Waiting for Sedevie

David Sedevie, head of Baton Rouge Community College’s Theater and Film program, is running a few minutes late for our interview. He has just returned to the States from the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, and he lets me know it. “I saw Enda Walsh’s new play Penelope at the Traverse Theater,” he says. This statement, solely intended to elicit great jealousy, justifies my demand for a few pints on Mr. Sedevie’s tab. We settle into a booth at Red Star to discuss BRCC’s upcoming production of Waiting for Godot.

Waiting for Godot is widely held to be the most influential English language play of the 20th century. Samuel Beckett’s Godot debuted with the original French text and on London stage in the 1950s. The play, as tender as it is brutal, chronicles two days in the lives of Vladimir and Estragon as they wait in vain for the appearance of someone—or something—called Godot. The play rose from the mournful ashes of World War II as the age of global nuclear anxiety descended upon society. It’s equal parts Charlie Chaplin, Carl Jung, Racine and Christopher Hitchens, and it was famously cited by the late Vivian Mercier as a work “in which nothing happens, twice.” Beckett’s staggering portrait of the existential post-modern vacuum has long been a rite of passage for serious theater professionals.

Mounting legitimate, professional-quality theater like this in Baton Rouge is a tall order. In an effort to maintain an aging and dwindling audience, local theaters generally rely upon a repetitive pattern of stock musicals and parlor comedies. Modern, topical subject matter can be frowned upon, and some theaters have gone as far as attaching MPAA-style ratings to their productions so as not to offend any delicate audience sensibilities. This in a state that can partially lay claim to another giant of 20th century theater, Lake Charles native Tony Kushner, who authored the Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America.

“I believe BRCC’s efforts to produce challenging theater are good for the community, and I know it is a deeply meaningful and worthwhile exercise for our students,” Sedevie says. “By producing Waiting for Godot and providing a platform for our students to work with industry professionals, we’re hoping to prepare our students for successful careers as well as give them a thought-provoking and potentially liberating experience.”

“That’s assuming we pull it off,” he adds with a laugh.

Beyond entertaining local theater lovers, Sedevie wants to see BRCC emerge as a leader in curriculum-based training for students seeking an entrée into Louisiana’s burgeoning entertainment workforce. “Over the past three seasons, we’ve developed a model for our student productions, creating capstone projects out of our shows, drawing in students from multiple disciplines for an opportunity to work with professional artists and technicians in these fields,” Sedevie says. “Identifying and fulfilling workforce needs through innovative programs is a core mission of BRCC, and the support of Chancellor [Myrtle] Dorsey and the administration has been wonderful,” Sedevie says.

BRCC has previously staged first-rate productions of Macbeth and The Night of the Iguana that combined the talents of students and entertainment professionals from across the country. That ethos continues this month with Godot, a production that includes significant input from marketing and business students at the college for the first time. Waiting for Godot runs Nov. 5-6, 10-12 at BRCC’s Magnolia Performing Arts Pavilion. Call 216-8200 for tickets and more information.