Category: Play Review

A&E, Play Review

A Play for Alaska, About Alaska

dylyn-petersonBY DYLYN PETERSON
Staff Writer, UAS Whalesong

“They Don’t Talk Back” endeared itself to me as soon as I stepped foot into Perseverance Theater.

The set design was incredible. It more than accomplished its job of looking like a medium-sized house in a small Southeast Alaska village. The attention to detail impressed me; a small piece of carpet was duct taped to the wooden floor to be used for drying feet, for example, or the unlabeled cardboard box where one of the leads keeps their NES cartridges. One of the bedrooms doesn’t even have a door, just a hanging sheet. I can’t tell you how many times I saw stuff like that in my time in the villages. Continue reading “A Play for Alaska, About Alaska”

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News, Play Review

“The Vagina Monologues” at UAS

dylyn-petersonBY DYLYN PETERSON
Staff Writer, UAS Whalesong

On Feb. 10, UAS put on a production of Eve Ensler’s feminist play “The Vagina Monologues” as part of the V-Day movement, which seeks to end violence against women.

V-Day was also created by Ensler, and started as a nationwide group of performances of “The Vagina Monologues” on Feb. 14, 1998. The performances were royalty-free, and proceeds benefited women suffering from violence and sexual abuse. It became international a few years later, eventually spawning the One Billion Rising movement – the “one billion” in reference to the statistic that one in three women are beaten or raped in their lifetime. One Billion Rising has organized protests in over 100 countries. Continue reading ““The Vagina Monologues” at UAS”

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A&E, Opinion, Play Review

Hold These Tears: A Review of Perseverance Theatre’s Hold These Truths

dylyn-petersonBY DYLYN PETERSON
Staff Writer, UAS Whalesong

I was a bit daunted by the prospect of attending a one-man play about the Japanese internment camps, expecting something equal parts depressing and heavy-handed. My anxiety was not lessened when I entered the theater, the stage adorned only by a desk, a coat rack, a number of wooden boxes in various sizes, and a large backdrop which looked like sun-cracked earth, stretching on for miles. Oof. It was going to be a long night. Continue reading “Hold These Tears: A Review of Perseverance Theatre’s Hold These Truths”

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A&E, Features, Play Review

Not Medea: Not Bad!

dylyn-petersonBY DYLYN PETERSON
Staff Writer, UAS Whalesong

I arrived at Perseverance Theatre a minute or two late. The lights were still on. There was a woman towards the front of the seating area with several bags, a Styrofoam container of food, and, what alerted me that she was part of the play, an umbrella. I quietly took my seat, a little lightheaded; there was a cloud of vaporized fourth wall floating about the room. It would only grow thicker. The woman, and according to the program her name is just Woman, was arguing with somebody in the front row about her assigned seat. That might have worked a little better if it wasn’t Pay-as-You-Can night, but there’s no way the script (let alone the actors) could factor in those sorts of variables.

She eventually found her seat, and the most aggressive audience participation was over. I took a few breaths, and started taking notes. Continue reading “Not Medea: Not Bad!”

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Movie Review, Play Review

Pirates of Penzance

Alexa CherryBY ALEXA CHERRY
For the UAS Whalesong

I don’t remember when the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out, but I do remember that my “pirate phase” was well underway by my 12th birthday. That’s probably why my parents decided to bestow the soundtrack to Gilbert & Sullivan’s musical The Pirates of Penzance upon me. Having never heard of Gilbert & Sullivan before, I was still immediately enraptured with this gift because it had “pirate” in the title – so I listened to it as soon as possible, and proceeded to listen to it on repeat for the next year. Continue reading “Pirates of Penzance”

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Movie Review, Opinion, Play Review, TV Review

On Representation in Media

Kaylyn HaslundBY KAYLYN HASLUND
For the UAS Whalesong

Television, movies, and all other forms of mass media hold a tremendous amount of inspiration for people, as well as a template for some to see themselves in. This template is typically only for a specific type of person. It’s not often that all people of all backgrounds are given equal opportunity within these realms. While complaints are loud and clear, often they are shouted down by media producers. To see people of color and those of LGBTQ+ backgrounds is a scarcity that we should be making strides to fill out.

Sometimes, when minorities are cast, it is as stereotypical role, or never fully addressed until long after the show or book has stopped being produced. This is a sad reality that is slowly being amended by people taking media into their own hands. Slowly but surely, with certain projects, people are taking stories and making accurate representations for those who struggle. Continue reading “On Representation in Media”

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Play Review

A Close Shave

BY ALEXA CHERRY
For the UAS Whalesong

I gained an interest in Sweeney Todd well before I came to college. It was around that time that my fascination with    angry men with dubious morals and homicidal tendencies was at its peak – I had seen the 2004 version of Phantom of the Opera (as well as reading the original Leroux novel and Susan Kay spinoff), as well as the movie V for Vendetta. So when I found out that there was yet another story about a similar character, I was intrigued. However, for various reasons, I never listened to the soundtrack or saw the musical (even after the film version starring Johnny Depp came out). And, after someone spoiled the ending for me in my freshman year theater appreciation class, I wasn’t sure I wanted to see it. But then Perseverance Theater decided to put on a performance, and a lot of my friends went and came back with rave reviews, making me determine that the Time Had Come for me to see if Sweeney Todd was everything I had wanted it to be over the years. Continue reading “A Close Shave”

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Features, Play Review

Within the Silence

BY KAYLYN HASLUND
For the UAS Whalesong
On October 8th “Within the Silence”: The story of the Japanese/American Interment during World War II performance came to our university’s Egan lecture hall. It was a multi-media performance that brought history back to life and showed the audience the horror for Japanese American citizens after Pearl Harbor when President Roosevelt issued the Executive Order 9066. With this order many citizens were forced from their homes and saw their lives fall apart simply for being Japanese. This marked one of the darkest times in American history.
It was brought here in hand with The Empty Chair Project, a memorial in downtown Juneau. It symbolizes the seniors of Juneau High school in May 1942 leaving an empty chair for the Japanese-American Valedictorian, John Tanaka who had been taken to the Internment camps. This chair came to honor all those who had been uprooted and forced from their homes. In the Capital School Park sits a single statue of a chair to represent what was lost for the Japanese- American’s and the communities that cherished them. Continue reading “Within the Silence”

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Features, Play Review

Othello: The Experience

BY ALEXA CHERRY
For the UAS Whalesong
For the past month, Perseverance Theater has been putting on a stage performance of Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Othello. I attended the performance in an attempt to branch out from my usual cinematic theater experience, and also because I won a free ticket at Campus Kickoff earlier this year. So, one rainy night that didn’t really differ from the usual kind of Juneau night in any way, I headed downtown with my friends to see if I could become a more culturally edified person.
My recollection of Othello was fairly limited going in. I remembered reading the play in high school – a “Shakespeare Made Easy” version with the original convoluted English on one page and the modern translation on the other. I also remembered that the general gist of the plot (sorry about spoilers, but it’s been out for a couple hundred years now) was that a guy named Iago works his hardest to break up the Moorish general Othello and Othello’s new wife, Desdemona. This culminates in Othello flying into a jealous rage and murdering Desdemona, then having Immediate Regret and killing himself. Other than that, though, I only really recalled dialogue, so I was interested to see what the Perseverance Theater had in store for me.
The first thing I noticed upon entering the theater was that the stage was fairly empty for a play. It was just a sort of dark blue square, with doors in the walls. This immediately tipped me off: this play was going to involve a lot of Monologues. It seems to me like there are two kinds of plays – ones where the characters move around and do stuff in different settings, like Pirates of Penzance, and then there are ones where the characters mostly just stand around talking to each other and to the audience. Othello ominously promised to be one of the latter. Continue reading “Othello: The Experience”

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