Dear Joe,
Sarah was like totally awesome last night! Her firm stand against the Holocaust showed some real hockey-mommy, bull-doggy grit. Man's inhumanity towards man is totally icky (almost as icky as a man marrying a man) and if she wins I'm sure she'll use her title to promote world peace.
I'm really looking forward to the swimsuit competition. (She was robbed last time!)
Anyhoo, she's got "Miss Congeniality" in the bag.
God bless us all, and let Track kill lots of Arabs,
Sincerely,
(name withheld)
1 comment:
Hey Joe, check this out....POST-MORTEM on Valdez Theatre Conference
Posted by greenroom
Posted: October 7, 2008 - 2:23 pm
Comments (1) | Recommend (3)
Green Room, the Anchorage theatre blog, takes live theatre and other performing arts, and everything about them, as its subject. We invite comments and critiques, reviews and reappraisals, peeves and paeans, from professionals, amateurs, and audiences and readers of all kinds. This initial post reflects on one of the most important annual arts events in Alaska.
The Last Frontier Theatre Conference, held every June in Valdez, Alaska, is a comprehensive, energizing, eye-opening gathering of some of the best theatre minds in the country. Below, conference coordinator Dawson Moore speaks of the last conference and the need to bring in advisors for future events. And then Sandy Harper of Cyrano’s discusses how the conference benefits Alaskans as well as new playwrights by showcasing the newest plays.
“I love the position of servitude”
by Dawson Moore
The end of the Theatre Conference is always a strange time for me. I'm usually fairly exhausted, and ready for it to be over, but it's also the end of my favorite week of the year, when theatre people from all over the country join theatre people from all over the state, and we get
together for a week to share with each other. It's the one week of the year where the phrase "Dawson said it'd be okay" actually has some weight!
This year, we presented eight plays by Alaskans in the evening performances. While I think this might have actually been one or two too many, I LOVE sharing what we Alaskans do here with people from outside. Invariably, they are blown away by what this giant state with a tiny population puts on the stage.
2008 was clearly my best year as Coordinator. The job is complicated, and involves many aspects that I never trained for before coming to Valdez (publicity and finance jump to mind). So there's been a learning curve, and I'm beginning to feel like some of my past experiences have
stuck. Early returns on our comment sheets look like they'll support my 'best year ever' theory.
The questions and challenges that face us for the future are fascinating, and frankly, a bit beyond my abilities to manage alone. So I will be restarting the National Advisory Board. It will involve about twenty-five of our featured artists, a few of our most involved benefactors, and leaders of the theatre community from across the state.
I can't wait to begin the discussion. I love my job. I love talking about how to make the Last Frontier Theatre Conference even better. I love the position of servitude that I hold in leading this Conference.Thanks to all my collaborators.
Making room for new writers
by Sandy Harper
The Last Frontier Theatre Conference, besides being a love & learning fest for theatre artists and fans, is also fertile ground for connecting to the now and future performances Alaska audiences will enjoy. For example, at Cyrano’s earlier this summer, TBA theatre company produced Rand Higbee’s “The Head That Wouldn’t Die,” which had it's genesis two years ago as a staged reading in Valdez, and last year was a conference main-stage (evening) production.
This hilarious spoof of 1950s teen-centered horror flicks had such impact at the Valdez Conference that Cyrano's decided on the spot to partner with TBA to offer a World Premiere run this summer.
Because of the conference, Alaskan audiences are now more prone to risk the adventure of brand new works and thus local theatre companies are willing to take the chance that it will attract audiences. After all, theatre requires the interaction of performance and audience.
There is another truth here: that there is an authentic phenomenon emerging around the country of the cultivation and appreciation of new playwrights and new works. We are not throwing out the tried and proven but are also welcoming a new generation of writers and giving the opportunity for theatre to reflect the rapidly changing realities of our times while testing the creative wings of evolving and talented theatre artists.
In fact, Cyrano's Theatre Company will produce five new, World Premiere plays as part of our 2009 season. The first, in March, will be about the colorful and charismatic Lena Morrell Lewis who was a famous woman socialist who ran for the Alaskan legislature in 1916. Women got the vote in Alaska in 1913, a full seven years before it became the national law in 1920.
Anchorage playwright and poet Arlitia Jones (author of “SWAY ME MOON,” which had an evening performance in Valdez this year) will write the script, and at this year’s conference we connected with Bostin Christopher, who developed impressive skills as an actor and director while a student in Anchorage, to direct. San Francisco director Jayne Wenger, one of the featured artists at the 2008 conference, will be Arlitia’s Dramaturg (i.e., an advisor in the realm of crafting the play), and actress Laura Garner might possibly play Lena. Beverly Beeton, who has done extensive research on Lena and is writing a book about her, will be our historical consultant.
Theatre is indeed a collaborative art, and in this case that includes the support of the Alaska Humanities Forum and the Rasmuson Foundation. One final note is appreciation due to the conference for establishing an annual Jerry Harper Service Award, which this year went to Jim Cucurull who has been responsible for the technical success of the conference since its beginning as well as a passionate theatre artist in Alaska for many years.
GO TO www.adn.com/greenroom
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