By: Darrel LeJeune, The Basile Weekly Editor
In this age of “canned” music, most community theatre’s have opted for recorded accompaniments for their musical productions.
This summer’s Eunice Players’ Theatre staging of “Godspell,” however, has a full band, including electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, piano, flute, drums, and tambourine.
The band members are Jimi Bergeron of Basile on electric and acoustic guitar, Steve Benoit of Swords on bass and acoustic guitar, Jamie Green of Opelousas on piano, Bernard Brown of Eunice on drums, Joshua Queflander of Eunice on flute, and Missy Benoit on tambourine.
The Godspell band has a diverse portfolio of talent and experiences as noted below.
Jimi Bergeron of Basile is playing electric and acoustic guitar. He has been a band director for eight years and is starting his fourth year at his alma mater, Basile High School. He received his master’s degree in music from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2007. Jimi has been a trombone player for the Eunice Community Concert Band and Choir for over 10 years and played guitar for the Eunice Players’ Theatre production of “Honky Tonk Angels” in 2015.
Jamie Green of Pecainere is the Godspell pianist. He teaches choir in the St. Landry Parish School System and has studied both history and vocal performance at Northwestern State University of Louisiana where he earned two bachelor of arts while studying voice, piano, and choral direction.
Jamie is the pianist for First Baptist Church of Opelousas, the director of the Opelousas Community Choir, and a tenor for the Red River Chorale of Alexandria, Louisiana. He is classically trained in opera and has performed across the United States as well as England.
He has been a feature soloist in Canterbury Cathedral and Bath Abbey in England as well as a feature soloist in cities across Louisiana and in other states.
Bernard Brown of Eunice has been playing drums for 45 years with experience in various styles of music including Rock, Country, Cajun and Swamp Pop. This is his third EPT show, having played drums previously for “Always, Patsy Cline” in 2013 and “Honky Tonk Angels” in 2015.
Steve Benoit of Swords is the bass player. This marks his fourth performance as a guitarist for a “Godspell” show including the 1978 LSUE production led by Father Chuck Burleigh, the 1994 EPT presentation, and the 2004 OLT show.
He and his wife, Missy, have been a part of theatrical productions most of their lives and performed with their own professional band which included cast members from the 2004 OLT “Godspell” cast.
Joshua Queflander of Eunice will be a sophomore at Basile High School in the fall where he plays flute in the Basile Bearcat Band.
He is a talented and gifted student in Evangeline Parish and has played flute at St. Augustine Catholic Church. He and his flute have won several talent shows during the past few years This is his first theatrical production.
Missy Benoit of Swords plays tambourine in the “Godspell” band but is also a talented pianist and vocalist. She has performed in various theatrical productions in Opelousas (including “Godspell”) and Eunice. She and her husband, Steve (the bass player), have also performed in a professional band known as The Blues Brothers of Louisiana.
The production will include eight 7 p.m. shows and one 2 p.m. matinee. Opening night was Tuesday with the run continuing nightly through Friday.
The theatre will be dark Saturday, and will reopen Sunday for the matinee.
Evening performances follow on Monday, Tuesday, July 25; and July 27.
Tickets are $15 and are available at Beaucoup, 114 Second Street, in downtown Eunice, located directly across from the theatre.
The musical is not a part of the season ticket holders’ package. To purchase tickets by phone using a credit card, call 337-550-4727.