Perseverance Theater

Perseverance Theatre presents
A World Premiere of a new version of the musical

HAIR
Book & Lyrics by Gerome Ragni & James Rado
Music by Galt MacDermot
Directed by PJ Paparelli

March 10 - April 16, 2006

PAY-AS-YOU-CAN PERFORMANCES
Sat., Mar. 11th @ 7:30pm
Sun., Mar. 12th @ 7:30pm
Wed., Mar. 15th @ 7:30pm
Thurs., Mar. 16th @ 7:30pm

TICKETS:
463-TIXS
www.perseverancetheatre.org
Hearthside Books
at the door

Dear Friends,

Join us this weekend for the World Premiere of a new version of Hair directed by Artistic Director PJ Paparelli. The Perseverance production marks the first major revision of Hair since it moved from off-Broadway at The Public Theatre to Broadway's Biltmore Theatre in 1968.

The year is 1968, and a group of young people, "The Tribe," explores a new frontier of drugs, sex, and rock 'n' roll, as the country is torn apart by a brutal war in Vietnam. Hair includes new lyrics to the songs "Aquarius", "Hashish," "Good Morning Starshine," and "Easy to be Hard."

The cast of Hair features a group of actors from Juneau, Fairbanks, New York, Atlanta, Memphis, and Washington, DC, including PT company members Rory Merritt Stitt ("Berger"), Sara Waisanen ("Jeanie"), Sharon Gaiptman ("Margaret Mead"), and Flordelino Lagundino ("Woof"). Hair also features guest artists Jeff Ashworth ("Claude"), Robyn Kemp ("Sheila"), Emily Baraf ("Crissy"), Marinda Anderson ("Dionne"), Jordan Barbour ("Hud"), Ericka Lee ("Tribe"), Jermaine Small ("Tribe"), Enrique Bravo ("Tribe"), Craig Brookes ("Tribe"), Eleasha Gamble ("Tribe"), as well as local actors Salissa Cooper ("Tribe"), Jerry Demmert ("Hubert"), and Sophie Lager ("Tribe"), and musicians Sam Burrous on guitar, Alex Goese-Goeble on saxophone and clarinet, Dale McFarlin on drums, David Paul on keyboards, Jill Taylor on trumpet, and Simon Taylor on bass.

See you at the theatre!

Read Juneau Empire Article Here

GET $5 OFF YOUR TICKET TO THE LARAMIE PROJECT !
When you buy a ticket to Hair by calling 463-TIXS, purchase your ticket to The Laramie Project and get $5 off.
**This offer is only good by calling 463-TIXS and NOT available on-line or at Hearthside Books.

______________________________________

Coming Soon:

FOOL FOR LOVE
by Sam Shepard (March 17-26, 2006)

May sits dejectedly on a rumpled bed in a stark motel at the edge of the Mojave Desert, while Eddie, a rough-spoken rodeo performer, crouches in a corner fiddling with his riding gear. When he attempts to console May, who is distressed by Eddie's frequent absences and love affairs, she seems, at first, to soften-but then she suddenly attacks him. As the recriminations pour out, and the action becomes, at times, physically violent, the desperate nature of their relationship becomes apparent-they cannot get along with, or without, one another, yet neither can subdue their burning passion. Winner of New York's Off-Broadway 'Obie Award', Fool For Love is directed by Ishmael Hope and features Dan Reaume, Margaux DeRoux, Bo Anderson, and Steve Handy. Tickets are pay-as-you-can at the door.

Fri., Mar. 17th @ 11pm
Sat.., Mar. 18th @ 11pm
Sun., Mar. 19th @ 2pm
Fri., Mar. 24th @ 11pm
Sat.., Mar. 25th @ 11pm
Sun., Mar. 26th @ 2pm

**Remember to use your Perseverance Theatre ticket backs at Doc Waters and receive 10% off any food purchase!

The Intensity Continues...

Hello again, readers.



I write you now from deep within the rehearsal process of HAIR.
I'd like to remind everyone who reads this, or any other entry that the views and opinions expressed in this blog are mine, and mine alone. They are in no way associated with Perseverance Theatre or anyone goodly enough to allow me the space to publish my thoughts.

My official role in the show, 'Tribe Member', really tells little of my role or level of involvement in the show itself. So for those unfamiliar with HAIR, I'll give a brief overview of the narrative. The show contains a group element, a chorus of sorts, named merely "The Tribe". The Tribe is composed of a variety of different people who have all convened in the same abandoned warehouse (I believe the original productions set the play in an old Army Depot of some sort) night after night to enjoy each other's company, to party, and ultimately to discover more about themselves as young people caught in a tumultuous change of social climate. Some members of the tribe are highlighted throughout the play because their stories and lives are rapidly changing (the "principals", or main characters in the script). Our plucky hero (Claude) manages to get himself drafted, and meanwhile, his close friend Berger is expelled from school for delinquency by spraying graffiti on the blackboards or some such high jinks, thereby adding himself to the already overwhelming pool of "Vietnam bait". As if these events aren't enough, there are several love-shapes of geometrical design (their complicatedness defies accurate description) and the socio-political philosophies of each character are anything but analogous. While the plot points of the play concentrate on a few specific tribe members, there is also a great deal of social commentary and satire concerning how the plights of each character correspond neatly with the times. The late 1960's was an exciting and crucial time in the evolution of the United States. The outrage over inner social inequalities within the US's borders combined with the vehemence felt toward the disastrous Vietnam War added a spice of particular note to the melting pot of the western hemisphere. My role as a tribe member is to help move the story of HAIR, one which succeeds in possessing relevance to our society today. The difficulties expressed by our soloists and principal characters are their own, but they are shared by the entire tribe. I love theatre because it is a collaborative art, and I love HAIR because it truly shines as an ensemble piece.

Of course it doesn't hurt to have a youthful, energetic, and extremely talented cast. I've spoken before of the camaraderie and energy shared by everyone involved in the process (including those that will never be seen on stage or clapped at, a tragedy, for they assuredly deserve it as much as everyone else) which has only grown stronger in our first week of staging. We've moved from concentrating solely on learning music or sitting in a circle of tables to getting up on our feet and fleshing out the show.

I am already sure of HAIR's distinguished mark on the history of my performance career. I find it to be startlingly familiar to shows I've done in the past but multiplied by a very high number in overall scope and complexity. Musical theatre (and I suppose theatre in general) can be a slow, methodical, and sometimes very frustrating process. As a company, we find ourselves on a very tight rehearsal schedule to piece together a huge show yet with enough time to do everything right. Our director has said on a few occasions that this will be "our" HAIR, and that it will be the best HAIR we can accomplish: with no regrets. Those last three words are very important to an actor or an artist, as most of us find ourselves to be our own worst critics.

Before we started staging, we all sat in a circle and discussed ourselves and the play. Thus five weeks of madness begins. We talked about who we were, where we came from, how we got to HAIR, and our experiences with some of the topics addressed in the show. We found within each other HAIR's relevance and significance not only in a historical sense, but in a contemporary production as well. It seems that the world, while diligent in writing and recording its own history, seems to forget far too quickly what happened just a moment ago. There were undeniable parallels between the era of the original production and today. Looking at each other we could see that the story had in a large part remained unchanged. There is still a war under which motivation and circumstances of involvement are, at best, questionable. There are still problems with not only of race, but of minority rights, as it becomes increasingly clear that our government tethers itself not only to legality, but to morality. The separation of church and state has from the very start NOT EXISTED. There continues to be a poverty gap and a generation gap, each becoming wider than its predecessor. Theatre has the power and perspective to change this country. Our fortunate home lies in a world growing progressively more surreal with each passing day. My intention as an actor is not to spout lines on a stage but to show life to an audience, and there is endless life contained in HAIR.

Craig Brookes

Here we go again:

Greetings again webrats and enthusiasts. My name is Craig Brookes and this is the second in a series of blogs I'll be authoring to help journal my experience working on Perseverance Theatre's upcoming show HAIR and to give a fresh perspective about life in Juneau ( I originally hail from Fairbanks ). If you haven't read my first blog, I highly recommend you go back and do that first as I won't repeat any of the obligatory personal information about myself in this second attempt.

We've finally finished the purely music rehearsal aspect of the show (quite a bit of time goes into learning the many songs encompassing HAIR) and the real work has begun. We've begun, and in fact mostly finished, the round table discussion period with our fearless director. For anyone unfamiliar with the process of putting together a show such as HAIR, we spent approximately nine days learning the music out of the score. Beginning last friday we began to talk through the script with the entire cast and get a feel for the structure of the show and how the songs fit in with the rest of the story. HAIR presents a unique challenge in this aspect as the narrative element of the story falls strongly on both the book (the script) and the songs of the show. Our round table work on HAIR is also very exciting as we are going to be premiering a brand new version of HAIR, something that hasn't been done in forty years. This being essentially a brand new musical, and at the very least a re-written version of a play debuted in 1968, the script tends to evolve on a daily basis. Many times it's difficult to gauge what will work and which scenes need refinement (or slashing altogether) until all of the actors can be assembeled to speak the lines out loud. It's continual evolution is just one of the exciting elements of HAIR at even this early date. Even with us sitting in a circle of tables and reading through the play with scripts in hands, the energy given off from the show and felt in all of its performers is wonderfully playful and intense. A large component of the original off-broadway and broadway productions of HAIR was the improvisational element of the show and in this respect the company is already being encouraged to explore and capture that original spirit. Of course, this is a new version and thus the concept and execution of the show will be unlike anything people are expecting. This is perhaps the most exciting part.

When successfully auditioning and agreeing to be in the show, I quickly realized that I had no idea what was in store for me as a performer. I knew HAIR was a musical and upon listening to the movie soundtrack I had discovered a wonderfully diverse and satisfying soundtrack that I was confident would be a joy to recreate. I had never seen HAIR, and there was little recorded material to base any research on except for the unfortunate movie version which, I was told, served poorly as an accurate representation of the original show. To this day I only have a vague idea of what the final product will look like. We've seen constume renderings and small models of the stage space, and we've talked extensively as a company about the concept of each musical number and scene; how each one will fit visually and structurally into the overall show. But the magic of theatre is the discovery. Each day we carve closer and closer to the final product and that sense of wonderment and discovery is what makes theatre so fun and fufilling for so many people. I honestly can't wait for our madness to be unleashed upon Juneau.

Upon doing a little research into the show, I discovered more about its impact as a piece of art. It singlehandedly pioneered first amendment rights for the stage as a medium and it managed to do this with a whole gaggle of naked people. That's of course the one aspect of the show that everyone seems to recall whether they've seen a production or not: The Nudity. Just last night, when the cast of HAIR went to see The Crucible (another magnificent play being produced by Perseverance Theatre. If you haven't seen it, you're crazy, and you should get yourself a ticket immediately) I was asked by an inquisitive theatre goer seated behind me if we were going to produce the show "traditionally". Not quite following, I asked what the nice gentlemen meant by "traditionally", to which he replied "the entire second Act is in the nude,". I immediately understood his intrigue despite his misguided information (there was NO nudity in both off-broadway productions of HAIR and the nudity in the broadway production was reserved to specific moments in low-lighting. Never has an entire act been done in the nude... I hope) and told him that nudity would perhaps be a component of the show, but it would not be purely for spectacle's sake and that he'd have to come see the show to see for himself. He thanked me for my comments and sat back to enjoy the second half of The Crucible with a little more red in his face and his curiosity suitably peaked. I have a feeling some people will attend the previews and opening nights just to see if anyone doffs their clothing... as well as to see a magnificent show (wink wink, nudge nudge). It's a topic that seems to attract a lot of attention to itself. America as a country is relatively puritanical and ambivalent toward sex and nudity when compared to many global nations; and a new version of a broadway musical historic for its containing fully nude people is being produced in Juneau, Alaska. How there can already be murmurring and speculation about our upcoming production is understandable. I just hope the legislature comes to see it and the governor brings his opera glasses.

Craig Brookes

Notes from a Post-Hippy, chapter 1

Greetings to visitors of the website. My name is Craig Brookes and I was approached to author a blog series for this site about my experiences in Juneau and in the upcoming production of HAIR, in Perseverance Theatre.

To quickly give some background about myself, I am a Junior Theatre Major at the University of Alaska Fairbanks visiting Juneau to participate in HAIR and enjoy this lovely town for a few short months. I've been acting for around six years and have been playing guitar and singing for far longer than that. I've come to Juneau to help elucidate what a career in professional theatre would entail for someone such as myself and also to have fun contributing to an excellent show.

My first impressions of Juneau were favorable, to say the least. Having survived almost seven straight Fairbanks winters in a row, arriving in Juneau to a balmy thirty-four degrees (ABOVE zero) was refreshing. There seems to be much musing among Juneaunonians (my favorite moniker for those residing in our wonderful state capitol) about the weather and its eternal dreariness, whereas whenever asked about my thoughts on the subject the first and only response that seems to spring to mind is: "Beats forty below,". Juneau strikes me immediately as a tight-knit community teeming with people from every end of the spectrum. In Fairbanks, it's often difficult to go to the supermarket or video store without running into someone you know (and perhaps would rather avoid?) and Juneau seems to share in this quirky charm. Inherently political and as supportive of the arts as Fairbanks, Juneau seems quite a suitable place for an actor to make his base of operations for the duration of a show. The only potential downside to Juneau would have to be the lack of an option of escape should the predictably passionate and complicated life of an actor procure him more social awkwardness than he'd care to accrue. However; the solitary nature of Juneau seems part of its appeal, and whether no escape from Juneau is a downside proves itself a point of contention among its residents.

Performing in a show at Perseverance Theatre is a lovely opportunity for any actor, particularily one from Fairbanks. It propagates Perseverance's mission statement of becoming a state theatre of Alaska (to use in-state actors, that is) and gives one an excellent professional stepping-stone and insight to the rest of the theatre community as it exists in the contiguous United States. As it turns out, it's also a hell of a lot of
fun. HAIR had a particular appeal to me, as I have a soft space in my heart for the philosophical movements discussed in the play and for hippies in general. I can gladly say I've become quite good friends with honest-to-goodness contemporary hippies (although they are not so easily catagorized upon closer inspection) and genuinely enjoy a lifestyle built upon peace, love, and the betterment of society. Since we began rehearsing on Jan. 17th, we've been concerned only with learning the wonderful music HAIR is built upon, and how wonderful it is. We have a lovely cast of very talented people from all over the country and have almost immediatley fostered a community spirit among the cast and crew. Theatre will always be a collaborative art, this just so happens to be one of the major appeals for me, and so this spirit will likely always exist
in some way or another, but it seems to have aquired a particular strength and severity in just a short 6 days of rehearsing. The music itself is, in a word, "awesome" and in three, "cool-as-hell". We rehearse in a vacant vendor space in the Nugget Mall and on our breaks, when we wander into the mall to rest for a few moments before proceeding with rehearsal, I have on more than one occasion heard people in the mall singing the tunes we are rehearsing. The music in HAIR truely has a mindworm capacity for getting stuck in your head and not letting go. The serendipitous aspect of this is that the music is so varied and clever that one seems not to mind it being stuck in his head. Just this small experience of witnessing the music's effect on those shopping in the Nugget Mall makes me giddy with excitement to see the effect of HAIR, the entire production, on the community of Juneau. This is of course one of the finer points of Perseverance Theatre stressed to us in the first rehearsal, is that we WILL get to see our show's effect on the community. I have a strong feeling that it will be a positive one.

That seems enough for now. As a brief aside, I'd like to mention that I'm quite a seasoned musician (having my own band in Fairbanks and also played with the UAF Jazz Band for two years) and would be interested in perhaps collaborating with any other local musicians who might be interested. I can play any instrument in a traditional band setting (guitar, bass, drums, piano?) and would like to at least explore the possibility of additional performances during my stay in Juneau. I sincerely hope that you are all as excited about HAIR as the cast is, and that you will all come see it at least twice! Ta-ta darlings!

Craig Brookes

Read Also: Chapter 2

Opening this Thursday on the Perseverance Theatre Second Stage:

TAPE
by Stephen Belber
Directed by Colin Hovde

In the Phoenix at Perseverance Theatre
Thursday-Saturday at 7:30pm
January 19 - 28, 2006
Pay-As-You-Can only at door


Dear Friends,

Join us this weekend for the opening of TAPE by Stephen Belber on the Perseverance Theatre SecondStage, featuring actors Levi Fiehler, Lily Hudson, and Brady Ingledue.

Jon, an aspiring filmmaker on the verge of hitting it big, meets up for the weekend with his best friend from high school, Vince. Jon's new film is being shown at a festival in Lansing, Michigan, and Vince has come from Oakland to see it. Over the course of the evening, Vince gets Jon to admit a terrible secret that threatens to rip apart their bonds of friendship.
Beneath its suspenseful, high-stakes surface, TAPE examines questions of motive, memory, truth and perception. TAPE was made into a movie in 2001 and featured Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, and Uma Thurman.

---------------------------------------------------

Continuing on the Mainstage:

THE CRUCIBLE
by Arthur Miller (Now Playing through February 5, 2006)

Pay-As-You-Can Performances (unsold seats at the door): Wednesday, Jan. 18th @ 7:30pm, Thursday, Jan. 19th @ 7:30pm

Rumors of witchcraft explode into mass hysteria, leading to the deaths of 19 innocent people.
Based on historical events, Arthur Miller crafts one of the greatest plays ever written to illuminate how politics and greed corrupt the minds of a small American town. Guest director Eleanor Holdridge leads an ensemble cast of multiple generations of Perseverance Company Members, in a shocking story of the ultimate test of a man's honor in a community gone wild.
THE CRUCIBLE features Jake Waid, Ed Christian, Patrick Moore, Charlie Cardwell, Ben Brown, Peter Freer, Adrienne Bosworth, Leigh Miller, Liz Clement, Dan Reaume, Kaci Hamilton, Alice Ottoson-McKeen, Chelsea Rohweder, and guest artists Jan Richmond, Kim Martin-Cotten, Andrew Cassel, and Michael Solomon.

Tickets available at 463-TIXS, by visiting www.perseverancetheatre.org, or at Hearthside Books.

Rory Merrit Stitt returns from tour to star in Hedwig




Perseverance Theatre presents Hedwig and The Angry Inch, written by John Cameron Mitchell, with lyrics and music by Stephen Trask, from December 28th to January 7th, 2005, at Marlintini's. Directed by David Charles Goyette, Hedwig features the cast and band from last season's production, including Perseverance Company member Rory Merrit Stitt, who has recently returned to Juneau from a national tour promoting his newest album. "Hedwig is one of those rare theatre shows that you just have to come back to," said Perseverance Theatre (PT) Artistic Director PJ Paparelli, "it's never the same, never gets stale, and has a life of its own.. We are so glad to let Hedwig live on!"

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is the Obie award-winning rock musical presented in the format of a rock concert performed by "Hedwig," a transsexual would-be glam-rock star from East Germany, and her four-piece band, "The Angry Inch." Over the course of the concert, Hedwig relates her life story and, in particular, her relationship with Tommy Gnosis, another rock star and her ex-boyfriend and band mate. A film adaptation, directed by John Cameron Mitchell, won the Audience Award and the Best Director Award at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival.

The Cast of Hedwig and The Angry Inch features PT Company members Rory Meritt Stitt ("Hedwigï") and Sara Waisanen ("Yitzak") last seen in Twelfth Night, and includes local Juneau musicians Michael Maas on keyboards, Sam Burrous on guitar, Simon Taylor on bass, and Dale McFarlin on drums.

The design team includes Jennifer Morrell, who is PT's Scenic Charge Artist and designed the sets for PT's productions of King Island Christmas, Wait! and Pure Gold. Costume Designer Paul Spadone is from Los Angeles and was Assistant Costume Designer on the 2003 Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors and Assistant Costume Designer on the 2004 movie Spiderman 2. Lighting Designer Klyph Stanford designed the lights for PT's production of Twelfth Night and was the Assistant Lighting Designer on A Midsummer Night's Dream and columbinus. Rounding out the production team is stage manager Betsy Sims.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is recommended for mature audiences. Alcohol is available for sale at all performances. Minors must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Performances will be smoke free.



For tickets or more information, call Perseverance Theatre at (907) 463-TIXS.

PERFORMANCE DATES & TIME:
Wed., Dec. 28th 9:00pm Opening Night
Thurs., Dec. 29th 9:00pm
Fri., Dec. 30th 9:00pm
Sat., Dec. 31st 7:00pm
Sun., Jan. 1st 7:00pm
Wed., Jan. 4th 9:00pm
Thurs., Jan. 5th 9:00pm
Fri., Jan. 6th 9:00pm
Sat., Jan. 7th 9:00pm & 12am Closing Night

PERFORMANCE VENUE:
Marlintini's Lounge, 9121 Glacier Hwy, Juneau, AK

TICKET PRICES:
Wed., Thurs., and Sundays: $20 adults / $15 seniors (65+) / $10
students (18- or UAS ID)
Fridays & Saturdays: $25 adults / $20 seniors (65+) / $15 students
(18- or UAS ID)

TICKET AVAILABILITY:
By Phone: (907) 463-TIXS
Web: www.perseverancetheatre.org
Other: At the door

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION:
Bus service is available via Capital Transit (907) 789-6901

See Juneaumusic's:
Hedwig and the Angry Inch Gallery 1
Hedwig and the Angry Inch Gallery 2
Hedwig and the Angry Inch Gallery 3
Hedwig and the Angry Inch Rehearsal Video

PERSEVERANCE THEATRE
PRESENTS
THREE SHOWS
by
Summer Theatre Arts Rendezvous (STAR)
July 29th – August 6th

Legend, Imagery and Poetry

JUNEAU, AK – Summer Theatre Arts Rendezvous (STAR) closes its 5-week theatrical training for youth with nine performances at the University of Alaska Southeast Noyes Pavilion. Productions of Romeo and Juliet, The Salmon Boy and Preposterous: A Mask and Puppet Show will be shown from July 29th to August 6th.

William Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet

Set within the American inner city, this classic tale of two warring gangs and ill-fated star-crossed lovers explodes onstage. Staged by Julliard-trained director, Danyon Davis, this modern-day adaptation depicts the adolescent struggle for identity across the ruthless boundary of a preexistent adult feud. As surrogate gang families clash, youth take up the fight engrained into them by the previous generation. The ability to exact violence on rivals reflects one’s allegiance and secures one’s worth to a greater cause. Boys are expendable and sacrificed for the greater good while girls are overlooked and expected to accept loss passively. In the chaos, a girl, Juliet, seeks a way out of the fray while a boy, Romeo, desires a love uncorrupted by conflict. As they meet within the crossfire, tempers flare, blood spills, and a new love is born.


Tlingit Legend: The Salmon Boy

Local children’s theater specialist, Shona Strauser, returns to direct The Salmon Boy, a Tlingit Tale telling the story of a youth who discovers sacred ancestral tradition. Uprooted by the present-day current of convenience, a boy forsakes the culture of subsistence his hard-working family provides. In his flight from family, the youth is swept into the sea and subsequently into the tutelage of mentors. With the help of this new family, Salmon Boy begins to appreciate the rich tradition into which he was born. His journey culminates in returning to his roots and mentoring others. Follow Salmon Boy’s spiritual transformation in this linguistically beautiful and physically exciting adaptation underwritten by a grant from the Sealaska Heritage Institute.


Preposterous: A Mask and Puppet Show
East meets West as physical theatre guru, Roblin Gray Davis, directs youth in Preposterous, an original story involving the ancient crafts of mask making and puppetry. The masks of Preposterous are based in a tradition that first emerged in Western civilization from the religious practices of ancient Greece. Further, the puppetry is Bunraku, a Japanese puppetry art that dates back nearly 1000 years. The puppets are remarkably life-like figures that the actor skillfully works with hands and feet. For Preposterous, trained students have sculpted the masks, crafted the puppets, and written the story. Come watch as actors carry on a custom dating back to the first theatres on Earth!


THE DIRECTORS
Danyon Davis, a graduate of the Julliard School, is a theater artist dedicated to helping to continue the tradition of live performance in our culture. Mr. Davis is currently adapting the text of Henry David Thoreau’s first book for the stage, which he will direct and perform in. He is based in New York City, where he works with various outreach and non-profit groups in the New York/ New Jersey area as a teaching artist. He also frequently contributes to the artistic programming of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, MN, as an actor, director, and educator. At the Guthrie, Mr. Davis has assisted esteemed directors Doug Hughes, David Esbjornson, and Artistic Director, Joe Dowling, on productions of Da, Ressurection Blues, and Death of a Salesman, respectively. He has developed various performance projects with students participating in regional conferences, urban and rural exchanges, as well as annual projects with incarcerated teens at the Hennepin County Home School. He has trained many years with the SITI Company has been invited to collaborate in the creation of several of the company’s new works, including Deborah Drattel's opera, Lilith (at New York City Opera), and Charles L. Mee's extraordinary play, bobrauschenbergamerica, which has recently played internationally in Bonn, Germany and Paris, France. Mr. Davis has performed in many classical and contemporary plays at a number of leading theater institutions around the country including the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Public Theater in New York City, the Shakespeare Theater in Washington D.C., various theaters in the Chicago area, the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, Connecticut, and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Some favorite roles include Horatio in Hamlet, Paul in Six Degrees of Separation, Leandre in the premiere of Richard Wilbur’s latest Moliere translation, The Bungler, and the roles of Puck and Philostrate in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Shona Strauser was first introduced to local youth, two years ago when she directed STAR 2003’s student written production, Transformations. Last year she followed her success up with the widely well received The Woman Who Married The Bear, a Tlingit Tale adapted by Merry Ellefson, informed by Ernestine Hayes. Shona specializes in creating and directing original scripts with young people. She has toured with the Missoula Children’s Theatre, and has worked with a dozen theatre and youth groups in the Seattle area, including the Seattle Children’s Theatre and Seattle Repertory Theatre, where she is currently a Resident Teaching Artist. Of Cherokee heritage, Shona is active with the Red Eagle Soaring Native American Theatre Group. She is especially pleased that this year’s play continues its representation of Alaska Native Culture.

Roblin Gray Davis, for the past seven years, has enjoyed being a part of the Juneau arts community teaching, performing and directing mask, clown and physical theatre with Perseverance Theatre, Wild Rumpus Clown Theatre, Juneau Lyric Opera, the Juneau School District and the State Council for the Arts. Recipient of the Connie Boochever Artist Fellowship in 2002, Roblin is an artisan of innovative, collaborative performance in pursuit of a dynamic and lively style of physical theatre. Roblin has traveled and studied internationally including programs with the Dell’arte International School of Physical Theatre in Blue Lake, CA; Ecole de Mime Corporel Dramatique and Ecole Phillippe Gaulier in London, England; Sue Morrison of the Clown Resource Center in Toronto, Ontario; and clown master Ronlin Foreman in the United States. Performance credits include the all-original collaborative clown show, In Cahoots, his solo clown show, Mumble in Numbskull, Imbecillus: a lunatic quest, The Wooden Breeks, A Winter’s Tale, Fry Tales, and How I Learned To Drive.


THE PLAYWRIGHTS
Janet Allard is the recipient of two Jerome Fellowships at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. Recent Works include: Vrooommm! A NASComedy (With Michael Dixon) currently being developed with Signature Theatre Company in VA. Vrooommm! appeared at Theaterworks in May and will appear in Playlabs 2005 in July. Incognito (Guthrie Theater commission) and Loyal (Guthrie theater/CTC commission), published by Playscripts, Inc. The Unknown: a silent musical (a collaboration with director Jean Randich and composer Shane Rettig) at Joe’s Pub as part of The Public Theater’s New Work Now Festival 2004, and soon to appear in the New York Musical Theater Festival in September 2005. Untold Crimes of Insomniacs, (Guthrie theater commission) in Playlabs 2003, premiered at the Guthrie Lab in April, 2004. Privates at Mixed Blood Theater as part of the Bill of (Wrights) project. TGIF or Who is Monster Mom, (written with Lisa D’Amour) at Gray Space in Minneapolis. The Swim at Red Eye Theater in Minneapolis. Allard’s work has been seen at The Guthrie Lab, The Kennedy Center, Mixed Blood, Playwrights Horizons, Yale Rep, The Yale Cabaret, The Women’s Project and Productions The House Of Candles, Access Theater in New York City, and Internationally in Ireland, England, Greece and New Zealand. Ms. Allard is a Macdowell Colony Fellow, and a Fulbright Fellow (1998 New Zealand and the South Pacific) and a recipient of a Jonathan Larson Fellowship. She is a core member of the Playwrights Center and has an M.F.A from the Yale School of Drama.

William Shakespeare is renowned as the English playwright and poet whose body of works is considered the greatest in history of English literature. His works are often divided into four periods beginning with what is referred to as an experimental period starting around 1591 and ending around 1593 which includes Titus Andronicus, Love's Labour's Lost, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors and The Taming of the Shrew. The second period ending around 1601, marks the establishment of Shakespeare and includes the tragedy Romeo and Juliet, the comedies, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer-Night's Dream, Much Ado about Nothing, The Merry Wives of Windsor and the history plays, Henry IV, Parts I and II, Henry V, Richard II, King John and Julius Caesar. The third period ending around 1610 marks perhaps the apex of Shakespeare's work with the tragedies, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear but also comedies such as Twelfth Night, All's Well that Ends Well and the epic history play, Antony and Cleopatra. The final period ends around 1611 with the plays, Cymbeline, Henry VIII and romances such as The Tempest and The Winter's Tale. The Shakespeare we read today comes from The First Folio of 1623 written by fellow actors John Heminge and Henry Condell to preserve Shakespeare's legacy. Amazingly, no original manuscripts survive reflecting the fact that many of these manuscripts were written purely for performance and were not regarded as pieces of literary work. There is also no general consensus on when all the plays were first performed. It might surprise readers to know that many of Shakespeare's plays, especially in the experimental period were hardly original, borrowing plot features from earlier plays. Likewise with his history plays, Shakespeare compresses events and does not follow history too closely to add to the drama. However borrowing plots and taking liberties with historical facts was not uncommon in Shakespeare's time and his skill for language, imagery, pun and his creative adaption of myth and history have set Shakespeare apart as arguably the greatest playwright of all time.


PRODUCTION PARTNERS
The City and Borough of Juneau is located in the Panhandle of Southeast Alaska, 900 air miles southeast of Anchorage. The current population of Juneau is 30,711. The economy is based on government, tourism, mining, and fishing. Juneau is one of the most beautiful state capitals in the nation. Juneau funds Perseverance Theatre’s STAR program through its Youth Activities Grant Program, designed to encourage local organizations providing or desiring to provide athletic, cultural, artistic or extra-curricular academic activity programs to the youth of Juneau.

Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is a regional Native nonprofit organization founded for the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people of Southeast Alaska. SHI was established in 1981 by Sealaska Corporation, a for-profit company formed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) to administer their cultural and educational programs. SHI was conceived by Clan Leaders, Traditional Scholars and Elders at the first Sealaska Elders Conference in 1980. During that meeting, the Elders likened Native culture to a blanket. The late George Davis (Kichnáalx—Lk’aanaaw) of Angoon, spoke these memorable words: “We don’t want what you did here to only echo in the air, how our grandfathers used to do things… Yes. You have unwrapped it for us. That is why we will open again this container of wisdom left in our care.” These wise traditional leaders told the new leaders that their hands were growing weary of holding onto the metaphorical blanket, this "container of wisdom." They said they were transferring this responsibility to the Corporation. In response to this directive, Sealaska Corporation created its non-profit arm, Sealaska Heritage Institute, to administer cultural and educational programs for the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian. In concert with these desires SHI has commissioned Perseverance Theatre to create a new play from the Native Salmon Boy story and has provided numerous scholarships to Native students to participate in the STAR program.

United States Department of Education was created in 1980 by combining offices from several federal agencies. Its original directive remains its mission today — to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence throughout the nation. ED's 4,500 employees and $71.5 billion budget are dedicated to: establishing policies on federal financial aid for education, and distributing as well as monitoring those funds, collecting data on America's schools and disseminating research, focusing national attention on key educational issues and prohibiting discrimination and ensuring equal access to education.

University of Alaska Southeast is an open enrollment, public university that provides postsecondary education for a diverse student body. UAS promotes student achievement and faculty scholarship, lifelong learning opportunities, and quality academic programs. In addition to serving its students and staff, UAS has a long history of community involvement. They’ve generously offered resources to help Perseverance Theatre work with the young people of Southeast Alaska.

Other production partners include Alaska USA Federal Credit Union, Architectural Cabinets & Millwork, Baxter, Bruce & Sullivan P.C., Capital Chevrolet, Capital Embroidery, Duck Creek Market, Erlinda’s Gift Shoppe, Flint Hills Resources, Fred’s Auto Service, Glacier Pediatrics LLC, Heidi Glasen, Honda Hut, Juneau-Douglas Fraternal Order of Eagles, Juneau Electric, Juneau Moose Lodge #700, Peter L. Kline CPA, Kodiak Coat Company, Loyal Order of Moose, McDonald’s of Juneau, PEO Sisterhood, Petratrovich, Nottingham & Drage, Inc., Rie Munoz Gallery, Shoefly, Valley Auto Parts Alaska, and Representative Bruce & LuAnn Weyhrauch

PRODUCTION FACTS
DATES:
July 29 – August 6, 2005

LOCATION:
University of Alaska Southeast Noyes Pavilion

PERFORMANCE TIMES:
Friday, July 29, 2005 7:00 PM Romeo and Juliet
Saturday, July 30, 2005 2:00 PM The Salmon Boy
Saturday, July 30, 2005 7:00 PM Preposterous: A Mask and Puppet Show
Sunday, July 31, 2005 5:00 PM Romeo and Juliet
Wednesday, August 03, 2005 7:00 PM The Salmon Boy
Thursday, August 04, 2005 7:00 PM Preposterous: A Mask and Puppet Show
Friday, August 05, 2005 7:00 PM Romeo and Juliet
Saturday, August 06, 2005 2:00 PM Preposterous: A Mask and Puppet Show
Saturday, August 06, 2005 7:00 PM The Salmon Boy

TICKET PRICES:
Adults: $8
Students: $5

TICKETS:
Purchase tickets at the door.


PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION:
Bus service to UAS is available on Capital Transit, (907) 789-6901.

Information:
Call David Charles Goyette at 907-364-2421 ext 223.