Perseverance Theatre (PT) in Juneau, Alaska seeks a Technical Director to work a full-time, year-round season. The position is open and ready to be filled. Start dates are flexible.
The Technical Director must be hands-on and have a passion for managing and completing the mainstage scenic builds in coordination with the Scene Shop Forman. Candidates must have excellent skills in managing people and time. Enthusiasm for collaborating with designers and directors from diverse backgrounds in order to realize their plans and concepts within the constraints of our space and budget is a vital asset to working at Perseverance. You would be working with SDC Directors as well as local talent, and are often returning artists. Designers include the Artistic Director, USA 829 members, and Alaska based designers of various backgrounds. Seasonal staff hired per production include scenic artists, props masters, production interns, master electricians, carpenters. Part of your duties will be to serve as a mentor and advisor to their future growth as theatre artists. Exceptional skills in carpentry, rigging, welding, and an emphasis on safety are required. Additional experience with electrics, sound, paints, properties, maintaining facilities, and willingness to develop Alaskan grit will enhance any application.
PT produces 5 mainstage shows, an annual holiday project in Anchorage, plus occasional special projects, an annual Rural Alaskan Tour, educational and outreach programming, on a $2 million dollar operating budget. PT operates on a transitional AEA Small Professional Theatre contract with Actors Equity.
Perseverance Theatre is committed to enhancing the diversity of its staff and guest artists. Applications from Alaska Natives, women, people of color, and members of the LGBT+ community are encouraged. Applications will be reviewed beginning September, and continue until the position is filled. Salary mid 40s DOE, with health and paid leave, some relocation assistance is available. To apply, send a resume, cover letter and three references to Perseverance Theatre at 914 Third Street, Douglas, AK 99824, (907) 364-2421, or e-mail to art@ptalaska.org.
ABOUT PERSEVERANCE THEATRE
Perseverance Theatre (PT) is creates theatre by and for Alaskans. We value community engagement, professional rigor, cross cultural collaboration, and regional voice.
Perseverance was founded in 1979 in Juneau, Alaska’s state capital and a community 32,000 that is only accessible by plane or boat. Thirty Nine years later, Perseverance is the state’s largest professional theatre, serving over 25,000 Alaskan artists, students and audiences annually with classical, world premiere, and contemporary productions on our Juneau and Anchorage stages; providing extensive education programs for adults and youths; an annual rural tour of The Winter Bear by Anne Hanley; and collaborating with groups ranging from Dark Winter Productions in Anchorage, to Sealaska Heritage Institute and Hoonah Indian Association in Southeast Alaska.
We are a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization with an annual budget that has nearly doubled over the past 6 years to 1.9 million. In December 2002, we were one of just seven theatres nationwide to have been awarded a $500,000 endowment challenge grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in New York, through their Leading National Theatres Program. We completed the challenge in 2005 and now possess a $1 million endowment fund.
In 39 seasons under Artistic Directors Molly Smith (now the Artistic Director of the Arena Stage in Washington D.C.), Peter DuBois (Artistic Director at the Huntington Theatre Company), and PJ Paparelli (formerly Artistic Director of the American Theatre Company in Chicago), we’ve premiered over 70 new plays by Alaskan and national playwrights. Among them are The Long Season (2005), a World Premiere musical about the Filipino Alaskan experience, and columbinus (2005), a World Premiere exploration of adolescence and the phenomenon of school shootings. Both productions received coverage in American Theater magazine and on National Public Radio. The Long Season was subsequently presented at New Jersey’s George Street Playhouse; meanwhile, columbinus was produced off-Broadway in May 2006 at New York Theatre Workshop. Paula Vogel’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned to Drive was also written and developed at PT.
Perseverance’s presence in Anchorage began with a tour of Pure Gold in 1979, and deepened in 2012 with our first subscription season presented at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts (ACPA). Perseverance’s current strategic plan sets a goal of boosting the total population served in order to raise ticket sales and annual donations from patrons to a sustainable percentage of the total budget, based primarily on reaching audiences living in the Anchorage area and attending performances at ACPA. Completed in 1988, ACPA was envisioned as an anchor for the performing arts in Anchorage and Alaska that would be home to Alaska’s most prominent performing arts organizations, including the Anchorage Opera, Anchorage Symphony, Anchorage Concert Association, and Alaska Repertory Theatre. The closure of the Rep in the 1980s, which also led to a growth cycle for Perseverance, left ACPA without a theatre in residence for most of the years between 1988 and 2012, when Perseverance became the resident theatre. Our seasons are built on productions that originate in Juneau, are built nd rehearsed in our home, runf for a local audience, and then relocated to Anchorage for a limited engagement. At present, about 60% of total attendance is Anchorage residents, and 40% Juneau residents. Growth potential exists in both places, especially in Anchorage.
PT maintains a special emphasis on working with Alaskan artists. We support an actor in residence program and a writer in residence, and training and development opportunities are an essential element of all our artistic operations. We are also committed to engaging artistic work that speaks directly to the Alaskan experience. Moby Dick (2001) was a World Premiere fusion of Melville with the whaling traditions of the Iñupiat Eskimos. Performed by a multi-ethnic cast of Alaskan performers, this production later toured to Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Barrow, the northernmost settlement in North America. Meanwhile, Macbeth (2004) was set in the context of Southeast Alaska’s indigenous Tlingit culture and was performed by an all-Alaska Native cast. This piece later toured the state and, in March 2007, was remounted a third time for performances at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C.
For more information, please visit our website at www.ptalaska.org.
THE FACILITIES
In Juneau, Perseverance owns and operates two buildings. Before it became Perseverance Theatre, the 47-year-old building at 914 Third Street in Douglas was home to the Taku Bar, widely acknowledged for having the best pool tables in town. When the theatre opened in 1979, performances were held in the reconfigured barroom for capacity crowds of 70, but it wasn’t long before more room was needed. In 1983, volunteers from across the community built an addition for are 161-seat Mainstage theatre (a 55’ x 45’ flexible modified thrust). This space was inaugurated with a production of Patrick Meyer’s K2, performed on the same scaffolding that had just been used to raise the roof. Meanwhile, the former space was converted into the “Phoenix,” a rehearsal room/Second Stage (a 22’ x 50’ flexible black box with a seating capacity of 49). The upstairs of the building currently contains administrative offices and two rental apartments, while the basement contains dressing rooms and storage. We continue to pay down a mortgage on this building and we rent a space right next door as a costume shop. In 1994, the state approved a grant enabling us to purchase a 6300 square foot lot directly adjacent to our facility and a 24’ x 24’ storage unit currently rests on this land. In 1999, PT embarked on a $1.1 million facility renovation and expansion campaign. Last spring we completed construction of a brand new annex building about a ten-minute drive away, which houses a rehearsal hall, set shop, and artists housing. We own this land and the building outright.
In Anchorage, Perseverance uses the Sydney Laurence and Discovery Theatres at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, which is located in the downtown Anchorage core area. ACPA (or the PAC as locals call it) has four theatres, three of them proscenium and one a studio type space. The Sydney Laurence theatre seats 330 with a small mezzanine, with a full height fly house, modes apron, and an asymmetrical house some interesting side stage boxes. The Discovery Theatre seats 710 with a deep stage, spacious wings, a full height fly tower, traps which are seldom used, and a symmetrical house with 250 seats in a mezzanine and the rest in a very wide wrapped orchestra level. Discovery has a large orchestra pit, but not pit lift. Both spaces have excellent loading access from a dock as would be expected of a true road house. In Anchorage, Perseverance maintains a small office in the Spenard neighborhood for the General manager and staff from Juneau when visiting for projects. The PAC is an IATSE house, and Perseverance is party to the collective bargaining agreement with local 918. Production staff based in Juneau can be expected to make a few trips to Anchorage annually for load ins and techs, and the occasional strike as needed.
ABOUT JUNEAU
The Tlingit and Haida people were the first settlers of what is now known as Southeast Alaska and they fished the rich salmon routes here for centuries. Russian fur traders joined them in the late 1800’s. Once Joe Juneau discovered gold in 1880, Juneau boomed into a gold rush town. That pioneer spirit, Alaska Native, and Russian cultures, still inform life here in vital ways.
Today, Juneau is Alaska’s state capital and third largest city. Like Alaska, Juneau is full of contrasts: a sophisticated cosmopolitan city located in the lush heart of the Tongass National Forest. Downtown Juneau sits at sea level, nestled at the base of Mount Juneau (elev. 3,576 feet) and Mount Roberts (elev. 3,819 feet). Douglas Island—home to PT—sits across Gastineau Channel from downtown Juneau and is connected to the mainland by a single bridge. The stunning physical environment features glaciers, snow-capped mountains, and waterfalls and is home to abundant wildlife, including whales, bears, and bald eagles.
The current population of Juneau numbers just over 30,000 and, is 75% White, 11% Native American, 5% Asian, 3% Hispanic or Latino, 0.8% Black, and 0.4% Pacific Islander. The economy is based on state, local, and Federal government, tourism, mining, fishing, and logging.
The rainforest keeps the climate mild and wet year-round. The mean annual temperature is 55°F. Winter temperatures seldom drop below 20°F and summer temperatures seldom exceed 65°F. The abundant rainfall grows very large Sitka spruce and Western hemlock in the forests and abundant fish in local waters. Snowfall is heavy in most winters, averaging 101 inches.
Juneau does not have the “midnight sun” experienced further north in Alaska, but day length is much longer in the summer and much shorter in the winter than in the “Lower 48.” On the summer solstice, we receive more than 18 hours of sunlight, while, on the winter solstice, we receive just six.
Juneau offers unparalleled outdoor recreational activities, including kayaking, rafting, fishing, and hiking in the summer and snowboarding and skiing in the winter. The area also supports 35 churches, a high school, two middle schools, several elementary schools, and the University of Alaska Southeast campus at Auke Lake.
ABOUT ANCHORAGE
The Denaina Athabaskan people were the first settlers of what is now the Anchorage Bowl and surrounding areas. Anchorage is the population and economic center of the state, and was founded during the construction of the Alaska Railroad, recently celebrating its centennial year. and
In addition to the nontraditional casting of the Stage Manager role, the director pointed out, all the couples in the play are interracially cast. Two young Juneau actors, Ty Yamaoka and Ashleigh Watt, play George and Emily, the high school sweethearts at the center of the story. The Perseverance ensemble also includes artist-in-residence Enrique Bravo as Dr. Gibbs, Shadow Meienberg (Cherokee) as Mrs. Gibbs, Brian Wescott (Yupik) as Mr. Webb, Valorie Kissel as Mrs. Webb, Caleb Bourgeois as Simon Stimson, and Diane Fleeks as Mrs. Soames.
“Perseverance has become a place where we can gather as artists and explore what it means to be Alaskan artists,” Rotch said, addressing the cast at the first table-reading of the play Wednesday night (Aug. 29). “Our Town is a perfect piece to do that with.”
