New Orleans reaches out
 

(July 2008) The Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs is praising a New Orleans theater for raising $6,450 to support recovery and rebuilding efforts in the Cedar Rapids theater community.

Le Chat Noir, a New Orleans venue for musical theater, comedy and cabaret, presented HeartSong Two: A New Orleans Concert for Iowa to a packed house last month to “pay forward” the support it received from New York City’s theater community after Hurricane Katrina.

In producing the concert, Chat Noir owner Barbara Motley worked with the Contemporary Arts Center, an artist-centered organization in New Orleans. The funds will be distributed in Iowa by Legion Arts, a similar organization in  Cedar Rapids, through its Iowa Artist Relief Fund.

“We are very grateful to Le Chat Noir and the actors and audience members who donated their time, talent and resources to support the Cedar Rapids theater community,” DCA Director Cyndi Pederson said. “The fact that this support is coming from New Orleans, which is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina, makes it even more special.”

Motley informed DCA about the benefit show more than a month ago and asked for information about theater communities across Iowa that were impacted by severe weather.

“We saw the pictures on television and we knew what they were going through,” Motley said. “It really struck close to home because of what we went through with Katrina and we felt this was the most appropriate and effective way for us to pay forward the support we received.”

HeartSong Two featured seven actors singing songs from Broadway, the Great American Songbook, standards and other pop favorites. Six of the actors are graduates of Yale Cabaret Conference, a summer program of master classes at Yale University. All seven actors are veterans of the New Orleans theater community.

“This is an impressive show of support from our New Orleans theater community when you realize that we netted $10,000 from the first Heart Song benefit in New York for New Orleans, which was a much bigger event at a considerably larger facility,” Motley said. “The money we raised, we hope, will be a solid base of seed capital from which Cedar Rapids can grow its own fund to help out artists.”

“People felt really good about chipping in to help their fellow Americans,” Motley said. “Sounds corny, but it’s true.”

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