Theatre season at Southeastern is making its seasonal debut with a locally-themed performance, a historical fiction piece aimed at drawing students into their own cultural history.

The production “Only in Louisiana: The Not-Quite-True Story of the West Florida Revolt” will be presented to the general public at Southeastern’s Vonnie Borden Theatre. The event – scheduled for Sept. 30, Oct. 1 and Oct. 4-6 – is part of Columbia Theatre’s annual Fanfare and represents a milestone production for the university.

“The play was written for the bicentennial celebration for the West Florida Parish Revolt, to get people interested in this little piece of Louisiana history that isn’t quite as well known as other pieces,” said Chad Winters, instructor of theatre and the director of the theatrical production.

“Only in Louisiana” is a play in the style of “Back to the Future,” with the West Florida Parish Revolt at its core. The main characters, two school students, travel back through time and find themselves in the shoes of historical political leaders. At this point, the students are placed in the precarious position of having to act their parts out to the letter so that history may unfold as it should.

At the same time, the leaders the students replaced are brought to 2010, where they must assume the roles of the students as the class receives a lecture on the very event in which they were about to take part.

The Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies commissioned James Winter, assistant professor of theatre, to write the play. The event’s stage premier will take place on Sept. 30.

“It’s pretty exciting to see something you wrote produced on such a scale,” said Winter. “It’s certainly the most lavish production of a show I’ve ever written.”

The production is written as a farce, a theatre motif that moves the plot along in an extravagantly comedic way. Typical of this motif are mistaken identities, cross-dressing, physical humor and relative absurdity.

Utilizing over 40 production members, some 27 of whom are actors and one of whom professional actor, the play is truly a first for Southeastern theatre. With eight different stage settings and a budget nearly three times as large as the average Southeastern theatre production, “Only in Louisiana” is a play of unprecedented magnitude for the university.

“It’s the biggest show we’ve ever done in Southeastern history,” said Steven Schepker, professor of theatre. “It’s also the most expensive that we’ve ever done in Southeastern history. It has the largest cast we’ve ever had, the most costumes. It’s a big show.”

The historical inspiration of the play lies in the 1810 West Florida Parish Revolt. The West Florida Parishes were never a part of the Louisiana Purchase and remained under Spanish control until a group of settlers, unhappy with the Spanish rule, staged a coup. The rebels stormed the Spanish outpost at Baton Rouge and, after the regime’s capitulation, set up a republic whose government closely resembled that of the United States.

The West Florida Republic stretched from the Mississippi River north of Lake Pontchartrain and followed the Gulf of Mexico to just beyond Mobile Bay. In the end, the territorial government lasted for a matter of months before its annex by what would later become the United States. This proved to be the final chapter in the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase.

So far, the turnout looks promising. The play is set to debut on Sept. 30 with a VIP showing to several hundred local school children, after which the regular showings will  proceed.

“We’re expecting four to five members of the legislature to be at the show and also the secretary of state in addition to some local officials as well,” said Schepker. “We’re getting a lot of attention from the outside.”

“Only in Louisiana” will take place on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 with tickets at $15 for adults and $10 for children and seniors. However, according to Winters, the tickets for these two showings are nearly sold out. The show will continue on Oct. 4-6 with tickets at $10 for adults, $5 for children and seniors and free for Southeastern students with a university ID.

Tickets may be purchased at the Vonnie Borden box office in the lobby of D Vickers Hall. Winters can be contacted at 985-549-2115 or [email protected] for more information on “Only in Louisiana.”