News Release 2016 Last Frontier Theatre Conference
May 25, 2017
The Annual Last Frontier Theatre Conference is coming up on June 10-17. Now in its twenty-fifth year, the event draws hundreds of participants yearly. While a majority come from within the state, there are also many participants from the lower 48 and beyond. The farthest travelers this year include playwrights from Greece and the United Kingdom, as well as a full evening production from Australia.
The week features six nights of live theatre, and this year they will all be presented with no charge for admission. “What we want is full theatres,” says twelve-year coordinator Dawson Moore. “We want to share the amazing live performances we have lined up with as many people as possible, so we’ve eliminated any financial impediment to attending for citizens of Valdez.”
The shows start at 8:00 p.m., and will run June 10-15. The plays include Blue Chair Productions’ Constellations, Debrianna Mansini’s one-woman The Meatball Chronicles; Cyrano’s Theatre’s co-production with RKP Productions of Timothy Daly’s The Afterlife of J. Edgar Hoover; Canadian playwright Julia Lederer’s Love and a Major Organ, featuring an all-star cast from Los Angeles; and Australia’s The Owl & Cat Theatre presenting Arthur M. Jolly’s farce, A Very Modern Marriage. For a full descriptions of the shows, visit http://theatreconference.org/current-conference/info-for-participants/evening-performances/.
The lifeblood of the Conference is the developmental Play Lab. This year it will feature readings of 59 new plays by a cast of 145 actors. Authors range from professionals to Alaskan first time playwrights. Plays receive a single rehearsal before being publicly read and responded to by theatre professionals. Twelve Alaskans will be presenting their work. A full list of presenters is available at http://theatreconference.org/play-lab/.
Respondents include many award-winning authors, including Arthur M. Jolly, Cassandra Medley, and Australia’s most internationally acclaimed author, Timothy Daly. New to the Conference this year are the story editor of FX’s The Americans, Hillary Bettis, and John Cariani, the author of Almost, Maine, one of the most produced plays in America over the past decade.
Howard Fine Acting Studio instructor Laura Gardner, her husband Frank Collison (familiar to fans of Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, My Name Is Earl, and many other Hollywood films and television shows), and Los Angeles actor Rob Lecrone return to run the popular Monologue Workshop. In this program, attending authors provide monologues which are then worked on by attending actors, culminating in a presentation on the final Saturday. A collection of work from this program was issued by Focus Publishing in 2013.
Every year, the Conference honors someone who has given to the event with the Jerry Harper Service Award. The award, begun in 2007, this year will be presented to Cyrano’s Theatre’s Producing Director Emeritus, Sandy Harper. It will be presented at the June 17 gala dinner. The event is produced by Anchorage’s TBA Theatre for the second year, and this year will be Zombie Jamboree themed, including a five-piece band, photo booth, and group dancing.
For any questions about the Last Frontier Theatre Conference, call 834-1614 or e-mail dlmoore@alaska.edu, or visit www.theatreconference.org. During the event itself, call 835-2469.
Saturday, June 10, 8:00 PM
Blue Chair Productions presents Nick Payne’s Constellations, a play about quantum multiverse theory, love, and honeybees. The production is directed by Colby Bleicher and stars Aneliese Palmer & Ryan Buen. Suggested for audiences 14 and up.
Sunday, June 11, 8:00 PM
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An Evening With Our Featured Artists features our artistic staff reading from the work that touches them the most. This annual event is a chance to journey into the heart of artists, experiencing the work of the leaders of this year’s Last Frontier Theatre Conference. Suggested for audiences 16 and up.
Monday, June 12, 8:00 PM
RKP Productions and Cyrano’s Theatre Company present Timothy Daly’s The Afterlife of J. Edgar Hoover, starring Jeremy Gaunt and Jay Burns and directed by Dick Reichman. This surreal play takes us out of this world and into the afterlife. We enjoy an intimate yet mysterious visit with the famous FBI director, now dead of course, and his young “caretaker”, also dead. Starring Jay Burns and Jeremy Gaunt; directed by Dick Reichman. Suggested for ages 14 and up.
Tuesday, June 13, 8:00 PM
Debrianna Mansini’s one-woman show The Meatball Chronicles, directed by Tanya Rubinstein and Laura Gardner, shares a story of finding love through a meatball. It follows Debrianna through a culinary journey of her childhood, men, and her complicated relationship to her mother. As she kneads the dough and thickens the sauce through each Italian recipe, the stories associated with those recipes reveal the complex ways that families cope, laugh, grieve, and show their love through food. Suggested for audiences 16 and up.
Wednesday, June 14, 8:00 PM
Julia Lederer’s With Love and a Major Organ, starring Laura Gardner, Michelle Gardner, and Rob Lecrone; directed by Ken Sawyer. Anabel gives her heart to a man she meets on the subway and he disappears with it. The play uses magic realism to reinvent the modern romantic comedy. Poetic, quirky, and deeply original, it examines love in the age of technology, our ability and need to connect with strangers, and the universally trying task of reconciling the head and the heart. Suggested for audience 12 and up.
Thursday, June 15, 8:00 PM
Australia’s Owl & Cat Theatre returns this year to present Arthur M. Jolly’s wildly funny farce, A Very Modern Marriage. Matthew and Tina’s marriage is already on the rocks… when Tina’s friend Christopher moves in uninvited. He has a secret agenda to steal Matt’s heart once and for all. Christopher will stop at nothing to get what he wants, but Tina is no pushover. There’s a knife, gun, wardrobe, passion + jealousy what could possibly go wrong? Suggested for audience 16 and up.
Contacts:
Dawson Moore
