Mandeville's Own Mr. Holland's Opus at Euphoria Game Room
By: Milena Merrill, Staff Writer
Featured on StTammany.com


The gaming room in Euphoria is a gamer's paradise, located in the heart of Mandeville. Feeling that "parking lots didn't seem like the perfect place for weekend socializing" and that St. Tammany Parish didn't offer enough safe places for youth to hang out, Robert Sturcken, a professional musician and former educator, opened the Euphoria Game Room.

Located with The Center of Performing Arts beneath the Mandeville Water Tower, Euphoria is a creative enclave that has mushroomed in popularity, largely by word of mouth.

Sturcken said that the game room allows both space and entertainment for those who are looking for good clean fun and time to fraternize. It also provides a space for musical exploration -- whether its music or voice lessons, a practice space for bands, a recording studio, or venue to debut artistic talents. He said, "I wanted The Center to provide it all."

With the dedication of Mr. Holland in the film "Mr. Holland's Opus," Sturcken taught chorus, piano, and Fine Arts Survey at Fontainebleau High School and spent a couple of years teaching Enrichment at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Kenner. Before that, he had been a Band Camp Instructor for St. Paul and De la Salle High Schools.

Sturcken began playing clarinet at age eight and saxophone professionally at 14. Local artist Frank Mannino gave him evening gigs with his band. Sturcken also played backup with such notables as Irma Thomas, Ernie K'doe, Oliver Morgan, The Dixie Cups and Bobby Cure.

During the late 70s and early 80s he sang, played keyboard and sax in house bands at clubs like The Bounty at West End and the Quarter Note in Fat City.

In Sturcken's case, the adage proves true that you can take the man out of the music, but you can’t take the music out of the man. He spent several years in the electronic security industry that took him to 37 states writing and teaching training classes. He also lobbied in both Washington and Baton Rouge and ran a national training school and online university from his home in Mandeville for three years.

To some, that might have been fulfilling enough. However, Sturcken said, "With all of that, the calling keeps coming back to the arts and furthering the dreams of the kids. I want all of them to have the opportunity to take their dreams wherever the road leads them without limitation. All too often we hear that the arts are fine but you need a real job. Having had 'real jobs', I can say that real jobs are fine but you really need the arts."

"I have always wanted to create a clubhouse of sorts for the artistically inclined. I was tired of commuting to Kenner, and teaching in-home music lessons after returning to the Northshore. I would travel twenty minutes through Mandeville traffic to teach a 30-minute lesson. So I began to look for commercial space to house my dream. I couldn't have found a better spot, and I am so happy to be on one of what I call the four corners of Mandeville," Sturcken said.

The locale opened last year right before the storm and suffered minimal damage, but "the summer was a wash," Sturcken said.

But it appears that the tide has turned. Over the past 45 days, the recording studio has produced three CDs and Sturcken and his crew are working on a fourth CD, while concurrently recording multiple demo projects for local bands.

Sturcken said that he stages Parent's Date Nights to allow a safe place for parent's to have their kids while enjoying an evening out together. We provide game tournaments and refreshments, including Coscino's pizza, soft drinks and ice cream.

Once a month, The Center of Performing Arts hosts The Friday Night Music Club to feature local talent in an all-age living room style concert. The Game Room and the Fleur de Lis living room are also available for parties. In addition, monthly memberships to the Euphoria and The Center are now available.