The week-long Last Frontier Theatre Conference has been held in Valdez every summer since 1993. It draws a majority of its participants from Alaska, but each year there are also attendees from the rest of the country and beyond. Past years included Edward Albee, Patricia Neal, Marshall Mason, Paula Prentiss, too many to list. This year attendees will include a playwright from Greece and an actor/producer from Australia. The conference includes play-writing and acting workshops, panel discussions and competitions as well as nightly performances.
Prince William Sound Community College President, Dr. Jo Ann C. McDowell, founded the conference in 1993. Dr. McDowell brought the experience and connections gained in ten years of participation in the William Inge Festival in Independence Kansas to bear and created a conference combining theatre with Valdez’ unique combination of world-class facilities and the beauty of rural Alaska. For the next twelve years, the Conference yearly honored a major American playwright and director. Past honorees include Arthur Miller, August Wilson and Terence McNally. The authors were in attendance for the event, teaching classes and talking about their careers, while evening performances focused on presenting their work to participants.
In 2005, Dr. McDowell moved on to a new college. PWSCC’s new president Doug Desorcie, and Theatre Conference Coordinator Dawson Moore, both long-time conference participants, changed the focus to new work by early and mid-career playwrights. This year David Auburn, Pulitzer winner for his play Proof, is attending for the first time. Also here for the first time is Nan Barnett, the Executive Director of National New Play Network, the country’s alliance of more than seventy-five theaters dedicated to the development, production and continued life of new plays. Laura Gardner and Frank Collison will return for their ninth year, coordinating the popular Monologue Workshop. Conference Coordinator Dawson Moore and Laura Gardner have published a collection of selected monologues from the 2009-20012 Theatre Conferences specifically for use in the audition process. The Play Lab, will feature readings of fifty-seven new plays by a cast of one hundred thirty-six actors. Plays receive a single rehearsal before being presented for an audience and three professional respondents. This lab has been the lifeblood of the Conference since it was started in 1995 by Michael Warren Powell.
Evening Productions
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• 6/14 An evening featuring Play Lab panelists reading their work
• 6/15 Perseverance Theatre’s production of An Iliad, a one-man show featuring Bostin Christopher accompanied by Lucy Peckham. Chrstopher has presented solo performances twice before at the conference.
• 6/16 TBA Theatre presents William Missouri Downs’ romantic comedy Cockeyed.
• 6/17 Mystery of the Silver Chalice, a choose-your-own adventure book for the stage, with the audience deciding where the story will go.
• 6/18 Cyrano’s Theatre Company will present William Shakespeare’s Macbeth in a modern, multi-media production featuring a cast of the best Alaskan actors.
All shows are $10.00 and tickets will be available at the door.
Call 834-1614, email dmoore@pwscc.edu or visit www.theatreconference.org to learn more.
