A witness to the successful 40-year history of Summer Lyric Theatre, B. Michael Howard serves as its artistic director. (Photo by Paula Burch-Celentano)

He has gone from portraying Buffalo Bill to serving as artistic director of Louisiana's preeminent musical theater. B. Michael Howard was there at the beginning and now is still here to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Summer Lyric Theatre at Tulane University.

At Summer Lyric Theatre's first performance, Annie Get Your Gun, Howard opened the show singing "Colonel Buffalo Bill." At 22, he may have looked a bit young for the part as owner of the Wild West show, but he sang his heart out.

And he hasn't stopped singing for 40 years. As an associate professor of music at Tulane, Howard teaches courses in vocal performance for musical theater and conducts voice training one-on-one.

Many of his students have left Tulane to become stars on stage and screen, opera and Broadway, or doctors and lawyers who are supporters of the arts in their communities. One former student graduated with a double major in neuroscience and voice.

"Students come to Tulane, not necessarily to major in music," Howard says. "These students are doing it because they have a passion for it."

Summer Lyric Theatre, following in the summer stock tradition, offers students an opportunity to work with theater professionals to produce three musical shows each summer. Lead roles generally are cast from professional actors living in the area or recruited from Howard's extensive network to spend the summer in New Orleans. Ed Kresley, choreographer and co-director, lives in New York and has an extensive Broadway career. Twenty or more members of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra play live music for each performance.

Howard and his colleagues stage each show with only two weeks' preparation.

"We want to give students a chance to learn a role, perform it on stage, then drop that role and pick up another one quickly," says Howard, who has served on the Tulane faculty for 25 years. "You won't hear music like this, a chorus and an orchestra like this, anywhere else in New Orleans."

In addition to his first love -- teaching -- Howard is a director, conductor, musical director and choral director. He has received numerous awards, including the 2004 Big Easy Lifetime Achievement Award for Theatre. Under his leadership, Summer Lyric Theatre recently received a National Endowment for the Arts Access to Artistic Excellence grant to support the summer-in-residence program. Howard also serves as head of the musical theater program at the Newcomb Music Department.

He is also a fan. "Experiencing Man of La Mancha or Les Miserables changes lives to the very soul," Howard says.

Summer Lyric Theatre provides many jobs for set, lighting and costume designers, carpenters, costumemakers and other craftspeople, as well as actors and musicians. Howard dreams the not-so-impossible dream of Tulane becoming a sort of Lincoln Center of the South, home to all the performing arts, including musical theater, theater, opera, ballet and symphony.

Little Me, the first show this summer, was a sellout that garnered rave reviews -- a feat not usually accomplished outside of Broadway, notes Howard.

"The community has a strong sense of ownership in Summer Lyric," Howard says. "When Ricky Graham -- who studied theater at Tulane -- came out for his curtain calls, you could hear the local pride."

Next up for Summer Lyric Theatre is the blockbuster Broadway and Hollywood hit Chicago, running July 12-15, followed by High Society with a score by Cole Porter on Aug. 2-8. Tickets are available for purchase at the box office in Dixon Hall on the Tulane uptown campus or by phone at 504-865-5269.