A look at an upcoming theatre performance

JORDAN LEWIS, Staff Writer, UAS Whalesong 

How would you react if someone told you were going to marry a whale? This is the question of the upcoming play “Whale Song” by Cathy Tagnak Rexford at Perseverance Theatre in  February.

The play is described as an “Arctic coming-of-age tale,” according to a press release from Perseverance Theatre. The story follows a girl born in a small Arctic village whose parents learn that she is destined to marry a bowhead whale.

Director of Outreach and Engagement Julie Coppens said UAS students may be interested in seeing the play. 

“The heroine of “Whale Song” is about the same age as a lot of UAS students, grappling with a lot of the same issues,” Coppens said, “although I don’t think too many college students have to list ‘I might need to transform into a whale in order to save my people’ among their anxieties!” 

Coppens noted that Ani, the protagonist of the play, has other concerns similar to students such as the conditions of our oceans and believing in a better future.

Los Angeles-based Playwright Cathy Tagnak Rexford is Iñupiaq, with roots in the village of Kaktovik in Northwest Alaska and Dallas, Texas. Rexford said she is honored that the play will premiere in Alaska. 

“This play is of the Arctic, and while it is a fictional story, it is also a real story—its very marrow is from this land, from these Arctic waters, from our people,” Rexford said in the press release.