Perseverance Theatre 2017-2018 Season

joshuaFeatured, Season 17-18, Seasons

We are happy to offer Super-Subscriber packages now in the Perseverance lobby in Douglas, or by calling 463-TIXS.

  • Super-subscribers have the earliest chance to sign up or renew their seats, and get the best seats in the house. If you are renewing, your seats will be held until the end of our early bird campaign. Flex subscriptions (for 5 or fewer shows) will go on sale March 1.
  • Super-subscribers can return to see any show for FREE space-available.
  • Subscription forms will be available in the lobby during They Don’t Talk Back. You can subscribe in person at the theatre, by calling 463-TIXS, subscriptions will be available soon online at ptalaska.org.

The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity
by Kristoffer Diaz
September 15 – October 7, 2017
Mace is the ring name of a Puerto Rican “jobber” paid to lose to the champion of his pro-wrestling league. Mace wants a break from losing, so he introduces his bosses to a friend he met playing basketball in Brooklyn. A botched job means a win for the new guy and embarrassment for the champ. Efforts to repair the damage get more and more complicated, leading Mace to look for just one true moment in his athletic career. Chad Deity is a funny and quirky look at the world of pro wrestling.

Dreaming Glacier Bay
by Joel Bennett
October 27 – November 18, 2017
*A World Premiere*
John Barrymore was the best known Hollywood actor of the 1930s with the largest yacht on the west coast. He could have travelled anywhere in the world, and he chose to visit an island in Southeast Alaska near Glacier Bay to spend time with a couple who had a fox farm and gold prospecting claim. What was his relationship with Muz Ibach–the woman choosing to live with her husband in the icy wilderness–and why did Barrymore return again and again to visit her? The play is a true story with a mystery at its heart.

 

Steel Magnolias
by Robert Harling
December 1 – 31, 2017
Longtime friends in a small Southern town fill Truvy’s hair salon with laughter, gossip, and tears. Truvy’s new assistant Annelle, sociable M’Lynn, and her pretty daughter bride-to-be Shelby, as well as the hysterical bickering Ouiser and Clairee, support each other with love, laughter and beauty products. As hair is dried, dyed, and styled, women’s lives unfold and show the meaning of true friendship.

 

William, Inc
by Lucas Rowley
January 26 – February 17, 2018
* A World Premeire *
William is an Alaska Native professional with a high-pressure job and demands at home too. To cope with his stress, he has formed a Native corporation inside his head, but the strategy backfires when his board of directors get out of control and start hijacking his real life. Though it costs him a relapse and lots of problems at home, he negotiates his politics to find the balance he needs. Getting there is both affirming and hilarious.

Cyrano de Bergerac
by Edmond Rostand. Translated and adapted by David Grimm
March 16 – April 14, 2018
*A World Premeire of this new adaptation.*
Cyrano de Bergerac–soldier, poet, and musician, is clever, charming, and disarming, but he’s ashamed of his appearance and believes he’ll never win the love of the beautiful Roxanne. To ensure her happiness, he helps his fellow soldier Christian to woo her. Panache–Cyrano’s word for living life with flair, honor, and eloquence–prevents Cyrano from ever telling Roxanne the truth about Christian and his own deep love for her, until it is too late. Panache undoubtedly killed Cyrano, but without it, he would not have found a life worth living in the first place.

The Arsonists
by Jacqueline Goldfinger
May 4 – May 19, 2018
* A World Premeire *
After running out of a cloud of smoke and sirens with a large, slightly bloody bundle, a woman hides the package under the floorboards of her cabin, changes her clothes, and hides with the lights off until the sirens fade off in the distance. When the coast is clear, she sings songs with her father, packs for a long trip, and burns the cabin down to leave no evidence behind. Based in part on the myth of Electra, The Arsonists is the story of a woman who comes of age in the family arson business before an unexpected accident sends her out on her own.

 

Anchorage 2017-2018 Season

joshuaFeatured, Season 17-18, Seasons

We are happy to announce our 2017-2018 Season at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts.

Performance dates are currently subject to change.
Earlybird Subscriptions are available on our subscriptions page.

Subscribe Today

Steel Magnolias
by Robert Harling
September 29 – October 15, 2017
Longtime friends in a small Southern town fill Truvy’s hair salon with laughter, gossip, and tears. Truvy’s new assistant Annelle, sociable M’Lynn, and her pretty daughter bride-to-be Shelby, as well as the hysterical bickering Ouiser and Clairee, support each other with love, laughter and beauty products. As hair is dried, dyed, and styled, women’s lives unfold and show the meaning of true friendship.

 

The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity
by Kristoffer Diaz
November 10 – 19, 2017
Mace is the ring name of a Puerto Rican “jobber” paid to lose to the champion of his pro-wrestling league. Mace wants a break from losing, so he introduces his bosses to a friend he met playing basketball in Brooklyn. A botched job means a win for the new guy and embarrassment for the champ. Efforts to repair the damage get more and more complicated, leading Mace to look for just one true moment in his athletic career. Chad Deity is a funny and quirky look at the world of pro wrestling.

 

A Christmas Carol
by Arlitia Jones and Michael Haney based on the book by Charles Dickens
December 15 – 29, 2017
Witness Ebenezer Scrooge’s miraculous Christmas Eve transformation in Perseverance Theatre’s adaptation of Dickens’ famous book. Ebenezer Scrooge is a greedy businessman, with no place in his life for kindness, compassion, or charity, and destined to a lonely old age. But when four ghosts appear and warn him of a miserable afterlife, Scrooge is reminded of all the chances he had before to make different choices. Charles Dickens’ classic tale of redemption skillfully faithfully adapted by Arlitia Jones and Michael Evan Haney never ceases to please.

The Arsonists
by Jacqueline Goldfinger
January 12 – 21, 2018
* A World Premeire *
After running out of a cloud of smoke and sirens with a large, slightly bloody bundle, a woman hides the package under the floorboards of her cabin, changes her clothes, and hides with the lights off until the sirens fade off in the distance. When the coast is clear, she sings songs with her father, packs for a long trip, and burns the cabin down to leave no evidence behind. Based in part on the myth of Electra, The Arsonists is the story of a woman who comes of age in the family arson business before an unexpected accident sends her out on her own.

William, Inc
by Lucas Rowley
March 2 – 11, 2018
* A World Premeire *
William is an Alaska Native professional with a high-pressure job and demands at home too. To cope with his stress, he has formed a Native corporation inside his head, but the strategy backfires when his board of directors get out of control and start hijacking his real life. Though it costs him a relapse and lots of problems at home, he negotiates his politics to find the balance he needs. Getting there is both affirming and hilarious.

Cyrano de Bergerac
by Edmond Rostand. Translated and adapted by David Grimm
April 27 – May 6, 2018
*A World Premeire of this new adaptation.*
Cyrano de Bergerac–soldier, poet, and musician, is clever, charming, and disarming, but he’s ashamed of his appearance and believes he’ll never win the love of the beautiful Roxanne. To ensure her happiness, he helps his fellow soldier Christian to woo her. Panache–Cyrano’s word for living life with flair, honor, and eloquence–prevents Cyrano from ever telling Roxanne the truth about Christian and his own deep love for her, until it is too late. Panache undoubtedly killed Cyrano, but without it, he would not have found a life worth living in the first place.

Subscribe Today

Giving Perseverance as a Gift

joshuaFeatured, Fundraisers, Season 17-18, Special Offers-SF, subscriptions

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Give the gift of theatre this holiday season!

If you have a theatre-lover in your life we have wonderful, easy to give, and perfect last-minute gifts you can share! We have a holiday gift card you can print out if you’re buying your gift online and would like to have a festive way to share your gift of theatre. Happy Holidays, and thank you!

DOWNLOAD THE HOLIDAY GIFT CARD TO GO WITH YOUR GIFT OF THEATRE
holiday gift card

thank-you

Theatremaking that Crosses Generations

joshuaCurrent Projects, Featured, Productions, Season 16-17, Seasons

Cate Ross Returns to the Perseverance Mainstage

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Not Medea, the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere by Allison Gregory, features three actors: Shelley Virginia of Anchorage as “Woman,” Perseverance’s actor-in-residence Enrique Bravo as Jason, and long-time company member Cate Ross–the youngest member of the cast–as Chorus.

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Cate Ross, born in Juneau, is not new to Perseverance. In fact, she has been treading the boards of PT all her life. Cate is the daughter of Joe Ross and Ginny Hayes, both long time members of the Perseverance artistic company. Joe has been around since the theatre’s founding days: he helped build the theatre’s building in the 1980s.  He has worn almost every hat possible over the decades at PT, from actor to technical director to board member. Joe and Ginny met at the theatre and got married. Cate was born in 1990 and was part of the PT family. Cate says,

“I remember running around the building as a little girl while my dad was putting the set together. We were always around the theatre. All the people who helped create Perseverance are long-time family friends, Kate Bowns is my godmother.”

It didn’t take long for Cate to get the stage bug, “I was 8 or 9 when I was in Gypsy.  I was the balloon girl in the opening scene. And then I was in the Young Shakespeare Company all through middle school.  We would take a bus after school and work with Anita Maynard-Losh.” While in High School, Cate went straight from Young Company to the Perseverance Mainstage.  In 2005 she played a fairy in Midsummer Night’s Dream and then played Abigail in Crucible.  

Cate Ross in Gypsy

Cate left Juneau to study in California. While she lived Outside, she didn’t do any theatre, but last year she decided to make Juneau her home again, and quickly jumped back to the stage. During the day, she’s working at Tracy’s Crab Shack. Cate performed with the Juneau Douglas Little Theatre in Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche.  She has also been performing as a drag king in local shows.  When we asked if she planned on staying in Juneau, she wasn’t sure, “I am staying for now…ish, but I will say it has been great performing here, it is such a supportive community. I just love it.”  Wherever she ends up, we look forward to having her continue to perform on the Perseverance stage.

You can see Not Medea only through November 6th. Get tickets online, at the JACC or by calling 463-TIXS.

Enter the Audience: The Collaboration Continues at Peter and the Starcatcher

joshuaCurrent Projects, Featured, Productions, Season 16-17, Seasons

TeresaKPond-director (1)
One of the fun things about Peter and the Starcatcher is the interaction between the ensemble on the stage and the audience in their seats. So last night, the first time that we had a big crowd in the theatre to watch the first preview, was an important moment for all the artists involved. The actors start to hear and feel the responses to their lines and actions and that can effect their timing, especially in a play like Peter and the Starcatcher, which is ripe with funny moments. Designers can use audience responses to help them put finishing touches on lighting, sound, and more. Even though folks watching the first preview were not seeing a “finished” play they were thoroughly entertained and left with comments like “…it was wonderful and such a hoot!” 
As we near opening night, the role of the director is nearly over. Here’s Art Rotch to tell us a bit about all the magic that Teresa K. Pond has brought us.
Teresa K Pond is a director who grew up making theatre in Anchorage, where her father, Robert Pond, ran Anchorage Community Theatre for many many years. I’d heard of her work when she ran ACT herself later, then follower her story as she earned her MFA, ran Millbrook Playhouse in Pennsylvania, then spent time in New York City where she made a successful stage version of Pinkalicious, based on the children’s book. When Teresa moved back to Alaska recently, I made a note to meet her and see her directing work at the first opportunity. Flowers for Algernon is a distinctive piece of theatre that Teresa directed in Anchorage that I was able to see, and we went out for coffee to chat about the play, directing, and the kind of theatre we each like to make in Alaska. I remember spending a long time at Side Street Espresso and came away wanting to find the right project to introduce Teresa to Perseverance Theatre.
About a year later, Peter and the Starcatcher made our short list, which is usually a time in our programming process when we start asking if there’s a director in our group that will have an affinity for the play and understand what it would be to make it into a production for Alaskan audiences. Teresa fit the bill in several ways: her experience making theatre for young audiences would help with the young characters at the center of this play, her skills with musicals and movement would be valuable, and her deep passion for British humor and adventure were plusses. She certainly understood how the story would present in Alaska, and appreciated as much as we did how the new book writes out some of the dated challenges of the original, such as the portrayal of indigenous characters, and how the character of Molly gives us the kind of self-assured and empowered heroine we seek for our times.

A Swirl of Collaboration Brings Peter and the Starcatcher to Life

joshuaCurrent Projects, Featured, Productions, Season 16-17

Artistic director Art Rotch just spent his birthday in “tech.” I get the feeling that’s how he’d like it to be. For designers–the artists that create the world of the theatre through sound, lighting, set, paint, costume, props, and more–technical rehearsals are when everything is finally layered together in real time with the acting and movement on the stage. Art snapped some photos during tech, and generously left us some notes below about the process that we usually don’t see until it’s complete on opening night!

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It’s tech week for Peter and the Starcatcher, which is the time we work through every moment of the show with the actors, sound, lighting and other designers, get used to working in the costumes and finish them off, add in the live musicians and learn their cues, and generally make all the tiny details that add up to great theatre perfect. Between figuring out two different sailing ships, a tropical island that turns into Neverland, and magic, that’s a lot of details! Fortunately Amy Altadonna and Dan Anteau, our stellar sound and lighting designers, are both talented artists who never grew up themselves, and we seem to have found a group of actors who have lots of pirate DNA already.
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We were working on a section of the play where Molly and the lost boys sneak around different parts of the ship, discovering lots of strange goings on below decks in different cabins. Then Molly talked to her father using their magic amulets, which are a great prop put together by Julia Garrity , our stellar props master. And no rehearsal for this play would feel right without stars, which Dan Anteau, Matt Allar and Julia created using atmospheric lighting and very simple glowing props spread over the multi-level set. Oh yes, and then we made Molly ‘fly’. All in a nights work.
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In this play, the actors become their characters as actors can do so well, but they also create an ensemble of storytellers who just love the magic of live acting, kind of like the group of actors who originally made the script together in the original production. It’s most like what Perseverance did when we put The Thirty-Nine Steps on stage a few years ago, taking a script originally made by actors with all the creative theatricality that actors love, and finding that heartbeat again with our own Alaskan gang of theatre-loving performers.

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PAY-AS-YOU-CAN PREVIEWS for Peter and the Starcatcher are TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, and THURSDAY AUGUST 18. We open AUGUST 19. Come see the magic!

Raffle Winners Announced for 32nd Annual Travel Raffle

joshuaFeatured

Perseverance is happy to announce the winners of our 32nd Annual Travel Raffle.

Grand Prize Carolyn Garcia
2nd Prize Christ Goard
3rd Prize John Parsi
4th Prize Anya Maier
5th Prize Dave Lefebvre
6th prize Roger Birk
7th Prize Rafie Wilson
8th Prize Munkh-Urguu
9th Prize Barb Potter
10th Prize Adam Wilkinson
11th Prize Elaine Loopstra
12th Prize Laura Stats
13th Prize Karrold Jackson
14th Prize Laura Kurt
15th Prize Heather Sinclair
16th Prize Suzi Pearson
17th Prize Liz Babstead
18th Prize Bob Wild
19th Prize Michael Johnson
20th Prize Koko
21st Prize Daniel Collison
22nd Prize Margie Ramos
23rd Prize Lyn McCoy
24th Prize Amy Dressel
25th Prize Jackie Schulz

Moving Mountains: Annapurna goes from Anchorage to Juneau

joshuaCurrent Projects, Featured, Productions, Uncategorized

Perseverance Theatre’s statewide season allows designers the opportunity and challenge to build a set that works in two very different theatres: the modified thrust stage of the theatre’s Douglas, AK space, and the traditional proscenium in the Sydney Laurence Theatre at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts–Perseverance’s Anchorage home. We asked Artistic Director Art Rotch, the set designer for Annapurna, to talk about the process of designing in two places. Here are his thoughts and a few behind-the-scenes photos.

Juneau Scale Model

Juneau Scale Model

Annapurna’s design was made for both theatre, as always, and we work in a scale model, in this case 1/2” to 1’-0”, a relatively detailed scale, which was great for this show because the interior of the trailer where the story takes place lets us do slice-of-reality-type theatre, as if when you see the play it’s like a big a can opener had been taken to the trailer so we can peak inside. Lots of details to render, very fun, and to make the greatest effect of sliced away reality, our set piece trailer has a partial roof as well as walls and a raked floor for the effect that rakes have of visually pushing the action closer to us watching.

Anchorage Scale Model

I wanted Emma’s arrival and presence to change the space, by cleaning it up, so we put a lot of stuff in a great state of disarray. In Anchorage, the stuff was harder to see, but in Juneau, we added details like labels on the pill bottles and book titles that the audience could actually read because they sit so close.

Getting set up in Anchorage

The story includes references to two mountains: One is a peak in the rockies that Ulysses describes his attempts to climb and can be seen out the windows. The other is Annapurna, the 8000 meter Himalayan peak that is the title of the play, and that Ulysses names his final epic poem for. Being able to see the mountain while watching was important, so I designed a drop that the shop painted beautifully. The trailer set piece was tall, so the peak of the mountain had to be placed high on the drop to be seen above it. This took a lot of trial and error in the model making phase, looking at where to place the mountain in the stage picture. Kevin and Rebecca did a great job of rehearsing the places where the mountain is referred to by the characters even though we did not see it until the last day of rehearsals on stage in Anchorage. Because the Anchorage theatre is taller than Perseverance, the drop is taller than the space, so you can see some of it rolled up when you see the show.

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Tech Rehearsals in Juneau

Finally, we added an old scrim, a type of translucent fabric, that is torn, patched, and dipped in earthy browns, that hangs in front of the drop and frames the trailer piece. The idea is to separate the outside world of mountains and the trailer park that Lucy Peckham’s sound design brings to life (Sounds of dogs barking, cars starting, birds and cicadas, etc) from the world of Emma and Ulysses’ interaction–which is a world unto them as a couple and separate from others. The scrim shape was quite different in the Anchorage space, and had to be adapted to fit, kind of the reverse of how we usually do is when the sets go from Juneau to Anchorage

As we put the set in and began working with it, we were able to add more details to the set dressing, to how the actors played moments could be more subtle and detailed as well. The show was very good in the Anchorage space, but being closer to it and being able to read the details more intimately makes the experience in the Juneau theatre space really special. You can see Annapurna through May 29 in Juneau.

A Letter from Artistic Director Art Rotch

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Dear Friends,

We are as shocked and saddened as anyone to learn of the serious allegations regarding one of our actors, Jack Dalton. The fact that Mr. Dalton is alleged to have preyed on a child, while participating as an actor in a play that depicts the damage such behavior does to families and communities, adds to the difficulty of making sense of what to do next.

Here is Vera Starbard’s thoughtful, heartfelt response.

The theatre has great partners in the behavioral health field that supported our production and our artists involved in the play, and we’ve been in contact to confirm they will help us again as we deal with the aftermath of this news.

Most of all, we are reminded that the play Vera Starbard wrote describes a community in the aftermath of discovering an abuser and their victims, much as we are now. This news is affirming–if gut wrenching–of the need to speak up and call for an end to the cycle that perpetuates predatory behavior and creates new victims. The need to speak is the same as the need to support, to end isolation created by silence, to call for healing.

We are not alone, none of us is alone, as long as we share our true hearts.

Regarding our next steps:

As an arts organization dedicated to telling stories in the form of theatre, we do not judge, but leave that to the legal system.

We are not counselors, but recommend those services where needed. In Juneau, Perseverance is grateful for the services of SEARHC and AWARE. In Anchorage, STAR and the Alaska Children’s Trust provided invaluable support during the making of Our Voices Will Be Heard.

Most of all, we support our playwright, Vera Starbard, in her efforts to make theatre that is true and effective at bringing to life on the stage the Alaska that she loves. We support all of the writers and artists, especially actors, who put so much of themselves into creating worlds for us to experience. We support our audiences and communities with what we make. Particularly when we make worlds of Alaska come alive on stage, we seek to make those worlds as true as we can: Sometimes funny, always loving, sometimes frightening, and never alone, because theatre is always a shared experience between us as storytellers, and our community in attendance.

As we seek understanding and a path forward, we do so in community with you. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Art Rotch
Artistic Director, Perseverance Theatre