Plan your Visit

January 13 & 14, 2012 - alterNative Theatre Festival 

Featured in the three-day theatre festival will be staged readings of plays from the Alaska Native Playwrights Project (Thursday and Friday evenings,) a day-long Saturday lineup of performances.

Schedule is as follows:

Thursday, January 12, 2012 – 7:00 to 10:00 pm
Staged reading of William, Inc. by Anchorage playwright Lucas Rowley, followed by audience talkback and refreshments

Friday, January 13, 2012 - 7:00 to 10:00 pm
Staged reading of Cikiuteklluku (Giving Something Away) by Bethel playwright Holly Stanton, followed by audience talkback and refreshments

Saturday, January 14, 2012 – 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Performances on the Gathering Place and Theatre stages

Gathering Place
10:00 Tsimshian dance group Lepquinm Gumilgit Gagoadim
10:45 Raven’s Radio Hour
11:45 Storytelling
12:15 Tsimshian dance group Lepquinm Gumilgit Gagoadim
1:00 Alaska Native Overnighters – Round One
2:00 Storytelling
2:30 Alaska Native Overnighters – Round Two
3:15 Tsimshian dance group Lepquinm Gumilgit Gagoadim
4:00 Raven’s Radio Hour

Theatre

10:00 Finding Their Own Dance
11:00 Edgar’s Journey
11:15 Pow Wow Dreams
11:30 Mai Poina, performed by Lokomaika’i Lipscomb
12:00 Native Time
12:15 Finding Their Own Dance
1:15 Edgar’s Journey
1:30 Pow Wow Dreams
1:45 Mai Poina, performed by Lokomaika’i Lipscomb
2:15 Native Time
2:30 Edgar’s Journey
2:45 Pow Wow Dreams
3:00 Finding Their Own Dance
4:00 Native Time
4:15 Edgar’s Journey
4:30 Pow Wow Dreams
4:45 Native Time

Saturday Evening, January 14, 2012 – 7:00 to 10:30 pm  A full evening of works by First Nations (Canada) playwrights: Gramma Susie by Sharon Shorty, and Tales of An Urban Indian, by Darrell Dennis. Performances followed by “meet and greet the artists” and refreshments

Additional Information-

Alaska Native Overnighters - The Overnighters, produced in Alaska by TBA Theatre, Three Wise Moose and Dawson Moore of the Last Frontier Theatre Conference – is theatre fully realized within twenty-four hours. Three to five playwrights get a topic at 5:00 PM, then stay up all night writing a 10 to 20 minute play. Those plays are performed that night at 2:00 pm, fully realized performances, from inception to finalization in the span of one day. For ANHC’s alterNATIVE Theatre Festival, Three Wise Moose will lead a group of new playwrights from the Alaska Native Playwrights Project through the process.

Tsimshian dance group Lepquinm Gumilgit Gagoadim (Our Dance in Our Hearts) was founded and is led by Marcella McIntyre, who works as a Cultural Programs Instructor at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. LGG performs internationally and is acclaimed for the theatricality of its performances.

Raven’s Radio Hour - Viewers become the “studio audience” of this comic radio show parody, which weaves modern and traditional stories, and Native song and dance into a light-hearted take on Alaska Native cultures. Co-written by Yup’ik storyteller Jack Dalton and Ed Bourgeois, formerly of Anchorage Opera and Mr. Whitekeys’ Fly-By-Night Club.

Gramma Susie is performed by Sharon Shorty from Sharon Shorty’s webpage, "Grandma Susie reflects the old time elders that she grew up with: feisty, opinionated and funny. Whether sharing traditional stories or songs, or talking about current events, Susie is able to make crowds of all ages laugh. She makes 'big shots' Indian dance and tells stories about meeting the Queen, Prince Charles and Colonel Saunders! She adds 50 years as her character, as she is really thirty something! Her main goal is to teach First Nation language and culture through humor & laughter. She also comments and makes observations on current issues and enlightens everyone with her take on things.”

Tales of an Urban Indian is a one-man show by noted Canadian First Nations playwright/actor Darrell Dennis (Shuswap), who is a veteran of the noted comedy school Second City.  It has been produced by Native Voices at the Autry and New York's The Public Theater, which premiered the play in the spring of 2009.  The play is also the basis of a hit Canadian television show of the same name.  Of the New York production, a New York Post critic proclaimed, "This semi-autobiographical tale of a young man's transition from reservation to the city amusingly counters our stereotypical notions of Indian life.”  Village Voice's critic wrote, “Dennis has a lovely theatrical presence - charming, high-spirited, a little dorky, and a little anguished.”  Backstage called Tales of an Urban Indian, "a searing blend of anger, pride, and resolution."  Tales of an Urban Indian portrays a life observed through the lens of a contemporary urban Indian making his way from the reservation to the city and experiencing his own unique (and often devastatingly hilarious) brand of culture shock.  Dennis creates a sad, funny and always entertaining world where overcoming the odds is just the beginning. 
 

The alterNATIVE Theatre Festival is funded in part by the US Department of Education’s ECHO (Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations) and Education Equities Act (EEA) grants.

The Alaska Native Playwrights Project is made possible by a generous grant from The Ford Foundation.
 

Tau Dance Theatre

Bob Sam - Tlingit storyteller