As the long-bare branches start to bud, theater season slowly gives way to fishing and gardening season. But it's going out with a bang.
As difficult as it may be for some of us to go indoors at this time of year, there are a number of local plays that can divert us from yard chores etc., especially if the weather sours. Here's a quick look at five.
HAMLET
• Alaska Theatre of Youth
• 7 p.m. on Thursday and Saturday
• Sydney Laurence Theatre
• Tickets: $15-$20.75 at centertix.net
THE PRINCE OF DENMARK WAS ONE MESSED UP TEENAGER.
Alaska's Theatre of Youth's ambitious Young Shakespeare Company productions have caught our attention in years past. For one thing, they do full productions of the Bard's work, with little trimming or altered text.
This year's production of "Hamlet" seems particularly interesting. ATY's director Christian Heppinstall described the visual design as "all black, with a few color exceptions. Costumes are year 2010, with sleek and highly tailored cuts of suits and gowns. Think elegant Italian fashion."
The cast ranges in age from 15 to 24. Justin Hall, 18, plays the somber title character. Fifteen-year-old Laura Richardson is Ophelia. Their ages, for once, mean both characters are played by actors who are close to the actual ages the principal characters in the play would have been.
The young actors must not only emote and enunciate -- and those who've seen previews say they're definitely up to the task -- they must fight, perhaps with more authentic relish than we see in older actors.
"We have sent two actors to the hospital, both for sword fighting wounds," said Heppinstall. "Cuts requiring stitches and a stab to the eye of Hamlet. But all rallied."
(More about this show at adn.com/artsnob.)
CAROLINE, OR CHANGE
• Cyranos
• 7 p.m. Thursday- Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday May 7-23
• 413 D. St.
• Tickets: $23.00, $21.25 student/senior/military at centertix.net
A LEADING PLAYWRIGHT PUSHES THE BOUNDS OF MUSICAL THEATER.
With a book by 2004 Last Frontier Theatre Conference honoree Tony Kushner and a score by Jeanine Tesori, "Caroline" falls somewhere on the border of musical theater and opera. The plot involves the relationship between a black maid and her Jewish employers in Louisiana in 1963.
Critic Simon Salzman wrote that the story, "filled with racial and social obstructions, is serious to the point of sadness and rather than warming your heart, grabs it and twists it into a Gordian knot." All very Kushnerian.
"With that said, it is also filled with greatness," he adds.
It will be the Alaska debut of the piece, which is directed by Teresa Pond, originally from Anchorage, now living in New York.
"I'll be honest, I had to spend some serious time on this one to wrap my head around it," Pond said. "What does a born-and-bred Alaskan white wasp girl know about growing up Jewish, black, southern or life in the 1960s?
"But then I remembered that I also don't know a heck of a lot about what it was like to live in the 1400s at the end of a century-long civil war, but I'll be directing 'Richard III' right after this in New York City, broadswords and all."
"Caroline" will be "something entirely new and different" for Anchorage, Pond said, ticking off its best qualities: "Astounding music that is both catchy and profoundly meaningful." (It's described as melodic, vibrant and eclectic, ranging from R&B to klezmer.) "Text and lyrics that sound like 'real' people. There is no one who writes text in American theater now like Tony Kushner."
Pond has brought in talent from her New York connections. The title role is sung by one of them, Kalia Lynn, and the show's music director, Jamie Mablin worked in London before moving on to New York.
The show is a collaboration with Anchorage Opera and the Anchorage Urban League.
The emotional fulcrum of the "change" in the title is both the civil rights movement of the period and the interaction of Caroline and her employer's son, Noah. For this role, Pond is using two young actors. Jimmy Lanier and Nathan Swan will rotate in the part.
Other youngsters in the cast include Madison Coulson, a fifth-grader at Williwaw Elementary, Saula Ofin of Tudor Elementary and Kristen Leifi of West High, who play Caroline's children and sing the eclectic and complicated music.
THE SECRET GARDEN
• Valley Performing Arts
• 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through May 23
• 251 W. Swanson Ave., Wasilla
• Tickets, $17, $15 for youth and seniors, at valleyperformingarts.org.
HEART-WARMING TALE BLOSSOMS IN THE VALLEY.
Children are also at the heart of VPA's staging of Francis Hodgson Burnett's popular book about discovering joy amid sadness.
A sullen, spoiled orphan girl is sent to live with her uncle in a gloomy manor. There she discovered a forgotten garden and slowly reawakens happiness in herself and others.
"It's not an all-child cast," said Sam Hanson, VPA's Marketing Director. "But they carry the show."
Fortunately VPA has a track record of pulling kids into its shows early and often. The young principals in "Secret Garden" have more experience than many older performers.
Sixth-gradcr Kasey Shaw, for instance, who has the primary role of the orphan, Mary, has previously appeared in "Cheaper by the Dozen" and "Babes in Toyland." Ten-year-old Luke Johnson, as her ailing cousin Collin, was also in "Babes" as well as "A Christmas Story" and "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever." Alora Zulliger, 14, who has the role of the maid, Martha, has been in five other VPA productions, including "Carousel" and "Anne of Green Gables." Martha's cousin, Dickon, is played by seventh-grader Tyler Smih, who also appeared in both of those plays as well as "Inherit the Wind."
The set is another reason to see "Secret Garden," especially if the natural green is slow in coming on.
THE UNDERPANTS
• Anchorage Community Theatre
• 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday through May 23
• 11 E. 70th Ave.
• Tickets: $15, $13 for seniors/military/students, $11 for kids under 12, at www.actalaska.org.
WILD AND CRAZY REWRITE OF PRUSSIAN SNORTER BY TOP AMERICAN COMIC.
This promises to be a real romp. The original play, a German farce, dates from 1910. In it a housewife struggles to make ends meet on the salary of her thick-headed bureaucrat husband, but it's not easy. They can't even get a renter for their spare rooms. But then she accidentally loses her underwear while at a parade saluting the Kaiser. The lingerie is returned, but the scandal suddenly makes their spare room the most coveted address in town.
There were already plenty of opportunities for satire, broad humor and clever asides -- then wild and crazy comedian Steve Martin got hold of it and reprocessed it for Americans.
"When ACT asked if I'd be interested in directing a Steve Martin play I jumped at the chance," said director Nate Benson. "Martin's prose has all the zaniness that you would expect, but it is also often beautifully intellectual. 'The Underpants' is no exception and I feel that I am constantly finding new layers."
That's what critics have noticed about the script. While the humor ranges from slapstick to cerebral, with one goofy gaffe followed by a zinger of wit, one has the feeling that these nutty characters have substance and seriousness somewhere just below the comedic surface.
It takes crisp ensemble work to pull off Martin's rapid-fire dialogue. Renee Daw, in the lead role of Frau Maske, has studied with the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Bradford Jackson, as her husband, Theo, has had a busy year performing in "Terra Nova," "Almost,Alaska," "Wind Blown and Dripping" and "You Can't Take It With You." Frau Maske's would-be romancer is played by Anthony Richard Lounsbury, who was part of the cast of "Bark!"
The set is by Brian Saylor, who repeatedly does amazing things with ACT's small studio theater. This time he's created a Kaiser-era kitchen.
"I have been fortunate to find a crew who are sticklers for historical accuracy," said Benson.
The cast and crew have found "a real freedom in putting together a show that none of us had seen before getting started," he added. "We aren't drawing on a past production for inspiration, nor are we avoiding a concept that is too close to anything previous. New layers of character and different quirks are discovered every night. All of it is fresh from our imaginations, interactions and the script."
CONFESSIONS OF A LAZY HMONG WOMAN
• Out North
• 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday, May 9
• 3800 DeBarr Road.
• Tickets: $15 at the door or $14.75 at www.outnorth.org
TRADITION CONFRONTS CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN CULTURE
Mary Lee Yang's performance piece is a co-commission by Out North and the National Performance Network. The award-winning Minneapolis-based writer, actor and activist charts her character's journey as she discovers "The Rules for Being Good Hmong Girl," how to balance being a feminist and having a relationship with a Hmong man, as well as lessons learned from the not-so-lazy women in her life. Yang previously performed at Out North in November 2007 in "Refugee Nation."
Find Mike Dunham online at adn.com/contact/mdunham or call 257-4332.
By MIKE DUNHAM
mdunham@adn.com