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Last spring, Perseverance celebrated thirty years making professional theatre in Juneau. Thank you all for coming to our shows, for supporting the theatre financially, for volunteering your time, or being part of the theatre as an artist or volunteer. We couldn’t bring professional theatre to Juneau without you.
Next season we will begin our NEXT thirty years as Juneau’s – and Alaska’s – premiere theatre company. Much has changed in the world and at Perseverance: We have a new president, new governor, and new economy. Our new season includes a mix of comedy, music and great dramas exploring the themes of optimism, adversity, and coming together. As we battle war and economic hard times, it is remarkable how history has a way of taking old stories and telling them again in new ways, and how remarkably resilient the human spirit is. Altogether, our five plays offer five different portraits of optimism, often in the face of long or impossible odds. Some of our optimists are scammers, trying to get something for themselves; others are visionaries who see worlds we cannot, and some more are lovers who are held up by their passion. Some of their stories will make you laugh, some will move you, and a few will do both.
MOVING AND MADCAP!
Written by Thornton Wilder
Directed by Drew Barr
September 11 - October 4, 2009
Take the poignancy of Our Town, and add the zaniness of “The Flintstones” and you have something like The Skin of Our Teeth. In 1940, Thornton Wilder, foreseeing the U.S. involvement in World War II, decided to write an optimistic comedy about how history repeats itself. He aimed to give hope and humor to the depression-surviving, wartime American audience with a simple message: as sure as hard times come, they go again. Wilder's play runs into a snag when the skeptical leading actress, who just wants to finish the performance and go home for the day, seeks a finish to the story that never ends.
HAREBRAINED DESPERATION!
By Ken Ludwig
Directed by Brandon Demery
November 6 - December 6, 2009
Two struggling Shakespearean actors learn that an aging, wealthy widow in the next town is looking for two long-lost relatives to leave an inheritance. Down on their luck, the desperate men decide to pull off a caper. When they find out the heiress are two young nieces, they improvise. Impersonating two young women should be easy for trained actors, but things go wrong when they meet the beautiful Meg and her friend Audrey, fall in love and start getting caught- one moment with their skirts up, and the next with their pants down. In the end they find love and their true identities- of course- but getting there is true hilarity. A Shakespearean “Some Like It Hot,” Leading Ladies is a brand new version of the classic story of love misled by mistaken identity.
CLASSIC RE-TOLD!
By Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Roblin Gray Davis
January 8 - 31, 2010
Eurydice is a tale of love and letters that tell the story of Eurydice, bride of the ancient Greek mythical musician, Orpheus. On her wedding day, Eurydice is to marry her true love Orpheus, but instead, she trips and falls into the depths of the Underworld. Her memories washed away by the river Styx, Eurydice has a chance encounter with her dead father and the love she feels for him reawakens her memory of who she is. When Orpheus finally finds her in the land of the dead, Eurydice has to choose between following him back to life, or remaining with her father. A poetic and moving modern version of the classic tale of loss and love, Eurydice abounds with surprising plot twists, quirky humor, and an original musical score created especially for the Perseverance production.
COMIC APOCALYPSE!
By Peter Sinn Nachtrieb
February 26 - March 21, 2010
An internet ad for ‘sex to change the course of the world’ lures an adventurous co-ed to an underground laboratory, when the lights go out. What would you do on a blind date if the world came to an end? If you were the sole surviving woman on earth, locked in a room with the sole surviving man who wants to play Adam to your Eve, would it be a problem if you just weren’t that into him? And who is watching it all from outside the fishbowl, anyway? Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s witty new play mixes a romantic comedy, with a science fiction thriller.
This quirky and hilarious new play transforms an anonymous personal ad into a zany and brilliant riff on the fragility of existence and the resilience of life- large and small- on Earth. Told with wit, intelligence and compassion, Peter Sinn Nachtreib is a writer to watch.
MUSICAL FOLK TALE!
New music by Bob Banghart
April 23 - May 30, 2010
Mix four members of a starving family and a spilled jug of milk, children lost in a magic forest, desperate parents, and a voracious witch with a strangely oversized oven. Blend these ingredients with the original Grimms fairy tale, folk music traditions of Germany and America, and a dollop of Tim Burton style black comedy. Bake well and we get a tasty new twist on a classic tale. Music lovers will be treated to Bob Banghart's new arrangement of this musical classic and families will feast on the story of two children holding themselves and their family together.
*We will also bring you a special holiday offering: This Wonderful Life is a stage version of the classic Christmas story “It’s A Wonderful Life,” and a virtuoso performance for a great actor. If you are excited for family appropriate programming, please take us up on the offer to purchase a special pass for This Wonderful Life and Hansel & Gretel, and after the season, we will contact you to talk about more plays of that type in future seasons.
