Alaska News

Yakking up Alaska

There's the tourist information you get from Alaska visitors bureaus. Then there's the advice you get from "Raven's Radio Hour." Like the best pick-up line to use at an Alaska village festival -- "We're not related."

"Raven's Radio Hour" (which actually runs an hour and 45 minutes with intermission) is a silly and fast-moving look at parts of our state that most guide books skip over. It's one of several live theater productions in Anchorage this summer that mix entertainment with a little instruction, nicely suited to amusing your summer visitors while painlessly relating information that locals sometimes take for granted.

"The intent is to portray Alaska Native people as they really are -- with a sense of humor," said "Raven's" co-author and director Ed Bourgeois when the show opened at Cyrano's earlier this month.

As if on cue, a rill of laughter spilled into the theater from backstage. "Listen to them," Bourgeois said and shook his head. "That's our cast."

The cast has changed somewhat since the show originated a couple of years ago, and so has some of the material. "But then, it changes every time we do it," Bourgeois admitted.

The play opens with the title character, played by co-author Jack Dalton, crashing into a dumpster outside the theater en route to host a radio variety show.

The performers -- a quartet that includes Princess Lucaj, Debra Dommek and Ethan Petticrew in the core cast (there'll be assorted substitutions throughout the run) -- mostly stand at music stands with scripts and props to deliver their lines, in the manner of a genuine old-time radio program. But they're hardly stationary. In fact some bits are very animated, like the skit "Raveno and Eaglet," a parody of "Romeo and Juliet" in which Dalton and Dommek are the star-crossed lovers from opposing Tlingit families.

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Don't expect illumination on the subtleties of the Southeast Native clan system, however. There's a brief explanation of Raven and Eagle moieties, but it has nothing to do with the action. It's meant as spoof and works jolly well as such.

Other longer segments based on various Native stories include a retelling of the myth of "The Woman Who Married a Bear" as a Mickey Spillane detective potboiler set in Kodiak, where it rains "like God's spitting on you."

The show concludes with Dalton's animated version of the Yup'ik story of creation, with Petticrew as the annoying, demanding and ultimately too presumptuous first human being.

Between such larger episodes there are a smattering of facts about Alaska, a few Native songs and a whole bunch of ads for sponsors like Aunt Edna's Ultimate Ulu -- "Cuts through a nail and still slices a whale" -- and Sailor Boy Pilot Bread.

The Pilot Bread spokespersons are Peter and Mary Paul, an overstressed urban couple. Mary's overbooked with the kid's lessons, fitness classes and "trying to learn four of the 11 Athabascan languages" to keep the children in touch with their culture. "We're Inupiaq," Paul reminds her before singing the cultural wonders of Pilot Bread to the tune of "Blowin' in the Wind."

A stream of one-liners and quick bits connecting the main material call to mind Bourgeois' alma mater, Mr. Whitekeys' "Whale Fat Follies," the Alaska musical and comedy revue that entertained locals and out-of-towners alike for many years.

"Raven's Radio Hour" doesn't approach those Spenard shows of yore for zaniness, but it's a lot more family friendly and, well, respectful. In other words, there's a slim chance that your visitors will be offended by the material. Yes, there's an oosik bit, and we're told that Dommek's flirtatious character is known among her friends as "Hot Springs," and there's a digression on the effects of seal oil on digestion. But that's the limit.

The show makes no pretext of profundity. It's about laughter and good feelings, and it succeeds on both counts. If, between laughs, visitors learn something about Alaska that they didn't know before, so much the better.

About half of the audience was from out of state on opening night. They seemed to be enjoying the humor -- even jokes so familiar to Alaskans that we can holler out the punch lines, i.e. "... but the goods are odd."

And, for some, the show spawned questions. At intermission, one woman asked the man at the concession stand, "So is Pilot Bread a real product?"

Find Mike Dunham online at adn.com/contact/mdunham or call 257-4332.

MORE SUMMER THEATER

RAVEN'S RADIO HOUR is one of several live productions in Anchorage this summer. Here are some others.

TRUE TALES OF THE FROZEN NORTH is also running at Cyrano's, at 4 p.m. Monday, 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday through Aug. 11. Some days are dark; check centertix.net for updates. Tickets are $18.25.

It's fitting that "True Tales" should be in repertoire with "Raven's Radio Hour" since it is another mix of education and entertainment. The show is the work of actress/storyteller Linda Benson, who draws from historical, often eyewitness accounts to relate the experiences of the real women who joined the Gold Rush stampede to Alaska for one reason or another, either as miners themselves, or as miner's wives, hoteliers and laundresses straining the wash water to reclaim gold flakes caught in the mud of their customers' clothes.

Benson animatedly shifts from one persona, accent or social class to another, swapping out costumes and reacting to the audience with humor and wit.

A Daily News review of the show in 2009 said, "Mugging and energetic, she's by turns amusing, poignant, blustery and deflated - but always fascinating ... It's as pleasing a combination of education and entertainment as I've ever seen on the Alaska stage." The show has had some revisions for this reprise.

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Benson's performed narrations are connected by musical turns from a saloon piano player, Dan McElrath, and dance hall girl, Scarlet Kittylee Boudreaux.

POGO GOGO CO. LATE NIGHT SKETCH COMEDY, which sold out its debut earlier this month, is focusing on technology, but we suspect that sketches by Alaskans can't help but touch on Alaskana. Performances are at 10 p.m. every Friday in July at Out North, 3800 DeBarr Road. Admission is $10. Advised for those 18 and older.

SCARED SCRIPTLESS, Alaska's longest running improv troupe definitely tosses odds and ends about the state into every performance. They perform at 8 p.m. Friday and on the second and fourth Saturday of every month at the Snow Goose Theater, 717 W. Third Ave. Tickets are $9 at the door or at centertix.net.

BIG TIME ALASKA SHOW, with stories, a sing-along, melodrama and "the only version of 'The Cremation of Sam McGee' done through interpretive dance," will be presented July 30-Aug. 1 at Alaska Pacific University's Grant Hall Auditorium. Admission is $6. This all-ages romp is part of TBA Theatre's Summer Academy, which starts presenting plays Thursday. More information is available by calling 677-7529.

THE FOURTH WALL, by A.R. Gurney, is being presented by Anchorage Community Theatre and Midnight Sun Theatre at 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday through Aug. 8 at 1133 E. 70th Ave. No, it's not about Alaska past or present, but playwright Gurney ("Love Letters," "Sylvia") has been an honored guest at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez. Tickets are $15, $11 for children under 12, at actalaska.org or call 868-4913.

M*A*S*H is being performed at the Alaska Fine Arts Academy's Eleanor Braendel Theater, 12340 Old Glenn Highway in Eagle River (the upper floor of Alaska Industrial Hardware). Shows are at 7 p.m. Friday and 2 and 7 p.m. on Saturday running through Saturday. Tickets are $8-$11. Call 694-8909.

By MIKE DUNHAM

mdunham@adn.com

Mike Dunham

Mike Dunham has been a reporter and editor at the ADN since 1994, mainly writing about culture, arts and Alaska history. He worked in radio for 20 years before switching to print.

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