-sale dates for individual show tickets for the later Broadway productions will be announced at a later date. 
—-Contact Alex White at [email protected]