Battles of Fire and Water
Written by Dave Hunsaker
Directed by Laurie McCants
March 1 - April 5, 2009
The Russians say they won. The Tlingits say they never surrendered. Who gets to tell the story?
In 1802 and 1804, the Russians and Tlingit fought bloody battles over the place we now call Sitka. More was at stake than mere turf: What is the relationship of a culture to its land and past? What is at the heart of communication? When does it become necessary to take up arms? This conflict shaped the future of the Tlingit people, the Russian Empire, and Alaska. Based on a landmark book by Richard and Nora Marks Dauenhauer, Dave Hunsaker intertwines accounts from both sides, bringing Baranov, Lisianskii and the famous Kiks.ádi warrior K’alyáan together to tell this thrilling story.
Battles of Fire and Water is sponsored in part by:
Alaska’s Statehood Experience Program:
Alaska Humanities Forum and the Rasmuson Foundation
The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation
Additional support provided by:
National Endowment for the Arts
ConocoPhilips
AT&T
TCG New Generations Program
BP
Alaska Airlines
Juneau Empire
Kent Dawson Co.
Battles of Fire and Water is supported by a grant from the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. This program is funded through the NEA American Theater Masterpieces Initiative.
The Prologue Educational Initiative for Battles of Fire and Water is sponsored by:
Skaggs Foundation
Holland America Line
Surdna Foundation
Juneau Emergency Medical Associates
Douglas Dornan Foundation
Alaska USA Federal Credit Union
AK50: Our Stories Mini-Grant Program: Alaska Humanities Forum and the Rasmuson Foundation
ARTISTIC TEAM
Director Laurie McCants
Set Design Akiko Nishijima Rotch
Costume Design Meg Zeder
Lighting Design Allen Lee Hughes
Props Master Dave Dierdorff
ACTORS
Baranov Roblin Gray Davis
Gidak Jerry Demmert
Daalnéix Katrina Hotch
Yeidis'aa DeAndre Howard-King
Povalishin Corin Hughes-Skandijs
Kaagwáask' Frank Katasse
K'alyáan Ed Littlefield
Plotnikov Mike Peterson
Skajeek Victoria Johnson
Natalia Ekatrina Oleksa Sotomayor
Lisianskii Ryan Tresser
Shk'awulyeil Ray Wilson
PLAYWRIGHT, DIRECTOR & DESIGNERS
Dave Hunsaker (Playwright) is a screenwriter and playwright who has lived in Juneau since 1980. Plays that he has written for Perseverance over the years include, Yupik Antigone, Lady Rankin meets the Pagan, The Birds, The Walker in the Snow, and Pieces of Eight. He has directed India Song, Birds of Passage and Metamorphosis. He recently appeared as Dr. Faustus in Wittenberg.
Allen Lee Hughes (Lighting Designer) was last at Perseverance in 1992 for Molly Smith’s production of Billy the Kid. Broadway credits include Having Our Say, Mule Bone, and Once on this Island (Tony nomination), K2 (Tony nomination, Outer Critics Circle Award, and Joseph Maharam Award) Strange Interlude (Tony nomination), Accidental Death of an Anarchist, and Quilters. New York credits include designs at the Roundabout Theatre Company, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, New York Shakespeare Festival, and Lincoln Center Theater and Off-Broadway. He is the recipient of the 2003 USITT Distinguished Achievement Award in Lighting Design and the 1997 Merritt Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration. Mr. Hughes is the recipient of two Helen Hayes Awards in Washington and has been nominated eight other times. He is currently an associate artist at Arena Stage, where the fellows program has been named in his honor and he teaches at New York University.
Janice Hurley (Choreographer) received her teaching certification from the University of Minnesota and her Bachelor of fine Arts in Speech and Theatre Arts from Jacksonville University in Florida. During the course of her career, she has performed, choreographed, and directed in a variety of dance art styles. She has also taught for many years in both academic and performing arts venues. Since moving to Juneau in 1997, Janice has participated in projects with Juneau Lyric Opera, Northern Lights Junior Theatre, Opera to Go!, and Perseverance Theatre, to name a few. She was the Assistant Director of Gold Creek Child Development Center, and she conceived of and instructs the children's dance program for Juneau Racquet Club-The Alaska Club. Janice joined the teaching staff of Juneau Dance Unlimited in the Fall of 2003, and in 2004 took the creative lead as Artistic Director. Last season, Janice choreographed dance and movement sequences for Perseverance Theatre's Much Ado About Nothing and for The Long Christmas Ride Home. She is excited to be working once again with the talented people of Perseverance Theatre on Battles of Fire and Water.
Laurie McCants (Director) co-founded the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble in rural Pennsylvania, where she has acted, directed, and created plays since 1978. Last season she performed in Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days She directed Deborah Brevoort’s Women of Lockerbie in 2005, which was her first collaboration with designer Art Rotch. Recent original work includes The Alexandria Carry-on, which toured Egypt, Susquehanna: Mighty, Muddy, Crooked River of the Long Reach, and Our Shadows, a bilingual shadow puppet play created in collaboration with the Egyptian theatre, WAMDA. She is on the Board of Directors of the Network of Ensemble Theaters and is active with Theatre Without Borders.
Akiko Nishijima Rotch (Set Design) is very happy to work at Perseverance Theatre. A native of Japan, she started her design career in NY and recently moved to Juneau, Alaska, with her husband, Art Rotch. Recent designs include: Gianni Schicchi, Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, (By Puccini Il Trittico) directed by Roald Simonson, with Opera To Go!: operatogo.net (’08), Ghosts (’08), Bus Stop (’07), Danger of Tobacco (’07), The Bear (’07), Cclit, directed by Henning Hegland (’07), Measure for Measure directed by Douglas C. Wager (’07), Fires at The Votex Theatre (’05), The Killer (’02), Medea, directed by Gisela Cardenas (’01). She will design Threepenny Opera, the MFA thesis project of director Henning Hegland at Columbia University in April in NY. She received her MFA in design from NYU and her MA in Interior and Architecture Lighting Design from Parsons School of Design. www.akikonishijima.com.
Emily Smith (Stage Manager) is happy to be back at Perseverance for her third season. Since graduating from Earlham College in Politics and Theatre in 2006, Emily has served as PT's Company/Stage Management Intern, Stage Manager for Yeast Nation and Black Comedy, and director of Melancholy Play on the Second Stage. This past summer, she stage managed A Midsummer Night's Dream for the "Shakespeare Alive!" program and Assistant Stage Managed Taming of the Shrew on the mainstage at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival in Bloomington/Normal Illinois.
Meg Zeder (Costume Designer) is delighted to return for her fourth project with Perseverance Theatre in designing costumes for Battles of Fire and Water. Over the past year she collaborated on new sets for CBS Early show, Inside the NFL and Real Sports. Meg did production design and costumes for the upcoming feature film True Adolescents premiering at the SXSW festival in March. She designed costumes for the operas The Impresario and Pagliacci at Bronx opera as well as designing costumes for the latest Jim Neu play Gang of Seven at LaMama in NY. She sends much love to her wonderful family, which got bigger and better this year.
ACTORS
Roblin Gray Davis (Baranov) is a second generation Alaskan. His grandfather came to Sitka in 1923 where his mother was born. His father climbed in the St. Elias range in the 1950's and drove up the Alcan to Anchorage in 1961. Roblin recently earned his MFA in Actor Created Theatre from Naropa University/London International School of Performing Arts. Credits at Perseverance include Wittenberg, The Laramie Project, How I Learned to Drive, King Stag and The Wooden Breeks. In 2004 he was the recipient of the Alaska State Council on the Arts Connie Boochever Artist Fellowship.
Jerry Demmert (Gidak) has been in numerous PT productions over the past three years and is priveleged to be a part of this reimagining of an important historical event in Alaska's history. Jerry is of Tlingit and Haida ancestry.
Katrina Hotch (Daalnéix)of Jilkáat, is new to Perseverance Theater and is debuting her acting career as the character Daalnéix. In her everyday life Katrina works for the library in Haines as the Cultural Coordinator and as a Tlingít Language Apprentice in Klukwan. Katrina is of the Kaagwaantaan Wolf House and a child of the Gaanaxteidi Whale House.
D’Andre Howard-King (Yeidis'aa) is eighteen-years-old and is half Tlingit. His most recent shows include Homebound, Les Miserables, and Mash. D’Andre started acting in 2006 and has loved it ever since. He would like to thank his family for supporting him in all his crazy choices, and his friends for always letting him know that they have his back. VIPO4Life!
Corin Hughes-Skandijs (Povalishin) is happy to be back, performing once more with Perseverance Theatre. His shows with PT include Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Equus, Speech & Debate, The 8 Reindeer Monologues, A Question of Mercy, & The Shake and Bake. Corin was lastly seen in Thunder Mountain Theatre Project's production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane. He'd like to thank his fellow performers in Battles, especially Ryan Tresser, Jerry Demmert, Roblin Davis, & Laurie McCants. Corin also would like to thank Emily Smith for her unending talent and hard work, Rick Silag for his charm, and his sisters Kirsa & Alicia, along with his parents. Additionally, he thanks Emily Berg, and Levi Fiehler and Brady Ingledue for their indispensable friendship.
Victoria Johnson (Skajeek) was born and raised in Juneau, AK. Her ancestor's village is Hoonah, AK. She is of Raven moity, from the Little Sockeye House. In 1996 she toured with the Naa Kahedi Theater - Fires on the Water, this is where she first learned about the art of storytelling and oral history. She continued sharing this art with the JDHS - Early Scholars Academy, Raven Tales Production. I currently work with the Indian Studies Program, at Dzantiki Heeni Middle School, as a Cultural Specialist.
Frank Katasse (Kaagwáask') was born and raised in Southeast Alaska. He grew up just a block away from Perseverance Theatre. Acting was never a passion of his until he took an acting class in college. In his freshman acting class, he won the "Best Actor" award, and his professor urged him to audition for an upcoming play. He didn't. Then, after transfering schools, he took yet another acting class. The next few semesters, he took more and more. The next thing he knew he had switched majors and found that his life revolved around theatre, where he had performed in over 20 plays in 3 years. He finally graduated from University of Hawaii: Manoa in 2008. He was awarded the "Excellence In Acting" award as a Junior. After moving back to Juneau, Frank acted in The Government Inspector and is blessed to be part of Battle Of Fire and Water. Thanks to everyone who made the telling of this wonderful story possible.
Ed Littlefield (K’alyáan) is excited for his debut performance at Perseverance Theatre. For the last six years he has worked for various groups such as the Dallas Brass, Carnival Cruise Lines and the Seattle Children’s Theater, touring and performing in the U.S., Mexico and the Bahamas. Ed was born in Sitka and he would like to thank his parents for their education
Mike Peterson (Plotnkopv) I have been a supporter of Perseverance Theatre since 1979. I met my wife, Kate here, during the production of Cuckoo's Nest, in 1980. My friend Gary Waid and I performed the first play in this space in 1983. (K2 ). I met Dave Hunsaker when we worked together on The Birds in 1986. It is a pleasure to be on stage for Perseverance's 30th and Alaska's 50th Anniversary and I am grateful. Thank you Laurie, Art, and Dave. Thank you to Dick and Nora Marks Dauenhauer, Georgiy Stepanov, and Moses Qagidax Dirks. Thank you to Tyler Rental for their flexible work. It’s a wonderful cast, a terrific story and we live in a great land called Alaska.
Ekatrina Oleksa Sotomayor (Natalia) has worked in the Alaska theatre since the early 1990s as an actress, volunteer, board member, fundraiser and educator. She has performed many leading and supporting roles in new works and American and Shakespearian classics with Perseverance Theatre, Theatre in the Rough, Juneau-Douglas Little Theater, KTOO-TV, the UAS/Breadloaf School of English, CrossSound Music Festival and Round House Theatre. Most recent acting credits include performances at the Kennedy Center, the New York Theatre Workshop and the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Indian. A big thank you to all the people who have worked so hard to help tell this important story, and especially to the Kiks.ádi who have allowed us to tell it. Thanks also to Dooley von Danger for always believing in me and to Ms. Bonner’s 3rd and 4th period English classes for being such good sports.
Ryan Tresser (Lisianskii) was most recently seen in Thunder Mountain Theatre Project's Shakespeare's R&J. Previous Off Broadway and regional theatre credits include Missives at 59e59, Measure for Pleasure at the Public Theatre, and Romeo and Juliet at American Stage. He’d like to thank the Chalmers, Brown, The Conarro families, as well as everyone at Perseverance Theatre. Proud member of Actor's Equity.
Ray Wilson (Shk'awulyeil) is the child of the Chookaneidi and grandchild of the Kaagwaantaan. Ray’s children are Daaklaweidi. Ray is the Kiks.ádi clan leader. Ray is glad to be involved in the telling of this story.