Alaska - Theatre Alaska, Jessica Golden, and Brilliant Indigenous Stories! - Play to Z

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, welcome to play the Z.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Please rise for this season's introduction song, fight through It.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Connecticut.

Speaker 4 (00:22):
Good Job, Hey, everybody, welcome and play to Z.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
I'm your co host Justin Borack.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
And I'm your co host Erica Ku.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
I think my favorite part about the theme song is
the is that the when you're like, good job, and
I'm like so earnestly, I'm like, thank you.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
My favorite part of Connecticut.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
If you can't tell, that was like the last recording
we did, after like thirty minutes, and she was saying
good job, because I truly was so self conscious.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
For I kept being like, I'm just gonna practice and
not record, and then you would simply play the entire
song fast and perfectly, and I was like, what the.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Hell do that? And then I would turn it on
and it would be and then you'd be like scared, scared,
You're so scared.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Also, he kept putting the harmonica upside down, which you
think would happen once.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Go back and listen to the season announcement. The last
two out takes. There's a very very funny there's some
very funny parts.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Welcome back, everybody, and.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Today we're talking about Alaska.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Alaska. It's episode two of season three, the fifteen to
fifty United Places. Yeah, and it's my turn to talk
and tell you about stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Before we get into it. How are you my best friend?

Speaker 3 (01:37):
I'm good. The drummer isn't drumming right now, awesome, which
means I can speak a lot and clear huge exciting,
huge exciting stuff. I've got a two liter of diet
PEPSI sitting on its side on their bottle right next
to me, kind.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Of look like it looks like one of those hamster
bottles you put it.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Here's the thing. Every time I who like and this
isn't like a I have time. I have smallish hands.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, so have small hands at.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
The same time, like I'm a rat. And so if
I am like the person drinking the diet aspertain beverages,
and yeah, I'm not going to like pour the two
liters into a glass, like I'm not going to waste
the glass. So then I do walk around with like
the big bottle and the tiny hands two handed, just
like and I do look like a hand.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Here's the thing, though, You're smarter than me, because I
just go to like the bodega on our corner every night.
To get blue Gatorade, Like I'm getting this from the
Bodega's smarter exactly, You're getting it like a lot less
than me. Yeah, yeah, it's smart. What guess literally, guess
what just got delivered?

Speaker 3 (02:34):
What got delivered?

Speaker 1 (02:34):
My my gatorade powder?

Speaker 4 (02:36):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (02:37):
Like downstairs?

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah we do?

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Should we do? Waiting music gets to be delivered.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
I think it's going to I think's coming on the street.
I'll get it and relax.

Speaker 4 (02:46):
But I was excited.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
I was excited, dude, that's so exciting. We're a huge
Gatorade family.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
We're a huge Gatorade family. The way if Liz Oh,
shout out Liz, I'm a wait for it, shout out
to can Wow, shout out the cuse. But miss you Sue.
But I was sad that Sue. I haven't seen Sue
in so long.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
I spent so much time with friends and family this summer.
It was so nice. Yeah, I'm like going through withdrawals
of like the family animals and you know, I know,
local delicacy.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
It's been nice. So you've been like you've been like
pet sitting this first month a little bit where you've
gotten you're like fixed pet to God.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, like my My move plan was to get here,
and I started taking care of other people's animals and
it did help fill the gaping wound shaped hole in
my heart for living around, specifically my parents' dog.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
So oh yeah, I mean I miss I miss Lizz's
Poppley so much. And then Baker back at home, we
have a big new fee. I miss him too.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Dog.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
I miss dog. But also like, see's only people in
New York with dog And I'm like, you knowus, how
so much money or so much? I don't know how
you do?

Speaker 3 (03:53):
See dogs just shitting on concrete and I'm like, you're
built different.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
You're crazy man, crazy crazy.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
That's why I take my shoes off when I come
inside your home.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
And that's smart. But yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm good.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Uh, the two leaders still full. I'll probably read up
tonight with you.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
That's smart. Good. Take a walk around one of the
corners on do we want to talk about? I'm trying
to think because we are. We're battered recording every weekend
because we both research like episodes separately since we record
like together. And the last episode Alabama, we talked about
how it was moving to New York. Yes, oh I know,
we can talk about because I like, I think the
bansterd parts of our episodes are. We just saw our

(04:31):
first show together in New York.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
Wait wait, hang on, I'm a I'm a heathen again.
We're recording, if you're starting here, weirdo sick freak recording
in my tiny bedroom, which is predominantly one queen size bed,
which means the program is still next.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
To me in my here's the thing. The play is great,
pretty perfect Live, Perfect Lives.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
We saw it, Charlton.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
Who was the It was produced by.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
The Flea, but it had like independently.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Yeah, it was that.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
It was in collaboration with Field, which is like a cool.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Cool dating app, and it was pretty Jordan Fisher and
like really cool like young theater people, which is rad. Yeah,
but it was very fun. It was very cool.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
I was happy recap production.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah, thank you so much for the tickets guys. That
was awesome.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
Oh and justin thank you for being a guy who
gets tickets to things. What happens to be my friend
and roommate.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Wait did you just hear that? No, it's the doorbell.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
No it wasn't. I couldn't hear a thing.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
I thought I just heard the doorbell vamp.

Speaker 3 (05:31):
People who like power Aid more than Gatorade. What's wrong
with you?

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Oh wow?

Speaker 3 (05:40):
They actually came up to our door. Smart smart smart, whoa,
that's justin. That's a big box. He's opening it on
the kitchen table, which is four feet from my bed
in a different room. Count them. You got two blue
and yellow full blooded sugar. I'll I'll do a lot
in that if I get a little blood sugar. But yeah,

(06:02):
we went and saw that. Yeah, that so we're not
sponsored by Gatorade, but Gatorade. If you're listening, what are
you doing, you silly goose? Yeah, and now just we
saw pretty perfect lives. It was at the Flea, which
is in New York downtown. It was very very cool,
very very fun. I saw some of the best acting
I've seen, like and I don't know how long actually
I should shout out this actor's name. I can't remember that. Yeah,

(06:25):
Nick ash whoa smokes.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
So I will say we were really lucky. They gave
me a couple of comps and I brought Erica and
they put us in the front row, which is sick. Yeah,
they put it in the front row over to like
the right though, and like it wasn't secured seating at all.
But I was like, usually like they'd put me in
the middle so I could see everything, because like they're
like inviting me, so I makeup video or whatever like,

(06:49):
but I was like, why are they putting us over here?

Speaker 3 (06:52):
And I think it was to see the calimactic moment
of the show, which is some of the best acting.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
Sixty minutes into the play, Nick Ash's character Jesse has
a like full on breakdown moment. Obviously, you guys are
gonna able to see it anymore. This is coming out
pretty late after their run is closed. But now that
it was an amazing run, I really hope they. I
hope they the writer goes and plays with him and
does more with that. Hope we to see a new
iteration of it. I think could be super cool. But
this moment that was directly in front of us, it

(07:18):
was within two feet of us.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
It was I haven't been that physically close to such
like an amazing theatrical moment and so long, so good. Yeah,
it made us like I think we both were kind
of like shaky.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, it was so good. It was so Also, the
girl what's her name? She was in Five Nights at Freddy's. Yes,
the girl who played Vanessa and five that the.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
Freddie was in this one of you, Elizabeth Laylee.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
Yeah, she was great.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
And also, you know, Justin is a Justin is like
a person who works with social media content creation. Let's
say stuff like that, right, This is like very much
kind of like sci fi take on like influencers and
social media and like, just for quick context, the note
from the playwright and the director is just a screenshot
of a Jamie Lee Curtis tweet saying in all caps,

(08:04):
you are not content. You are a human being. And
for the show, I'm pretty sure they got Jamie Lee
Curtis to film Oh yeah. But but truly, if you're
someone who like really really resonated with or vied with
seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner, where it's like modern
technology things happening now embedded in the script, this is
for you. It was just very good.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
It was really really fun and it was a fun
first show we got to see very like brat Summer.
The music beforehand was sick. Yeah, it was.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
It was just see more shows the Flee and all
their other space.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
I know I did. They were there another doing waiting
for Lefty also another your companies going through them and
doing Waiting for Lefty, which is cool. I I just
loved it. And I mean, dude, Nick Ash was.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
So good, crazy, I can't say. I mean, it was
Powerhouse's three actors just they were.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
All three of them. Talker. We shout out the other
talker too, he's really big on TV. Sane Phillips, Jane Phillips.
All three of them were great. They were all awesome.
It was so much fun. I I mean, I'm gonna, like,
I like, I want to see it get published and produced,
but I'm definitely gonna try to give my I'm gonna
I've been trying to d M the I really want

(09:10):
to get the script.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, very dreamy. If you're a projectionist, lighting sound.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
Oh the projection is crazy, very cool.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
For designers with with the tech of it all.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
The panic attacks, the water all that was so cool. Cool. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
So yeah, that was a little on these like local
shout out as we take you across the US.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yeah, and these like recording double recording days. We have
to figure outff to talk about it happily. Chat about that?

Speaker 3 (09:32):
All right, Well, you want to hear me tell you
about Alaska.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
Me, I think talk about as talking about last right?

Speaker 3 (09:38):
Cool Alaska? This is my first got state.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
Wait ah uh Bama Alaska? Okay, go on there she
is right, we always forgot already. Okay, we're up.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
A great start. I'm gonna tell you about Alaska. Yeah,
that's my first state on the scene.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
God.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
Okay, so do remember how talking about shut up me?

Speaker 1 (10:02):
Sorry? Also, wait, we don't have sound effect. Wait, shut
out that red button. I give you the way words.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yeah, what's up everybody. I'm gonna take you to a
really big ass state today with not so many people.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
And is Alaska big?

Speaker 3 (10:21):
It's so big?

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Really?

Speaker 4 (10:22):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (10:23):
So you don't I don't think of Alaska's like a
big state.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
Okay, that's because our maps are so almost called. Our
maps are so Also, I like that saying. I'm gonna
k we can use jingle bell like stupid jingle bell
bird now it's stupid call. Yeah almost called. Alaska's so
big because our maps are so jacked. Oh you know
how like maps are distorted.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
Texas is big, world's globe.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
But map is flat.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah yeah, the world is flat. Earth is flat.

Speaker 3 (10:53):
Sorry. I think my gatorade just got here. So just
got there, my yellow, so I have to exit my.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
That's the craziest inside joke. That's so funny conversation. Geta
just got here, my yellow, My Blueta just got here.

Speaker 3 (11:13):
So I think I heard the doorbell.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Okay, you were telling me that Alaska's big Irish and
I was shocked.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
So Alaska by area is the largest US state, but
it has the lowest population density of all fifty states.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Wait, okay, now I don't believe you legit, like it's
the biggest by like land masks.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
It's so big.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
It's bigger than Texas. Yeah, it's bigger than California. Yeah
that's crazy.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
Well you know why it's so big but so empty, right.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
I know. I mean it's empty because of like the weather.

Speaker 3 (11:42):
Maybe it's cold outside.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
Yeah, but I did, I guess I just didn't realize
it was so big.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
It's super duper big.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
It's and it's the small and that's the smallest population.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
Yeah, that's the lowest, the lowest population density. Okay, so
like for how big it is, there's not very many
people again the way it is.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, let's talk.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
About it a little bit.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
So, yeah, let's talk about it.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
I want to call out, Like I want to get
into like a little bit of some of the history
and facts of Alaska, but it is a bit difficult
to do that because even while doing research for this episode,
I like came across so much new information that in
our United States public education system, you just are not
your hearing or being taught about specifically Alaska. Pretty much.
Anytime like a US territory becomes a state or anything

(12:25):
like that, we kind of just start the history there
of like who's controlling it, who's buying it from? Who for?

Speaker 1 (12:30):
Why can I say something really bad? Yeah, in my
head up until basically today, yeah thought, oh Hawaii vacation,
Alaska cold. That's the only thing that.

Speaker 3 (12:39):
I tell you one sentence, it's going to blow your mind. Yeah,
Alaska wasn't a state until nineteen fifty nine. Fifty nine,
nineteen fifty nine. My brain saw that, and I thought
it was a mistake. We didn't have fifty states?

Speaker 1 (12:54):
Is this is this season? Is this season just going
to be justin Erica? Are bad at US history? Until
now in season three?

Speaker 3 (13:00):
Decolonize the map? You don't realize the map real like,
And here's the thing. Every single state we could talk
about we could talk about indigenous, we could talk about Lance,
but I think specifically when we were talking and I
don't know who has Hawaii, but specifically when we're talking
about Alaska and Hawaii, that history is so hard to unpack. Yeah,
because there is so much history there and there was

(13:21):
such a concentrated effort for me to not be able
to find any information about it. Yeah, for people to
not be able to speak their own language to make
their own art, right, and so it's it's such a
huge scope of art that I'm going to talk about today,
and I'm going to try and do it justice. But
just know that there is a really rich history there where.
If you're the average American, specifically maybe an average white
American who went to just like a normal public school work, you're.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
Currently in public stoe. So many of our listeners are
young people might not have heard about a.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
Lot of this. So like, again, and maybe I'm showing
my ass here, but like, did you know that Russia
had Alaska for like the longest time? Yeah? Russian America? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (13:58):
What is Russian America?

Speaker 3 (14:00):
Your favorite Russian player?

Speaker 4 (14:00):
Right?

Speaker 3 (14:03):
Yes? Do you know what was happening when Anton Chekhov
was born? No, Russia had Alaska.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
No, they didn't. They did, literally they didn't.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
Yeah, before Sarah Palin and before the gold Rush, Russia
had Alaska. Yeah, like the half they were like, that's mine.
We're gonna be fur trading, we're gonna be hanging out.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
They called it Russian America.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
Yeah, They're like they're like, look, we can handle the cold.
We rock with Siberia. Russia was in Alaska, right, so
you have you have like and here's the thing in
a lot of like the western kind of facing history,
that's kind of where it starts. Yeah, because the history
of Alaska starts with the ownership of Alaska, of taking Alaska.
And so there's all these different historical phases. And I
don't say this because there's any like really theatrical plug

(14:47):
ins to any of this. When I'm talking about like
people living and owning, I'm talking about tiny populations of
outsiders taking shit over.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
Yes, for resources, absolutely be.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
Right, So keep that in mind, right, And and so
it starts kind of around like eighteen fifties. The US
finally purchases Alaska from Russia in eighteen sixty seven.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
So not even e oh okay, yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:11):
So so way back when but they don't.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
Make it an eight sixty some of it. They don't
make it a stake till nineteen They're like, we want
that's ours now.

Speaker 3 (15:17):
Yeah, And keep in mind, like this is like pre Anastasia, right,
so like in the in like the I'm going to
try and give you guys some footholds into history because
I just think it's crazy and obviously, yeah I did,
used to teach a history theater lecture. But yeah, US
purchases Alaska from Russia in eighteen sixty seven. Now was
that Russian land? We're indigenous Russian people there, No, but
Russia had it. We buy it, We buy it legally,

(15:39):
and I think we buy it for like not very
much money. I'll get to that later. I think we
end up acquiring it for like seven million dollars, which
even with today's.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
That's the correct and like an MC like a Marvel
movie makes.

Speaker 3 (15:52):
That's like an okay home in LA.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
That's like an okay home.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
Back then it was like one hundred and fifty some million,
which is still an okay home in LA.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
But that is still create ad home, yeah for a state.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
Yeah, so the Russians have it, right, we buy it
stuff goes on that epical m and you know what
happens that makes us really more interested in having having
Alaska as like not just a territory, but like stuff
going on besides resources and stuff, right, like platinum gold.
In nineteen forty two, Japan, which is during World War two,

(16:24):
Japan occupied two of the out of the islands outside
of Alaskan cities. Now, when you think about the lower
forty eight, that means that like Alaska's way up there, right, Yeah,
so during a war, and I don't know if you
are into this, but one of the biggest like claims
to military kind of clout that America has is that
like people won't rock with us on our on our shores, right. Yeah,

(16:45):
we have like bases in every other godamn country and
we're doing stuff, but like people aren't coming here. No,
that was not a state, but that was a territory,
and Japanese soldiers were there on the ground taking over
and being like we got your island, right, And so
the US was like, now wait a minut it, we
got to do something about.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
This, right Yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:03):
So again I don't want to get too much in
the weeds of this, but essentially, like following in American history,
like even post Civil War, like it went from being
the Department of Alaska, which when it became the Department
of Alaska, the date changed overnight in Alaska. Because there's
two types of timekeeping in the world, and one deals
with like how you deal with leap years, and so

(17:24):
most of the world is on one and most of
the world is on the other, or and the smaller
amounts around the other. And so like overnight in Alaska
and went from like October first to like the eighteenth
because utterly and so you know, especially when you're thinking
about like the Intracaszies of art and stuff like that,
Like we're talking about a land that has been stolen
and bought and sold and stolen and bought and sold. Yeah,
in so many times, in so many ways that even

(17:45):
the culture of timekeeping can change overnight.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
It's crazy.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
I just think it's crazy. So it's the Russian America,
it's the Department of Alaska. The calendar changes, it's post
Civil War, it's the District of Alaska. People are kind
of like figuring out how to colonize it. Now here's
the other thing. Like again, this happened like so recently,
but also so long ago that like a big part
of why Alaska is finally going to be a state
is because airplanes became a thing, yea, So to get

(18:12):
like supplies out there to do stuff like that, you
used to have to take a boat from Seattle. Oh,
now suddenly you can fly there. You can have like food,
you can have sets whatever. So anyway, eventually, like all
things what clinched as resources with oil, right, and so
we want to have oil pipelines. We want to be
kind of like pillaging the natural resources. There's always been

(18:33):
grievances with conservation up there and oil disasters. But nineteen
fifty nine it becomes a state. It's a cool state.
It has burrows, not counties. It is a space that
again has so few people in so much land space
that like, as I talk about these theaters and stuff today,
pay attention to how many times I talk about like
touring models and the idea of if you're a culture

(18:55):
of art that's born out of few people, big space
you have to tour right where if you're in like
New York City, Like, I just think.

Speaker 1 (19:03):
It's a fascinating It makes me think of that theater
company we talked about in grad school, the one that
like would put all of their set on the back
bead of a truck, remember that, and they would like
go from like spot to spot and just do it
in like a grassy patch round people like you know
what I mean? Yeah, yeah, having to be able to
tour and move around because there isn't enough there. There
isn't enough space, and there is enough art artistic community.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
You just do what you have to do. And in
Alaska there's just this there's a huge sense of community,
a for survival, but be because of the culture that
that does still remain there. So the first theater I
want to talk about is the Perseverance Theater. It's Alaska's
largest professional theater. It's a regional theater and its mission
statement is Perseverance Theater's mission is to create professional theater

(19:43):
by and for Alaskans. We value community engagement, cross cultural collaboration,
professional rigor, and regional voice. It started in like nineteen
seventy nine, and again it's like kind of this huge
like flagship of Alaskan theater that is like buy in
for Alaskans. It's professional. Their website is Ptalaska dot org.

(20:07):
And I just want to hit on like their season
and kind of other opportunities that they do. You know how,
like a second ago, I shouted out, like, Okay, what's
gonna come out of art when there's a lot of
people or not a lot of people, big space. What
other form of theater do you think would be popular?
I'm gonna give you a hint. I'm miming you guys
can't tell uh.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
Radio radio play.

Speaker 3 (20:32):
Radio plays are super popular. I know, yes, because.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
Because that's what they can do.

Speaker 3 (20:38):
That's what you can do, right, which like radio plays
were popular because like that's what you can do. But
in every like almost every big theater I'm going to
talk about, there is some sort of like either radio
play festival or series or like the radio is the
one fiscally backing a bunch of stuff.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
It's that's so cool.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
The state a few people, it's so cool.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
You know, it's a big state. Few people, Yeah, are there?
Is it easy to travel from like city to city
there or so? They are pretty spread out too.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
They're pretty sprout. I think it depends on the time
of year and like here's the thing. As soon as
military bases became like the thing to do obviously, then
like cities towns like surround it, right, but like there
are huge really rural arts and there's parts that are
like dedicated to indigenous peoples and so like I don't
know enough about the navigation, but yeah, radio plays being
a popular like medium, yeah, just makes sense. So Perseverance

(21:31):
Theater they're they're thing that they're talking about right now
because it is running through September, is called Cold Case
and it's KTO is the radio station presenting it. It's
written by Kathy Tagnak Rexford and it's directed by Delana Study.
It's like a cool kind of like mystery vibe. It's
got really really cute graphic design.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
I like that.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
So tickets areund self for that now. So they're twenty
four to twenty twenty five season. It is called their
season of Power. So cold Case is the first one
that's up. There's a play called Full Contact by Aeriel Estrada,
and then they're ending with the Thanksgiving play by Larissa Fastors,
who's a name that we're going to hear again later
on here. Perseverance Theater also has just like a very
very cool production history. Last year they did headwigin the

(22:18):
Angry Inch, a nice Indian boy and Indecent Wow. The
year before that they did Where the Summit Meets the Stars,
Little Women, and the Great Leap. The year before that
the fun Home was in there, they were doing Silent Sky,
all sorts of stuff. So they're doing really really cool seasons,
really really broad seasons. Yeah, amazing stuff. And then they

(22:40):
also have something called their Director's Lab, which is a
learning space for aspiring and early career directors for Alaskans
and Bilaskans.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
That's so sick, yes, And.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
Something you're going to hear about a lot is that, like,
because there's so few like Alaska natives and artists just
like residing there. The idea of like mentorship on a
one to one level is super huge in a lot
of these communities because I'll talk about it later. There's
not a ton of like dedicated like majors or places
that you can go to study, and so a lot
of these orgs are like, let's just one to one

(23:11):
match people up and you're gonna hear about some exciting
names that you know of that you've talked about in
seasons past, like helping out and doing that. It's very
cool cool. So their Director's Lab at Perseverance is developed
to help the talent pool of early career directors, to
give them the tools they need. Yeah, it's it's just
super awesome. So they do a show together.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
Does so much stuff.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
Truly, I what city are they in? It's in? Is
this one in Anchorage or Jo?

Speaker 1 (23:39):
Those are the two big cities, right, anchorages Anchorage in
Juno and anchorageip capital or Juno the capital. Hang on,
I'll do the research.

Speaker 3 (23:48):
No, wait a minute, don't you put this on trivia?
Juno is the capital, but I think Anchorage is the biggest.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Is the biggest?

Speaker 3 (23:53):
Okay, cool, don't fight me on that. Also, their casting calls,
they have a note on there if you're like an
actor listening to this, or you're someone who like thinks
you'd be up for any of these.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Correct, I was correct?

Speaker 4 (24:06):
Do you know?

Speaker 1 (24:06):
Is the capitol?

Speaker 3 (24:07):
She reads good for their actors. They provide round trip travel, housing,
and local transportation if you're away from your home city.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
That's awesome, which.

Speaker 3 (24:16):
Is super super cool.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
So Cold Case, Oh my gosh, you don't find stuff
like that.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
No, you really don't. So Cold Case has auditions coming up.
It gives you all the information about it. It tells
you where the auditions are. They're looking for non union
actors right now. I think that submission may have just
passed by. Actually, but if you go to their website,
like they have their casting email right up there, they
have a casting form if you want to be considered
on a rolling basis. So like, again, when I'm talking
about these theaters, like, I also want to let you

(24:42):
guys know, like a lot of these smaller regions they're
not overwhelmed, you know what I mean. And so when's
the last time you ever looked at a theater's website
in New York City or LA or Chicago that was
going to take open submissions from anyone?

Speaker 1 (24:55):
Never?

Speaker 3 (24:56):
Yeah, it doesn't happen percent of the theaters I looked
at in Alaska.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
That that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (25:01):
Yeah, it's very welcoming. Perseverance offers script submissions. They're currently
accepting submissions for consideration. They produce, you know, obviously seasons
in advance, so they can't just like do it immediately,
but they always give priority to Alaskan writers and any
plays involving Alaska. Super awesome. Again, there's just an email

(25:21):
chilling on the website that's sick. Just send it off
that's so cool. So if you're someone who's like, I've
been working on something set in Alaska, legit, right now,
reach out? You should reach out again? How often because
you're someone who does that right?

Speaker 4 (25:33):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (25:33):
Yeah, you're looking for open calls script submissions as an
actor writer all the time. How often in the past
you've ever seen any?

Speaker 1 (25:40):
Never in New York ever? Yeah, you really have to
like dig deep and look for like these, like cool
theaters like this, And.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
What would you have looked for if you were just
graduating college.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
I mean, like like places where I can submit in
places where I can get work out.

Speaker 3 (25:52):
Maybe an apprenticeship.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
Oh do they have one?

Speaker 3 (25:55):
Yeah, they do.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
They have so much stuff.

Speaker 3 (25:56):
I know, twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five. They've
got a production in stead management apprentice. It is a
small stipend. It's like about a two hundred and fifty
dollars weekly stipend. And they also have an artistic apprentice,
which you don't see very much. So that's someone working
directly with their artistic director, associate producer, stuff like that.
It's very cool, it's very awesome. I like it a lot.
But here's my last thing. What's a dream job for

(26:18):
a playwright to have.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
Oh, I mean like like an artition residence.

Speaker 3 (26:22):
Oh, do you want to hear about this one? A
Perseverance theater.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
Oh, they have an artist in residence.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
They do? They have a playwright in residence. Okay, oh?

Speaker 1 (26:31):
Nice?

Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yes, and her name is Vera Starbard all right. She
wrote an adaptation of a Christmas Carol. It's called a
clean Kit Christmas Carol, and clin Kit is the sort
of like dribe that she's indigenous to. It's spelled in
a way that phonetically, you might not know what I'm
talking about, so I'm going to spell the word for
you in case anyways heard this. It's spelled t l

(26:52):
I n G I T, but it's pronounced pronounced like
clean kit phonetically, I believe.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
So, anyway, what's Christmas Carol about? At its core?

Speaker 1 (27:01):
I mean, it's about a guy named Scrooge who It's
about a guy who loses his Christmas spirit because he
loves money too much, and he gets visited by ghosts
to give his Christmas spirit back.

Speaker 3 (27:11):
He loves money way too much. Okay, So Viera Starbars
is a playwright in residence. But she got her start
playwriting through something called the Alaska Native Playwrights Project. Whoa, Yeah,
it was a project to again give one on one
mentorship to up and coming playwrights. Oh cool, And I
just already talked about her in the last five minutes,
no way.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
Who was her mentor Larissa Fastors. Yes, oh my god. Yes,
what a place to start.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
Literally, and this is like when she's a teenager, Like
she talks in this article it's on their website. It's
an article from like December of twenty twenty one about
how she was like trying to get into writing dialogue.
Larisa fast Hors like puts her on it and she
was like, I don't know if this is for me.
You know, she'd done like yearbook in high school and
all this stuff and then she just.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
Year book at high school. Is crazy.

Speaker 3 (27:54):
Yeah, she like turned her her words over to a
director and a group of actors and like seeing them,
she said, like seeing them make my work better just
like changed everything for me. And I was like, yeah,
I want to be doing this. And she also talks
about how this story is really important to her because
she wanted to see it from her culture is kind

(28:15):
of like different perspectives specifically on Scrooge. Right, So at
its core, like Scrooge is hoarding wealth, and in her
kind of culture, the clink culture, there's only value in
sharing your wealth. There's no such thing as private property,
right when you're looking at like some of these kind
of like indigenous values, there's only clan pop property. So

(28:36):
like the modern kind of like or like casual way
of saying that would be like if you eat, the
whole team eats, right, if you aren't doing well, no
one is doing well. And so she adapted it with
that mindset that the whole way that Christmas Carol ends
is with Scrooge being like, you know what, you're right,
dieport Right. It's a very very cool lesson. She talks

(28:57):
in this interview, yeah, about her dad like teaching that
and it's just very very cool. And it is something
that like lends so perfectly to that, and they put
it in their season like all the.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
Time, which, oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
Is awesome. She also gave an interview with another org.
This organ is not based out of Alaska, but they're cool.
They're called howel Round Theater Commons, And it's this essay
that Vera Starbard wrote. This is in like twenty eighteen. Yeah,
and she wrote it while she was still in residence
at Persperience the Theater. It is in JUNEO, I lied.

(29:31):
I don't know if I said that.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
How long is the residence for a while?

Speaker 3 (29:34):
Seems like she's been there just for years, so I
think she's just kind of locked in there, sick. I'm
going to read you just like a little bit from
this essay just because I think it's important to start
with this slice of theater. Yeah, because all of the
other theater that came after it is honoring stories that
came after and just stories. Yeah, I think that that's relevant.
So she starts this essay with this kind of like preamble,

(29:57):
let us introduce you to Alaska. It's maybe not the
allesca you're used to seeing portrayed. The focus isn't on
the beautiful mountain views, though I guarantee the actual views
are even better than you've seen on any screen. The
focus isn't on the wildlife, though as I write this,
there's a Facebook request I'm tracking for local moose sightings.
Alaska is just as dramatic and majestic as you think,
probably more so. But even on the abundant tour ships

(30:20):
that land are each summer. The story of Alaska seems
to begin when white explorers and settlers showed up. The
story of Alaska has often been co opted to mean
the story of gold and oil and the Iditarod, and
more recently, Sarah Palin, the first Alaskans have been here
telling the real story of the land for thousands of years.
There are stories of the creation of those majestics mountains,
how the very rivers and plants and creatures came about.

(30:42):
They tell the stories of people thriving in climates not
meant for the week. There are stories of the land
we love and the people who love on it. Yet
so often these are not the stories the rest of
the world, or even the rest of Alaska knows outside
of our communities. And she goes on to talk about
this piece of kind of art and theater that she saw.
She says, the singing begins off stage, a single voice.

(31:02):
It's designed to be noticed, and the chatter of the
audience begins to dissipate. This is the only warning that
the show is going to begin. She talks about these
dance sergers entering with like really intricate mass and the
characters that they're depicting, And she talks about the set
changing right, and stars look like they're raining down, and
the crowds erupting at the end of the number, and
she says, this scene could be the description of a

(31:23):
new musical on Broadway, but it isn't. It's a performance
of my people, the clean cake people, done in a
tribal hall in Juno, Alaska. The dance and the music,
the mass, the sheer production value have all artfully been
perfected over thousands of years. They were passed down from
one master storyteller to the next, handled with skill, and
measured in millennia of practice. The performances seen today is

(31:45):
the same, are actually less elaborate than performances of it
five hundred years ago. This is the heritage. I come from,
a heritage with high value on showmanship and artistic excellence,
and yet in my own artistic journey I so often
find myself in an educational or defensive mone o, one
that is common among Alaska Native artists. I had no
idea your native culture was so sophisticated. I can't tell

(32:07):
you how many times I've heard a version of this statement,
whether as a comment on our art, politics, social structure,
or educational system. I cringe, I sigh, I smile. Well,
we were living in wood plank homes when Europeans were
walking around on mud floors. Yeah, And then she says, Okay,
I don't actually say that, but I really want to, right, Yeah,
And she just talks about how there's just like no

(32:28):
nuance to understanding, like how sophisticated and rich that was,
and this idea.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
That like that's a beautiful assay. Her family has rehearsed
the show for thousands.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
Thousands of years, and yet you think that that art's
not as good, Like what do you mean, right, crazy.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Huge, huge millennia millennia of experience.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
Millennium of experience and passed down orally and passed down
after people were stripped of their own language to communicate,
or like it's so wild, that's wild, very very beautiful.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
Anyway, can I and if you haven't all do the research?
Does she have a new play change? Does she have
like ways to I.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
Didn't see her on NPX, but I didn't search her
out by name, actually searched out by like regions and
by characters in the place.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
So maybe check for me, what's her name again, it's
Verra what it's.

Speaker 3 (33:14):
Verra Starbard so star brd okay bar d r. It's
an amazing, amazing essay. That was just kind of a
small piece of it, but truly, like, I was so
happy that I stumbled upon this essay at the beginning
of my Alaskan research. Because I'm gonna keep going, I'm
gonna tell you about some other highlights, but none of
them are as by and for as Vera or as

(33:39):
this theater. Yeah, so yeah, that was huge. This next
theater is a surprise to me, and it's a small
world situation. Next theater is Theater Alaska, all right, which
I'm like, oh cool, founded in twenty classic, founded in
twenty twenty, rough yer for that. It's founded in twenty
twenty with the passion to share stories that connect our

(34:00):
community in Juno and around the Great State of Alaska.
So in twenty twenty one, they presented their first annual
Alaska Theater Festival, which had an outdoor production of Mackers
the Neighborhood Cabaret and readings of plays by Frank Henry
kosh Katasi and Annie Bartholomew. They established something called the
Alaska Writers' Workshop and built a relationship with the Brown

(34:22):
University Trinity Rep Theater Graduate Acting Program to provide those
Alaskan writers opportunity to further develop their writing.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
Oh sick.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
Yeah. How many people do you know who are affiliated
with that program who are like taste makers? Yeah, So
they're affiliated with them, and they also partner with their
school districts and high schools to make Shakespeare accessible to students.
They are currently working on Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan
McMillan in collaboration with Nomi Juno and the Juno Suicide

(34:50):
Prevention Coalition. Again, they're traveling to all sorts of different
communities and high schools and libraries and doing stuff like that.
And they're producing the Alaska Theater Festival radio plays with Ktoo,
who we've already talked about, Oh, in association with another
theater in Juno called ghost Light Theater.

Speaker 4 (35:07):
Sick.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
Yeah. So they're modeled after a theater in Minneapolis called
ten Thousand Things Yes, Oh cool, which their whole jam
is touring professional productions to community venues typically underserved communities,
we at, prison populations, rural areas, whatever. And so I'm
immediately like, why is there so much going on here.
And I go into their little like meet the staff
kind of section and it's mostly folks who came from

(35:29):
the Twin Cities, so not Alaska natives, but people who
are like very very connected showing up there and doing that.
I am very curious what the scoop is on that
and why this happened. But an amazing powerhouse kind of place,
and specifically their Alaska Writers' Workshop will be of note.
Who was one of your play favorite playwrights you've talke
about last season? Who you I think you read for
the first time her work or last season?

Speaker 1 (35:50):
There's so many Julia Zoomy, Uh huh what was that
first guest? Did I guess it?

Speaker 4 (35:56):
Julia?

Speaker 1 (35:57):
I love Julia Zoomy.

Speaker 3 (35:58):
Well, let me tell you about the Alaska Writer's Work
Shop at Theodore, Alaska. The Alaska Writer's Workshop is a
seven week residency offering a cohort of three Alaskan writers
the space and time to further develop a full length
pay play they're currently working on. It's led by New
Dramatis play right Julia Is, who will offer guided instruction
and feedback all meetings are over.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
That's impressive of me.

Speaker 3 (36:18):
That was so impressive of you.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
That's crazy. That was Julia zumy amazing.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
I'm very impressed with you.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
I love Julia's isn't that crazy? Oh my god?

Speaker 3 (36:26):
And in the end, and where did she go? MFA
Brown University? It all comes around.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
Can I say something? Say it like straight up if
I could, and I you know, I love any Baker.
You know I love so many play rights. If I
had a chance to like sit down with the player
for seven weeks and develop a piece, it would be
Julia Zumi. Like she is writing in a way that
is combining so many of my favorite She has the
poeticness of Sarah Rule, but the realism of any Baker.
She's just just doing this like that's she's master She's

(36:52):
one of the youngest masterful play rights. Oh my, I
can only imagine what those are the submissions still open,
those or those players like locked Dan, they are there,
liket three player it's joking, so I can only imagine.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
They're going to have a quickly can I MOVERO New
York to a lot?

Speaker 1 (37:06):
I can only imagine they're gonna have an amazing time.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
It says I think it did start. I think it
started in twenty twenty four. That's for them do.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
But also just really quick before we go too far away,
Veer Starboard is not a new play change. She does
have a website though, viastarbard dot com and a lot
of her plays and like podcasts and all that stuff
can be found on there. Okay, good, and there'll be
a link in the description of this podcast to go.

Speaker 3 (37:24):
Yeahah, very very cool. It's just it's just an amazing writer.
I'm gonna running through some other kind of like quick
theater associations. I'm running through these at the end, just
because there's not as much information about them online or
things of that nature.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:36):
One that I just talked about a second ago was
Juneo ghost Light Theater. That one's in Juneo. It was
established in nineteen sixty one as the Juno Douglas Little Theater,
but they've kind of rebranded. They're very inclusive, very cool,
so that's when you can check out. You can check
out their website. There used to be a theater called
Alaska Rap and I actually found their Facebook page and

(37:57):
it was a lot of people like talking nostalgically about
the theater and I realized it doesn't exist anymore, which
is super sad. Alaska REP was part of two waves
of kind of like the little theater movement that developed
regional Yeah, and so it was found.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
It was convenient I went to grad school for theater
a little bit ago because I know all that nerds.
Thank God here the thing. This season is going to
be pretty educational. I feel like it's huge for nerds,
huge for innerds.

Speaker 3 (38:23):
Hute for nerds. But I also like, I'm trying.

Speaker 1 (38:24):
To We're going to lose We're going to loose in
seventeen year olds who are looking for monologues, but we're
going to gain some real big I'm trying to.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
Gain some people who like want regional work.

Speaker 4 (38:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
I think a lot of people think you have to
just like move somewhere, like if I was not pursuing
the very specific things I'm pursuing, specifically in collaboration with you,
working out of Minneapolis and working anywhere in the country
and like paying cheap rent rocks. So when I say like, hey,
there's open submissions at all.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
These places sick, it makes it makes people want to
stay in there.

Speaker 4 (38:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
I feel like when I did Alabama and you're doing
Alaska now, both are kind of like Hey, we're trying
to create these programs to keep our artist here so
we're able to create art here with people. Yeah, that
is so cool.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
So anyway, Alaska REP started in nineteen seventy seven. Are yeah, yeah,
And it was honestly, it's it sounded like a banger.
It's it's a difficult place to work. You even how
you transport set pieces and do stuff in tour is
really difficult. But it was a it was an awesome place.
It looks like and what was the how did they
phrase it? It was retired in nineteen eighty eight when the

(39:25):
Board of directors voted to close the Art Quote with
Dignity because of a lack of sufficient financial support and
an increase in their operating deficits. So I think they
were kind of like, we're going to stop it before
it turns into a lower quality of art. But here's
what I do want to say to a very specific
niche group of any potential Alaska residents who want to
rekindle Alaska REP. If you go online to the Archives

(39:51):
and Special Collections of the University of Alaska Anchorage Consortium Library.
Because Alaska REP was publicly funded like that, they have
every single public record from nineteen sixty nine to nineteen
eighty nine. There. And when I say that, I mean
that this collection includes all the documenting and history of

(40:13):
their board of directors, their reports, they're managing directors files,
their press releases, their financial records, their promotional files, their programs,
their newsletters, their posters, everything, everything is cataloged at the library.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
That's crazy.

Speaker 3 (40:29):
So if you were like, hey, I'm just like really
curious about that, you can go look up the scenic
files and scrap books. There's twenty three thousand negatives in
black and white and black and white.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
That's insane.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
Yeah, So like the look, it's just it exists.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
It still exists.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
So s I didn't know that was a thing that
you could look at like a dead theater and have
its like blueprint at a library. But that's a thing.
So anyway, cool any movers and shakers like.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
I don't want to study something.

Speaker 3 (40:56):
Screech around and resurrect it.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
That's so cool.

Speaker 3 (40:59):
Okay, So let's talk really quickly. These are kind of
the professional theaters. Oh there is there is one last group.
There's a pretty thriving dinner theater scene there in Alaska.
There's like two very like prevalent dinner theaters. There's the
Dnali Cabin Night Dinner Theater and there's the musical music
of Dnale Dinner Show, which are similar sound competitive, but

(41:19):
I believe they'd be different. What I'm going to do next,
I'm going to tell you the menu at both of you.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
Are you playing a game?

Speaker 3 (41:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (41:25):
Nice?

Speaker 3 (41:25):
I want to tell you. I want you to tell
me which one you're.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
Gonna I've been waiting for a game.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
Here's the thing you've been as a treat for listening
to me infut.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
On you Are you get a mini get a little
mini game?

Speaker 3 (41:36):
All right?

Speaker 1 (41:36):
You ready give me?

Speaker 3 (41:37):
This is the Cabin Night and I want to clarify
it's night spelled n I t e.

Speaker 4 (41:42):
Nice.

Speaker 3 (41:42):
So this is the Cabin Night Dinner Theater in Denali Village. Okay,
first of all, it's taking Yeah. Danali is like the
name of like a big mountains like that area. So
this isn't a charming roadhouse replica set up with family
style seating.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
Yeah, immediately I'm liking the picture.

Speaker 3 (42:02):
Guests settle in to dine on wild Alaska salmon Okay barbecue, ribs,
Okay biscuits, yum beans and a tossed salad. While the show,
I was like, we're gonna lose get him and lose.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
Him againans in salad. Dude, wait a minute, okay.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
Because you're gonna finish off this two hours show.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
We're starting the show with with with with but we're
we're starting the show with salmon and ribs.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
Yeah all right, that's Russian America.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
But okay, hell yeah baby.

Speaker 3 (42:33):
Now you're going to finish the two hour show with
coffee and a mixed berry cobbler topped with sweet whipped cream.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
Oh that's not bad.

Speaker 3 (42:41):
Okay, So that's option one.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
Okay, Option one isn't terrible. I'm skipping the beans in
the salad, but everything else I'm pretty excited now.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
Now on the other hand, yeah, give me dinner show
which is which is at the McKinley Chalet Resort.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
Say unlimited pizza and I'm in salmon. Okay, can you say? Wait,
don't do the same menu?

Speaker 3 (43:00):
Barbecue no way and mashed potato gross at the family
style dining tables before ending the meal the hearty meal,
excuse me with the serving of hot apple crisp. Which
is it?

Speaker 1 (43:13):
Okay? So here's my issue.

Speaker 3 (43:15):
It kind of comes down to dessert, although one is
missing a toss salad and coffee.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
If you know, if you know, if you I want coffee,
I don't want a toss salad. I don't want beans.
I would like an Apple crisp more than a Nicksbury cobbler.
But I think, and here's the thing, I don't mean
it to their marketing things might come after you specifically.
I think you sold the first one better, the seating,
the arrangement, the vibes, the energy name.

Speaker 3 (43:36):
Alaska travel dot Com.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
Yeah, I'm blaming Alaska Travel dot Com.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
Going with I'm an actor. I read my part.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
Barbecue ribs and a Nicksbury cobbler sounds great. I will
say I like an Apple Crisp more than a mixedburry
cob one.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
It's one congratulations. Cabin night, dinner, theater and Denoali Village.
Feel free to send justin one comp.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
Oh my god, wait, please find me out.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
That's crazy crazy. Hey there's free parking. Wait what so
there's free parking?

Speaker 1 (44:03):
Okay, I'm in, fly me out, fly me out, rent
me a car.

Speaker 4 (44:06):
So we got the.

Speaker 3 (44:07):
Dinner theater situation, so locked down? Wait?

Speaker 1 (44:09):
Can I say something?

Speaker 3 (44:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (44:11):
What if the market this season so well that we
invited all over the country and season fours and season
four is a tour on location. Season four is a tour.
Everybody gets no one comes to the show, but we
keep doing them, we keep eating. We keep were like
four people at each show because it's four people in
each shape that listen to the podcast. I like it.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
I think we could pull it off.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
That's so funny.

Speaker 3 (44:31):
All right. So, oh, there's also one other. I'm sorry,
there's a few other places. I don't know why I
didn't write these down where I should have. There's a
couple other kind of smaller theaters that popped up towards
the end when I was looking for, like Alaska Theater
and Alaska Arts. A lot of it is tourism adjacent
because it's very popular for tourism sense, and so that
meant that if you had a bunch of like random
reviews on the internet, I was more likely to find

(44:52):
your theater. So shout out to Peer One Theater. It's
a community theater that is serving the Kenai Peninsula. People
love you on the Internet. People gave you so many
five star reviews about this community theater that I know
you exist, shout out Peer One Theater. They have an
awesome staff and board and they seem like genuinely really cool.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (45:12):
Their season right now is Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan McMillan. Oh, Nice,
Loves Like a Melody, Harvey Love, Harvey Hamlet, The Adams
Family Musical, Falstaff, Falstaff and the Endless Machine at Ten
Minute Play Festival. Oh and Fiddler ooh next heck. Yeah,
so shout out you. And then also if you're someone

(45:33):
who's like I want the classical school hits, you're gonna
want to check out Broadway Alaska. Broadway Alaska is doing
Mean Girls, and they're doing Beetlejuice, and they're doing Tina,
the Tina Turner Musical.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
Oh so they're tours. They're just tours coming through.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
Broadway Alaska is at the Alaska Center for Performing Arts.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
Yeah, so they're just tours coming through.

Speaker 3 (45:53):
And tours come through. But take a look at some
of these theaters because they're gorgeous.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
Oh these are beautiful.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
Atwit Concert Hall, stunning, this one. Oh wait, you're gonna
like this next one a lot. Look at the Sydney
Lawrence Theater.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
I want to do something cool there.

Speaker 3 (46:07):
I legit. I saw that picture and I was like,
I have to show in the pictures. These are sweet, yeah,
some of the most beautiful places. This is the Alaska
Center for the Performing Arts. Nice yeah, and it's an Anchorage.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
Oya shout out Shout Out Anchorage, shout.

Speaker 3 (46:19):
Of Anchorage, shut Out.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
Art Anchorage shout Out plays.

Speaker 3 (46:23):
There's also a company again that I found through word
of mouth on the internet. Love it called Serrho's Theater
Company and Art Gallery. It's an Anchorage.

Speaker 1 (46:30):
They just do Serra. They exclusively sucks. They do every
out oftation sir know that exists, over.

Speaker 3 (46:41):
And wait, and then on Saturday nights they do the
Peter Englade on the projections.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
Wait wait, wait before you tell me are really fun.

Speaker 4 (46:47):
Fact.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
I want to know what is a theater company that
you think could could exist and live if they just
did what there They were called like the Blank Theater Company,
and they just did that over and over and over again.

Speaker 3 (46:58):
Honestly, it's this one Serah Nos Theater Company because you'd
get what you expect.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
It's just Syrien, I don't know, over and over and
over again. It's just Serrah No Syrian this place.

Speaker 3 (47:07):
No, they do other stuff there ninety almost the.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
Almost main theater collective, almost main theater collective, sorry, give
me almost always mainlining, almost main whoa, that's Erica. Yeah
that was very good.

Speaker 3 (47:20):
I am gifted. So so here's what's playing at serrah No's.
And it's not serah No. They're doing Meteor Shower by
Steve Martin.

Speaker 1 (47:29):
Oh, I love that play.

Speaker 3 (47:30):
I don't know that one.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
It's a great keeking Michael Key from Keean Peel was
in it on Broadway. Amy Schumer was in it on Broadway.
It's a really great play.

Speaker 3 (47:37):
In September. September.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
Oh my gosh. I can't talk enough about Steve Martin
as a play right, He's so good. No one does
his stuff enough except for the underpants. Everyone just does
the under parents. Yeah, you know, media, Okay, if you're
in Alaska, go see this play.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
Go see that play.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
It's so fun.

Speaker 3 (47:50):
And if you want something a little more holiday, uh centered,
Tilly the Tricksters following that up, I don't know what
that is.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
I don't know either.

Speaker 3 (47:58):
Tilly the Trickster. Then something a little more classic holiday,
the Wickhams Christmas at Pemberley, and that is Serrahos Theater
Company which is an Anchorage check making money off the
sounds really intimate, sounds cute. Yeah. And then also if
you want to work at Cerrho's, if you want to
be considered for the Wickhams or something like that, Chili
the Trickster auditions just ended. But again on their website,

(48:20):
they're like, hey, actors are hired on a contractual basis.
They're paid professional stipends. Send us our head send us
your headshot and resume anytime.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
That's so sick.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
You can schedule appointments. They include their scripts, sides, and
character descriptions on the website. So seriously, if you want
to go work at Serrho's, maybe hit it up. Oh
erhos dot org. Okay, now I lie. Now I'm going
to talk to you about the few college programs I saw. Yeah, So,
University of Alaska, Anchorage has a Department of Theater and Dance.

(48:48):
They don't offer a ton of majors in programming, but
they do offer let me pull it up.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
Pull it up, I said, pull it up.

Speaker 3 (48:58):
Something happened to my computer.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
Hang on, we'll get there.

Speaker 3 (49:04):
It's only because I have thirty tabs up and here
we go. So they have a minor in dance. And
then they have something which I hadn't seen before as
the other one, which is an Occupational Endorsement Certificate in
Event Production WOW, which is a fuller, part time career
in the performing arts but specifically for technical theater or
working backstage. I just never heard it phrase. Oh yeah,

(49:25):
So you're not going to get any sort of like
specific acting or like MT stuff there, but if you
are interested in adding on dance to another major or
event production, University of Alaska Anchorage has some options for you.
They've got a pretty small faculty, but they're very cool people.
Kodiak College, which is the also University of Alaska Anchorage,
also has some options. They choose like pathways or categories

(49:47):
for things, and so within their Humanities and Arts Communication
pathway they do include They include like BA and BFA
in art and they talk about how that gives you
kind of like skills necessary for visual and performing arts, empowered, courageous, inquisitive.
So it's not super specific, but they're focused on giving

(50:09):
you skill sets and in general, a lot of the
universities and colleges in Alaska there's also a lot of
like what is it called, I don't know theo when
you go to school for church seminaries, seminary schools and
stuff like that. Yeah, there's a lot of that, but
there's also a lot of like trade schools, which which
again makes sense giving these communities that they're going to

(50:29):
have very dedicated to like teaching and tech and stuff
like that, nursing. The University of Alaska Fairbanks has a
theater minor love It, Love It, Love It. And then
Alaska Pacific University has a Masters of Arts program, and
within that program again kind of like some of the
others I've talked about, they kind of have a program,

(50:49):
a master's program for learning creative endeavors Endeavors slash the arts,
and in parentheses it says writing, photography, drama, theater, religious studies,
many others. So there's a lot of places that are
kind of like encapsulating, and I think that's why you notice,
like I talked about in the beginning, a lot of
these like smaller or or bigger theater companies, they're doing
one on one mentorship. Yeah, because you might be able

(51:11):
to stay in state and get like a degree, Yeah,
but for like very specific training they're trying to offer
you one on one mentorship, which I think so dope.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
I can't believe the Lorisa Fasthors stuff and the Julia Zoomy.
They have some crazy in Alaska.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
Yeah. So then there was a couple other Alaska based
playwrights I was gonna hit, Yeah, we find one on
NPX here. It was interesting when I was on NPX,
like digging through and looking part of how I was
able to find it because if you just enter in Alaska,
it's a lot of people not from Alaska just kind
of like I think, talking really stereotypically about Alaska and

(51:47):
generally about like it's cold and there's moos, and it
didn't feel from the heart. Yeah, and so I didn't
really want to shout out those.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
Yeah, a lot.

Speaker 3 (51:54):
Of puns, a lot of like goofy stuff, which is fine,
but not necessarily what I wanted to hide.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
Do you want to talk on this episode?

Speaker 4 (52:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:01):
So one person I did find that I wanted to
highlight on NPX is someone named Jessica Golden. She has
a full length play on here called Lear, an Alaskan Tragedy,
which was, you know, a finalist and won a bunch
of awards and stuff like that. She was in residency
with Alaska's Writer's Workshop with Eater Alaska in twenty twenty one.
And she's really cool. So her scripts are on NPX.

(52:25):
Again that's Jessica Golden. It's spelled exactly how it sounds,
and she draws inspiration like from that community. So she's
got some fun ones on here. She's got one called
Good Vibes, which is a ten minute it's about a
small town Alaska pot shop serving the different locals and tourists.
And then Lear in Alaskan Tragedy is about ninety minutes
and it's about this frontier homesteader who's like an Alaskan

(52:47):
patriarch dividing his land between daughters, which when you think
about the culture of land division and stuff, makes a
whole interesting.

Speaker 4 (52:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:55):
Yeah, So Jessica Golden was someone cool that I found
that's very cool. Wanted to shout her out. Yeah, but yeah,
that's Alaska. There's one other playwright, Deborah Rewort, and she's
from there, but I think she lives in New York now. Yeah,
but she was an original company member of Alaska's Perseverance Theater.
Oh and now she works a lot with different like

(53:15):
composers and Librettis. She's super super.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
Cool like writing books or like producing.

Speaker 3 (53:21):
Y doing the books. So she's working on Loving, the
musical about Loving versus the State of Virginia.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
Oh, I've heard of that.

Speaker 3 (53:27):
She's the one working on the book for that. Yeah,
and she has an MFA from Brown University again, and
she also has a musical theater writing program from Tish Wow.
But she's from Alaska. So that's Deborah Revort and her
website has all of her plays listed, so another person.
But yeah, that, Oh my god, that's Alaska Theater.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
I think that's huge. Dude.

Speaker 3 (53:46):
It was a lot and I'm probably missing stuff and
I'm so sorry.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
We're going to miss something every episode there.

Speaker 3 (53:51):
But yeah, fine Alabama.

Speaker 1 (53:53):
Alaska, Oh my god, so good.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
Well, well, there's one thing we love to do at
the end of a big, big state and that's play games.
So minigame justin.

Speaker 4 (54:05):
That.

Speaker 1 (54:06):
All right, let's lay one down.

Speaker 3 (54:08):
Uh huh.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
This is play Disease to choose and a lie, six
to a lie.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
And tell lies about the states you're talking about.

Speaker 4 (54:28):
This is the one.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
This is the one that's right. It's time for It's
so hard not to Okay, I have to choose in
a lie for Erica. If you don't know, this is
the game that we play. Whoever isn't doing the research
prepares a to choose in a lie segment where we
get to cheers and a lie about the state that

(54:51):
the other person's researching, and see how good they did
when researching. You're ready for your three facts? I guess okay.
First one, Alaska has not ninety active volcanoes, Oh my god.
Second one, Oh, that's it. That's it.

Speaker 3 (55:05):
That was the start of a setting.

Speaker 1 (55:06):
Alaska has ninety active volcanoes.

Speaker 3 (55:08):
It seems like a lot, but it is so big.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
Okay, ready, okay. Number two one town in Alaska house
all of their residents and town's necessary establishments like the
police station or the post office under one roof in
an old school.

Speaker 3 (55:22):
I think that's real. And I think I've seen tiktoks there.

Speaker 1 (55:25):
I don't know you're talking about, okay. And then the
last fact is Alaska is where the MCU has started
to shift all of their shooting for large scale action
scenes for tax exemption, and according to Kevin fig, it
is easy to paint large landscapes on snowy tundra.

Speaker 3 (55:42):
O don't know that last one has so much detail
that I'm like, why would he lie about that unless
you're doing something like a dirty little trick and it's
like eighty nine active volcanoes.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
Alaska's ninety active volcanoes. One town in Alaska has all
of their residents in town, necessary establishments under one roof,
and an old school in Alaska's where the MCU has
shifted to has shifted to shoot most of their large
scale action scenes for Very Strong.

Speaker 3 (56:05):
On the one hand, if volcanoes is true, I feel
weird that I didn't find that in any research. But
on the other hand, I know for a fact that
it's so expensive to transport anything to Alaska.

Speaker 1 (56:15):
Even just food. It's it's expensive. It's a large landscape scene,
so I think it's more like when people are like
walking through the tundra and.

Speaker 3 (56:22):
Stuff, and that's more believable.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
Well, I don't want to give any more facts away,
but yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:28):
I think that you're lying about volcanoes.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
You think I'm lying about volcanoes.

Speaker 3 (56:32):
Yeah, guess what are you lying about? The marble?

Speaker 1 (56:37):
The marble thing. I fully made that up. I fully
made up the market, completely made up because.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
I was like, that wouldn't make sense.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
Everything's so expensive, everything made up ninety active volcanoes. Ninety
active volcanoes, isn't that crazy.

Speaker 3 (56:49):
It's stressful.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
But the big thing I wanted to talk about was
the it's a.

Speaker 3 (56:54):
Really good lie.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (56:55):
Wait, I'm gonna take notes because that was a good lie.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (56:57):
I really hard much detailer I did.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
But wait, wait, I wanted to talk about something else.
I wanted to talk about Whittier, Alaska, which is the
community under one roof. This is an NPR article. Oh yes, Whittier,
Alaska is a sleepy town on the west side of
Prince William Sound, tucked between picturesque mountains. But if you're
picturing a small huddle of houses, think again. Instead, on
the edge of town, they're stands a fourteen story building
called Beckitch Towers, a former army barracks resembling an aging hotel,

(57:24):
where most of the two hundred residents live. Writer Aaron
Sheeley and photographer Read Young visited Whittier for a report
in town Hall in the California Sunday magazine. When they
first stepped inside Begitch Towers, she said that the halls
felt like a high school alsoas a high school was
an army barracks. I read that wrong. That's on me.
It looks like that though, But there were bolton boards
along the hallway, she says. It's concrete blocks that looked

(57:46):
like cylinder block that were all painted a pale yellow.
The post office is near the entrance, and the police
station is down the hall. That reminds you of a
principal's office. It's literally everyone and everything is in this
small town, not just because it's it's convenient, and it's
like where the building is, and it's a very inaccessible town.
The only way to get to this town is by
taking a ship or by taking a incredibly and this

(58:09):
is how they phrase it, an incredibly long, one lane
tunnel in the mountains that at any given moment can
only run one way. That's terrifying, simply just goes the wrong.
I know, it's insane stress. So everyone lives in this
one thing. Also, the winds can get it to sixty
miles per hour and the winter winds are brutal. So
they all live under this like one roof. Because there's
like a laundry mat, a grocery store, all that stuff

(58:29):
within the building that you live in out there. Yeah,
like look at these photos these people are they all
just live inside this old army barracks. It's like where
it's like their home and it's it's very cool and
it's very community.

Speaker 3 (58:39):
In an amazing setting for a play, just because like
I know, it's like it's like, uh okay, murder mystery there.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
Exactly, or like a really fun playscripts play that's just
about like community and stuff and like the next community
garden could easily be in Witty or Alaska. Yeah, there's
a really good PBS documentary called Teaching in Witty Or
Alaska called Indie Alaska. Everyone should go watch it. But
that was my fun fat Can you imagine getting a
cold and it's just like, oh god, oh god, everyone's

(59:06):
gonna get a cold. It's gonna rip through us. Here's
the thing. COVID probably ripped through them, but went through quick.

Speaker 3 (59:12):
I did read. I don't remember which which.

Speaker 1 (59:14):
I thought you would know that one because that was
really big on TikTok for a little while.

Speaker 3 (59:17):
If we were talking about you referenced, You're like, oh,
you might know about one of these, And I had
no idea what you meant. As soon as you said
that I knew what you meant.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
I knew I knew you would. Yeah, what an episode.
Oh my god, Alaska. I do think this this season
is going to be very educational. I think this episode
this season, know that we're we're figuring out how we
want to do this season as we go, but it's
like very I don't know. That was so surprising to
hear that Laurisa Fastors and Julia Zumi are helping to

(59:42):
sculpt for these like young Alaska. That's so cool. Yeah,
it's so cool and so good to hear about Vera
Vera Starbard. Yeah sounds sick. Yeah, her website's going to
be a lot of just like last season, a lot
of the people we talk about all that stuff, a
lot of their links will be in the description below,
and if not, you can send us a DM and
we'll let you know how to find them. Thank you

(01:00:03):
so much for listening to the episode This Has Been Alaska,
episode two of season three.

Speaker 3 (01:00:07):
Oh my god, Oh my goodness.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
If you want to talk to us about your state
that's coming up, or if you are an Alaska or
Alabama person and you said you forgot something, email us
at play z podcast at gmail dot com, and also
reach out to us on Instagram at actual erkacoon at
Justin Borak, follow me on TikTok at Mediacared Jokes, or
check me out on YouTube at justin Borack as well.
Read our plays. We're both playwrights. Go check it out
on a new plake change Read Kill the Bird. It's brilliant,

(01:00:30):
It's by Erica. Read all my stuff over there on
new play Change, and produce and buy my plays on Playscripts,
Community Art and counter Chronicles. I'd really really appreciate it.
Um any other plugs. Oh, I'm doing an event at
the Drama book Shop in February. It's far away, but
it's coming up and I'm really excited about it.

Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
Uh So stay tuned on that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
Yeah, stay tuned on that. I'm trying to think anything else.
Want to plug not really go see theater and yeah,
go see theater anywhere you can, but definitely go see
theater in Alaska, Alabama. And we hope that this episode
gave you a bunch of fun knowledge on the Alaska theater. Wait, Helllabama, Alaska, Arizona.
I'll be doing Arizona next week.

Speaker 3 (01:01:11):
Arkansas.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
Oh my god, so exciting. All right, Well, we'll see
you guys next week. I'm gonna end this episode the
way I in every episode, by look at my friend
and her DEU blue eyes and saying, Erica Coon, I
love you so much.

Speaker 3 (01:01:23):
As Barack, I love you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
See you next time.

Speaker 3 (01:01:26):
Goodbye,

All Episodes

Alaska - Theatre Alaska, Jessica Golden, and Brilliant Indigenous Stories!

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Alaska - Theatre Alaska, Jessica Golden, and Brilliant Indigenous Stories!