Lisa Phu

Juneau choreographer Hali Duran explores the six stages of a queen bumblebee’s life cycle in Acoustic Turbulence, a new production showing this weekend. 

But Duran said the project was also a way to reflect on the soul and journey of someone close to her. 

“I was researching ancient Egyptian mythology, and they believed that bees represented the journey of the soul, and that really spoke to me,” Duran said earlier this month on KTOO’s Juneau Afternoon. “My grandmother is in her last chapter of life. We’re helping her die gracefully. And to me, that premise really spoke to me, because I was like, there, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to use my grandmother as kind of my muse. She is my queen bumblebee.”

All the music, poetry and choreography of Acoustic Turbulence stems from this concept, and a narrative Duran wrote based on it. 

Duran, who’s been choreographing and dancing in Juneau since 2012, joined local performing arts nonprofit Orpheus Project last year. She’s the writer and director of Acoustic Turbulence, as well as the choreographer. She worked with several dancers creating, what she calls, “a whole new vocabulary.”

“We spent a lot of time figuring out ‘what does a bumble bee flying around look like in our bodies,’ if we are bumblebees. And you start to feel just different parts of your body activate. Who knew my shoulder blades could express deep sorrow, but they can,” Duran explained. 

One of those dancers is Juneau-raised Anouk Otsea, who lives in Seattle, but came home to dance the role of the Queen Bee.

“Hali would give us the concept, like ‘this is the phase that we’re working on, these are the emotions that we’re trying to evoke.’ Then we would play around with the ideas through dance improv and kind of set how that was going to be portrayed in movement,” Otsea said. “There’s a lot of motifs, which I really love. A lot of lifting, which is very fun.”

Other artists Duran collaborated with for the production include William Todd Hunt, artistic director of Orpheus Project and one of the show’s three composers. He said he found a lot of inspiration in Duran’s concept. 

“It’s like finding the bumblebee in sound, and more than just buzzing, which you’ll hear,” Hunt said laughing. “But it’s also about finding that connection with us as well. And the process that this life goes through, all of these different stages, the things that happen to it. It’s like, how do you put that into sound?”

Other composers are Spencer Edgers and Elena Levi. And the original music features words by Juneau poet ​Dita Devi. 

Acoustic Turbulence – a production of music, dance, visual art and poetry – plays this Saturday and Sunday at Thunder Mountain Middle School’s auditorium. More information about the show can be found at orpheusproject.org.

Hundreds of thousands of people attended the Seahawks Super Bowl 2026 parade in Seattle on Wednesday, and Juneau resident and Seahawks superfan Donna James was one of them. 

James went to the parade with her partner, Ken Willard, also a Juneau resident. The two decided to make the trip to Seattle after the Seahawks defeated the New England Patriots 29 to 13 in Sunday’s game. 

“We watched the Super Bowl, and they announced that the parade was going to be on Wednesday. So right after the Super Bowl, I said, ‘Well, are we gonna go? Are we gonna go?’ He said, ‘Let’s get our tickets now.’ So we got our tickets that night, and we flew out on Tuesday,” James said. 

On the day of the parade, James and Willard woke up at 3 in the morning and got to the parade grounds in downtown Seattle at 5 a.m. for an 11 a.m. start time.

They watched the parade from a bridge on 4th Avenue. James said being at the parade, cheering for her favorite team alongside other “12s” – as Seahawks fans are known – was “a dream come true.”

“When I’m around Seattle Seahawk fans, I get this cold chill, a happy feeling. (I’m) just so happy. It’s hard to explain,” James said. “And then halfway through, I kind of cried – just to be at a Super Bowl parade with a favorite team, all the fans.” 

James has been a Seahawks fan since 2010. She’s been known to drive around Juneau in a truck with Seahawks decals, and her license plate says “GO HWKS.”

And she has countless memorabilia – including Seahawks-themed Tlingit regalia, jewelry and a paddle, signed football helmets and Seahawks luggage. James said she never misses watching a Seahawks game and has attended 18 in person. 

A new play, “These Birds: A play inspired by death, flowers, and Farkle,” opened in Juneau Jan. 29. The show was born from interviews and conversations with local residents about death and dying.

The Theater Alaska play is written by Juneau playwright Merry Ellefson. But the seed for the project started with hospice chaplain Claire Richardson. 

Richardson wanted to find a way to inspire people to talk about death. She said creating a play from community-based interviews was a vehicle to ground stories of death and dying in Juneau. 

“I kept thinking, there has to be a way to have people to be able to have conversations about death. It’s so challenging, even with all the books and web resources and everything that we can offer. It’s that personal connection,” she said during a recent Juneau Afternoon interview on KTOO. 

Richardson contacted Ellefson, who has previously written plays based on interviews with Juneau residents and Alaskans across the state. 

The women conducted about 25 interviews and Ellefson said it was a profound journey. Though death can be a somber topic, Ellefson said there’s so much life in connecting through stories. 

She said she’s grateful for everyone they interviewed, as well as for the eight performers and other artists who transformed the script into a theatrical experience, honoring all the conversations and interviews. 

“These stories live in our community. They are part of us. They are of us. We hear ourselves here, whether that’s a whale breaching or someone talking about a tragedy,” Ellefson said. 

“These Birds: A play inspired by death, flowers, and Farkle” runs through Feb. 15, with two performances this Friday and Saturday at Ḵunéix̱ Hídi Northern Light United Church, and four shows next week at various locations.

Theater Alaska offers ticketed and free performances. Find details and the full schedule of performances and post-show conversations at theateralaska.org.

Editor’s note: KTOO is a media sponsor for “These Birds: A play inspired by death, flowers, and Farkle.”

Due to a shortage of assisted living homes, some of Southeast Alaska’s aging residents can’t stay in their home communities. Residences in Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka and Petersburg provide assistance to seniors needing help with daily activities, such as cooking, dressing and medication management.

The region isn’t keeping up with the demand for assisted living, and that demand is only expected to grow.

On a recent Tuesday morning, Jacque Farnsworth and Jack Brandt play piano and sing at the state-run Juneau Pioneers’ Home. A number of residents seated in a semi-circle of couches and chairs in front of the piano join in. They have music stands in front of them so they can follow along. A few play maracas.

Down the hall, Irene Cashen sits in a recliner watching TV. The 87-year-old moved in last March and doesn’t miss living alone.

“Look at me. I have my room over there and I do beading. I could do things by myself. I could come over here in my lounge and watch the news and go out in the other room and there’s always something,” Cashen says.

Group activities scheduled for later that day include a history talk, card games, exercise called “Fun & Fit” and more music. Cashen can join in or do her own thing.

“I made up my own mind to come in because I know I have beginning Alzheimer’s and I know about it and I don’t want my children to have to take care of me at home. I can take care of myself here and it’s been a wonderful experience,” Cashen says.

Up to 90 percent of Juneau Pioneers’ Home residents experience memory loss. Memory loss can lead to behavior changes that make living at home unsafe. Assisted living is sought out when a person’s care needs exceed the support and resources available at home.

Cashen has spent almost her whole life in Juneau. Kids, grandkids, great grandkids also live here. It’s where she wants to remain, and the home means she can.

That’s not the case for many of Southeast Alaska’s senior citizens. The demand outweighs supply and many communities in the region don’t offer any assisted living options.

The region’s geography and rapidly aging population creates challenges that don’t exist in more populated parts of the state.

“We’re not connected so if somebody from Prince of Wales needs help, they’re basically giving up their home and having to move and may never go back,” said Dee Wright.

Wright runs The Manor in Ketchikan, the only licensed assisted living home in Southeast run by a private individual. She says some of its dozen residents are from Prince of Wales Island, Metlakatla, Sitka and Juneau.

She said people who can’t find placement in Southeast often have to leave.

“There are people up north and down south that could come home if we have the housing,” Wright said.

Haines and Petersburg also have assisted living homes and Sitka and Ketchikan have pioneers’ homes. Altogether, they house about 210 older adults. All have long waiting lists.

“The calls that I’m fielding, at this point, I’m saying to people, if you haven’t applied to the pioneer home and you’re 86 years old and you need to move in right now, there’s the possibility that I will not be able to serve you in your lifetime, and that’s very hard to say, ” Julie Sande, administrator at the Ketchikan Pioneers’ Home. “For individuals who just get on the waitlist, it can be years before they move to the top of my list.”

In Juneau, a nonprofit is working to build a new assisted living community to meet some of the need.

Senior Citizens Support Services Inc. President Sioux Douglas is among those tired of seeing people leave because of the shortage of assisted living options.

“That’s the last thing we want (happening) in our community. … They want to age here and they want to die here,” Douglas said.

A recent market demand study on Juneau senior housing said the city needs an additional 327 assisted living beds over the next 30 years to meet projected demand.

Douglas expects residents to come from all over Southeast, with most from Juneau.

She said the nonprofit has secured land in Vintage Park in Juneau’s populous Mendenhall Valley, close to amenities. The project would have about 90 apartment-like units with a projected monthly cost between $5,000 and $7,000.

A developer is helping the group move forward. One of the major hurdles is finalizing the financing. Douglas said it could cost up to $30 million.

“The biggest message to the people in Southeast Alaska right now is just knowing and feeling confident that this project will get completed. We will do this. We’ll have it available,” Douglas said.

Back at the Juneau Pioneers’ Home, Irene Cashen says she’s happy she chose to move into assisted living. Her mother had lived in the pioneers’ home in Sitka, so she knew it was a good option. And she thinks others will make a similar choice if they can.

“It’s fun. It’s real life and it’s still your life. You’re not taking away from your own children’s lives. I see them as much as I did before and they don’t have to worry about me,” Cashen says.

A new assisted living community in Juneau could be complete as soon as fall 2017. The Manor in Ketchikan also hopes to build a new assisted living home that could house up to 28 people.

Gov. Bill Walker issued an administrative order Tuesday that transfers many functions of the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission into the Department of Fish and Game. The reorganization will save the state more than $1.3 million a year, according to the governor’s office.

The CFEC, an autonomous state agency, is responsible for deciding what commercial fisheries to limit, who gets to participate in them and adjudicating appeal cases. It also issues permits and licenses, which bring in the majority of the agency’s revenue.

The administrative order moves CFEC’s licensing, permitting, research, information technology, accounting, payroll, procurement and budget services to Fish and Game. This transfer would affect about a dozen of the commission’s 25 employees. Some vacancies and at least one office manager will be eliminated, according to Fish and Game Deputy Commissioner Kevin Brooks.

Brooks said the reorganization will be done in phases.

“We’ve got to do it orderly and make sure we maintain services to the fleet. We don’t want to do something that’s going to disrupt issuing permits to fishermen. We’re not going to take any action that’s going to compromise the ability of the folks doing the job to keep doing that job,” Brooks said.

CFEC will retain its adjudication functions, which include the positions of three commissioners, a hearing officer, legal staff and clerical positions.

Brooks said part of the $1.3 million of savings includes the three commissioner positions going from full-time to part-time in January 2017. Other savings will come from not renewing CFEC’s building lease when it’s up in August 2017.

Brooks said the ideal long-term solution is to move the 12 reorganized employees to Fish and Game headquarters.

“We can get the groups working together and get some of the synergies we’re hoping to get by bringing the licensing staff together and our IT staff together,” Brooks said.

A report by the Legislature’s audit division released in October suggested similar changes to the governor’s order.

A different report by Fish and Game drew attention to backlogged permit application cases, a slow work pace by the three commissioners who head the agency, and alternatives to the agency’s organizational structure.

Rep. Paul Seaton and Rep. Louise Stutes both have tried to eliminate CFEC with bills in 2014 and 2015.

The nine-member Juneau Assembly is whole again after the appointment of Jamie Bursell. She’s filling the District 2 seat left vacant by Karen Crane, who’s running for mayor.

Bursell, whose appointment was announced Thursday, was up against six other candidates. They were interviewed during a special assembly meeting on Wednesday. Deputy Mayor Jesse Kiehl said several in the pool would’ve made good assembly members, but he was particularly impressed with Bursell’s interview.

“Her focus on education, her focus on examining our city budget at a really deep level, not just a broad-strokes policy level, but getting into the line items – I think that’s a really valuable way for assembly members to go after the budget work,” Kiehl said.

Bursell has lived in Juneau for almost 20 years. She has an extensive history of volunteering within the school district and the community. She served two years on the Juneau Fluoride Study Commission. In 2001, she received the Outstanding Faculty of the Year award from the University of Alaska Southeast, where she taught human anatomy and physiology.

She’s now a medical assistant and technician at the Juneau Pain Center. She’s also a triathlon coach and owns a triathlon training business.

Bursell’s appointment will last until the municipal election in October.

The next regular assembly meeting is Feb. 29.