Dara Rilatos serenaded the KTOO arts room with this three-song concert on November 25, 2015. Rilatos is from Wrangell, Alaska, and is a folk singer-songwriter. This performance includes “While You’re Here,” Making me a Fool” and “95.”
Watch additional Red Carpet Concerts with Annie Bartholomew and Rebecca File, Liz Snyder, Cousin Curtiss, Sean Tracey and Nate May, and Harrison B.
Juneau theater artist Frank Henry Kaash Katasse won a short play competition Sunday. “Reeling” — a play based on Tlingit values — won Native Voices at the Autry’s Fifth Annual Short Play Competition in Los Angeles. Katasse says the play’s main characters are two female cousins who lose the uncle who raised them.
“They go and steal his urn from his memorial service and they decide they’re going to go throw the urn into the halibut hole (where) he would always take them. And so the whole play takes place on a canoe,” Katasse says.
Listen to our interview with Katasse here:
For the production, Katasse imagines the canoe on wheels with the uncle moving the cousins throughout the play. Flashbacks also help tell the story.
The play was partially inspired by a story Katasse heard about some determined canoers in Kake who braved high seas to honor a family member. In this story, the cousins are honoring their uncle’s wish.
“Because that’s what he said he always wanted — to be placed there because he took so many halibut from this halibut hole,” Katasse says. He adds, “I talk a lot about balance and a lot of traditional Tlingit core values. … That’s what it all comes down to.”
As winner of the competition, Katasse received the Von Marie Atchley Excellence in Playwriting Award and a $1,000 prize. Katasse says another one of his plays — “They Don’t Talk Back” — received accolades from the same theater company in the spring and is now under negotiation for production.
Perseverance Theatre’s production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, opens Friday night.
Actor Enrique Bravo plays Benjamin Barker, aka Sweeney Todd, in the musical. On a Juneau Afternoon, Bravo sang a few lines that are the foundation of the story.
“There was a barber and his wife,
And she was beautiful.
A foolish barber and his wife.
She was his reason and his life,
And she was beautiful.”
Listen to the audio version of the story and Bravo sing here:
Enter the evil judge Turpin who is interested in Barker’s wife and unjustly sends the barber off to prison in Australia. Barker breaks out, returns to London and finds out that his wife, Lucy, poisoned herself and that their daughter, Joanne, is a ward of the judge.
One might assume the rest of the plot would be a predictable revenge tale until Barker teams up with Mrs. Lovett who runs a pie shop — that serves meat pies.
“She’s been in love with Benjamin Barker for a long time, so that fuels that relationship,” Bravo said.
So does their business arrangement where Barker dispatches his victims with a straight razor and Mrs. Lovett cooks them in pies. But the play is about more than that.
“There’s a lot of themes of classes in society. The rich basically taking advantage of the poor. So it’s got a lot. It’s a meaty musical. It’s not one of those fluff musicals,” Bravo said.
A meaty musical! The cast includes 14 actors and singers and 6 musicians. Music director Todd Hunt said he’s gained new respect working with the play’s sometimes complicated music composed by Stephen Sondheim.
“You can see, though, that in all of the difficult things that he put in, there’s always a dramatic reason for why. Like when there’s something repeated, it’s not exactly repeated; it’s a little bit different or the harmonies are a little bit different underneath it. It’s because things are always changing. And in that way it’s very organically written music, and that has been wonderful to discover,” Hunt said.
Note that there are both a pie and a barber shop within walking distance of the theater. OK, well pizza and a hair salon, but you never know.
The play opens Friday at 7:30 p.m. and runs through Sunday, Dec. 6. Tickets are available at ptalaska.org.
“I went to Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and Korea three years ago,” Sasaki said.
Sasaki said his English is not great, so he readily passes out a card that explains his trip. Roughly summarized, the laminated card says that he’s worked as a lifeguard and ski patroller and needs to be strong to continue helping others.
“This is my cart — all aluminum. So very light and I can carry inside an airplane. This is (my) spare tire and bear spray and mountain equipment. This is (my) speedometer. I walked 50 km in the summer season; winter season 40 km every day,” Sasaki said.
That translates to about 30 miles in summer, and 25 in winter.
“I walk through (the) pass, very hard. And downhill, very hard because my cart (has) no brake, only foot brake — (it’s) very hard,” he said laughing.
From here, Sasaki’s route includes Wrangell, Prince Rupert, Prince George, Jasper, Banff, Calgary, Yellowstone and eventually Argentina. He thinks he’ll be on the road for another three years. You can follow him on Facebook — just search for Sasaki Norio.
The Juneau Assembly wants public comment on an ordinance that will define the marijuana business in the capital city. It specifies where marijuana can be grown, processed and sold.
Assemblymember Karen Crane said the Juneau Planning Commission spoke about wanting to preserve neighborhoods.
“But they only preserve neighborhoods inside the urban service area,” Crane said. “They have left open action in neighborhoods outside urban service area, and I think there needs to be more discussion about this.”
The city has a moratorium that expires at the end of the year on marijuana businesses. After that, pot entrepreneurs will be able to apply for conditional use permits. Crane said she’d like to hear more input before the deadline.
“I know there’s a lot of pressure to make these decisions but this decision, I’d like to have some more discussion on — instead of being pushed into making it right now,” Crane said.
The public gets a chance to weigh in at the next assembly meeting on Nov. 9.
