Set in late 18th century Paris, Les Liaisons Dangereuses is a tragic story of seduction, love, and revenge, told with humor and sensuality. The Vicomte de Valmont (Blayne Weaver) and the Marquise de Merteuil (Charity Schubert) play a vicious game of lies and lust, toying with other people’s lives for their own amusement. Eventually, like the highly unequal society in which these aristocrats thrive, their schemes come crashing down with disastrous consequences. 

What: An independent production of Christopher Hampton’s play, Les Liaisons Dangereuses based on the novel by Choderlos de Laclos

Where: The Scottish Rite Cathedral in downtown Shreveport, Louisiana

When: July, 2025

Who: Heather Hooper - Director

Charity Schubert - Producer and La Marquise de Merteuil

Blayne Weaver - Le Vicomte de Valmont

Cara Johnston - Madame de Tourvel

Jaya McSharma - Madame de Volanges

Josh Talley - Set Designer and Technical Director

Why: To entertain and inspire Shreveport audiences with a top-quality production of this timely and brilliant play.

$50,000 is a lot of money! We’re aiming high in hopes of bringing Shreveport audiences a truly spectacular experience. This is a period piece with a large cast. The more money we raise, the more incredible the show we can deliver through sumptuous costumes, gorgeous sets, captivating lighting and sound designs, and more.

But the most important element of this production we can invest in is the people bringing this show to life. Our goal is to fairly compensate everyone involved in this production for their time and talents, so the more we raise, the more folks we can pay. And much of our budget will be spent in Shreveport, investing money into its arts community. 

A few examples of what your donation will help pay for:

Actor salaries

Designer fees (set, lighting, costume, and sound)

Director’s fee

Set construction (materials and labor)

Backstage crew

Costumes and wigs 

Props

Furniture and set dressing

Rental of lighting instruments

Insurance

Marketing

Rehearsal space

Performance venue 

Rights to perform the show 

Payroll company services

Housing and transportation for out-of-town actors

And much more!

Heather Hooper - Director
Heather Peak Hooper trained at The American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and has a B.A. in Theatre and a Masters in Arts Teaching in Theatre, English, and Speech. She has acted and directed professionally from San Francisco, California to London, England and toured internationally with the American Shakespeare Center.  Some of her favorite plays in which she performed locally are Cover of Life, Waverly Gallery, August: Osage County, and Misery.  Heather is proud to teach theatre at Captain Shreve High School and coach Shreve’s Theatre Performance Team. 

Charity Schubert - Producer and La Marquise de Merteuil
Charity Schubert is based in New York but spent her formative years learning her craft in Shreveport. Most recently she has been seen onstage at Stage Center as Jean, the White House Press Secretary in POTUS, directed by Lyn Cramer. In 2024 she produced and starred in Napoleonic Code, a short film which was awarded Top Five at the Louisiana Film Prize and is currently enjoying a successful run on the film festival circuit. 2023 saw Charity direct hit productions of Kate Hamill’s Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy and Erica Schmidt’s MAC BETH at her alma mater, Centenary College of Louisiana. 

Blayne Weaver - Le Vicomte de Valmont
Blayne Weaver starred in the feature films CUT TO THE CHASE and 6 MONTH RULE. He has appeared in numerous projects including WOLF PACK, CUPID FOR CHRISTMAS, AMERICAN PIE PRESENTS: GIRLS’ RULES, MANIC opposite Don Cheadle, and THE GOOD OLD BOYS opposite Tommy Lee Jones. He also provided the voice of Peter Pan in the Disney animated feature RETURN TO NEVERLAND. On the stage, Weaver has starred as Paul in MISERY, Kaffee in A FEW GOOD MEN, and Black Stache in PETER AND THE STAR CATCHER for Stage Center, George in OF MICE AND MEN for Shreveport Little Theatre; Bernard in BOEING, BOEING and Serge in ART for River City Rep; and as Trip in the Los Angeles premiere of ANON by Kate Robin for Echo Theater Company.

Cara Johnston - Madame de Tourvel
Cara Johnston is an actor and playwright currently based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She fondly remembers her time spent living in Louisiana. Favorite Shreveport credits include: Agnes of God, Boeing-Boeing, and Bus Stop at River City Repertory. Cara’s debut play, The Little Glass Slipper as Performed by the Queen of France and her Friends was televised on PBS stations across her home state of Texas. In 2023, she performed her one-person play, The Madwoman, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland, where she received five stars and an Offies nomination. Currently, Cara is the Br!nks New Play Festival resident playwright at Renaissance Theatreworks with her new play, Great White Throne.

Jaya McSharma - Madame de Volanges
Dr. Jaya McSharma is a physician, filmmaker, and actress who has produced five short films as well as three successful web series which have been featured in over twenty film festivals across the country. She won Best Actress in 2018 at Louisiana Film Prize.  By day, she is owner of "Your MD Bestie," a subscription-based medical clinic that practices joy-facing medicine and is the medical director of The Philadelphia Center. She won Best Breakout Performance at Stage Center for her turn as the Fairy Godmother in The Descendants in 2022. In 2024, she played Stephanie in POTUS, directed by Lyn Cramer. Her favorite human progeny is a 5 year old curly-headed rascal named Ari. She lives in Shreveport with her producing partner/husband Jacob and their family.

Josh Talley - Set Designer and Technical Director
Josh Talley is a Shreveport native who received his B.A. in Theatre from Centenary College of Louisiana. Josh has worked as a set designer and technical director with many Shreveport theater companies over the years. Notable productions he designed, built  include Shreveport Little Theater's production of Rabbit Hole, SLT Academy's production of Children of Eden, and Stage Center's production of The Color Purple which featured a spectacular flying wall. Josh has also appeared on stage in many local productions such as Dial M for Murder and Of Mice and Men at Shreveport Little Theater and  Stage Center’s A Few Good Men. Most recently he starred in, co-produced, and designed and built one of the sets for the award-winning short film Napoleonic Code.

Liaisons is a sexy and dangerous literary masterpiece complete with powdered wigs, lurid affairs, gorgeous dresses, and witty dialogue. Christopher Hampton’s 1985 script is based on the 1782 epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.  Hampton later adapted his own script into the screenplay for the 1988 film Dangerous Liaisons starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Laclos’ classic tale has seen a multitude of adaptations over the years, including the 1999 teen romantic drama, Cruel Intentions. 

Laclos wrote Les Liaisons Dangereuses with the intent to, “write a work which departed from the ordinary, which made a noise, and which would remain on earth after his death." and he succeeded wildly. Despite being written over two centuries ago, Liaisons is timeless in its portrayal of love, seduction, betrayal, and the ends to which people will go to obtain the object of their affection (or obsession) and avoid vulnerability. It is as urgent as ever in its depiction of the gross inequality between the idle elite and the servant class as well as the restrictive roles and double standards forced on women. We see how keeping up appearances and playing “the game” in a society steeped in hypocrisy allows cruelty and exploitation to go unchecked and often rewarded.  

Sex. Revenge. Love. Candelabras. What more could you ask for from a night at the theater?

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