Last week I spoke by phone with Kaye Tuckerman with the production of "Mamma Mia" that opens in Anchorage on Thursday. Tuckerman has the role of former girl-rock-band singer and mother of the bride Donna Sheridan, the role played by Meryl Streep in the movie. She was playing in Edmonton, Alberta, on that day and gave me the skinny on what the cast thinks about coming to Alaska.
"Everyone sits in the green room with maps and books about Anchorage, planning what they're going to do," she said. "Anchorage is really one of the places that sparked everyone's interest -- especially since we have a day off on either side of opening and closing."
They have the hiatus because it'll take the four trucks bringing the set three days to get it here. It's a rare break in a run that will take the cast to 50 different cities (Anchorage being the fifth stop) over the course of one year.
"We do a combination of 26 full weeks and 16 split weeks," Tuckerman said. Those are generally eight shows a week in one city and two or three days in smaller venues. Anchorage will have 13 performances between October 14 and 23.
Tuckerman -- originally from Manley Beach, Australia, a ferry ride across the harbor from Sydney -- is among those excited. "When I got the tour schedule, I screamed. It was like they were sending me to a holiday."
She recalled that, as a child, she and her brother conspired to find ways to get out of seeing "Annie." But their father made them go anyway. Her brother sat there waiting for it to get over, she recalled, while she found herself soaking it in with stars in her eyes. "I was like: I want to be in musicals!"
From a start in community theater, she acted in Australia, studying in Perth, and then touring the world in musicals -- "Les Miserables," "Jesus Christ, Superstar," "South Pacific" -- for 10 years.
Australian-based tours are somewhat different, she said. "You do three months in each place -- Singapore, Cape Town, Hong Kong. I'm used to it being pretty hot."
When told it was 40 degrees in Anchorage at the time, she shuddered. For the record, 40 degrees Celsius would be 104 Fahrenheit; it was 115 in the Kenyan desert when she worked on a recent movie, "I am Slave," recently screened at the Toronto Film Festival.
"Of course the dream is to be on Broadway," she said. She relocated to America, got her green card in March and was cast in "Mamma Mia" seven weeks later on her birthday.
The tour coming to town was put together from scratch. "It's a brand-new company," she said. "Every single role was cast for the first time. Everyone caught the excitement like a house on fire. It's the same across the board, the orchestra, the whole crew."
Notwithstanding the collegiality of a young company -- many of whom were not even born when the band ABBA, whose hit songs ("Dancing Queen," "Take a Chance on Me," etc.) supply the score for the musical -- how does one deal with such a long road trip.
"I'm trying to switch to indoor activities," the self-declared beach girl said. "Yoga, writing, art projects." She's particularly interested in checking out the Anchorage Museum and local galleries when she gets here.
She also revealed how a number of members of the troupe are keeping their sanity over a year of near-constant performance and travel together. "Noise-canceling headphones seem to be a very popular item on the tour."
Word from the Anchorage Concert Association is that tickets for the run are nearly sold out. Find out what's available at centertix.net.
From the blog
Anchorage pianist Juliana Osinchuk sent us a first-hand report on the grand memorial concert held in the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., to honor Sen. Ted Stevens on Sept. 28 -- the same day he was buried. Musical highlights included members of the National Symphony Orchestra playing a movement from Schubert's "Trout" Quintet, Denyce Graves singing "America the Beautiful," Hawaii Sen. Daniel Akaka performing to the accompaniment of a ukulele and Fairbanks brothers Patrick and Christopher Hopkins teaming up with Osinchuk for a Handel Sonata. More details at adn.com/artsnob.
That's where you'll also find my observations from the Oct. 1 First Friday receptions. For my money, the most remarkable was the last one I got to, at the Alaska Native Heritage Gallery. Whatever had been planned had fallen through and an event had been cobbled together at the last minute. I walked into a First Friday opening like nothing I'd ever seen before. Industrial pop music was pumping out the door of the ordinarily sedate and generally high-end shop. A clutch of teens watched Arielo Bisco painting a killer whale with what looked like a graffiti tag on it. At 19, Bisco shows a lot of ambition, and not all of it on the pop side as his abstract "Cosmic Koi," on display in the gallery, shows. On the other side of the gallery, 26 year old Apayo Moore of Dillingham was also painting. (Check out the "artist/activist's" work at her website, wwww.apayoart.com.) She explained that she'd flown in at the last minute to participate in the show. After hanging there long enough to get used to the music, everyplace else felt like the old peoples' galleries.
Anchorage dance group partners with Eugene
Alaska Dance Theatre is teaming up with the Oregon's Eugene Ballet Company for a partnership that includes EBC's Artistic Director, Toni Pimble as Artistic Advisor abd ADT's Sarah Grunwaldt as Associate Artistic Director and head of the dance school. We're looking forward to their collaboration with the Alaska Native Heritage Center for "An Alaskan Swan Lake" in January. Until then, there are showcases of company choreographer's work at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 16, and of student choreographer's work at 2 p.m. next Sunday, both at the ADT studios, 550 E. 33rd Ave. Get more information at their website, www.alaskadancetheatre.org.
Poets for safety
"D-VAM Slam" (Domestic Violence Awareness Month Slam) with local performance poetry person Corinna Delgado will feature the final exam for UAA's slam poetry course -- that's a performance -- and a fundraiser for AWAIC. Exam performances begin at 5:30 p.m. on Monday in the South Cafe of the Student Union building. Others can step up to the open mike starting at 7:30 p.m. It's free, but a $5 donation is suggested.
Vann book in heavy competition
Adak-born David Vann, whose book "Legend of a Suicide" has become a best-seller overseas, is in the running for the esteemed Prix Medicis. The competition is formidable, he acknowledged, including such heavy hitters as Thomas Pynchon, Kate O'Riordan, Per Petterson and Andrei Guelassimov.
Raven tales sought
Beth Surdut of Santa Fe, New Mexico, is asking for stories from Alaskans about their encounters with ravens.
"Here in Santa Fe, 'Listening To Raven,' my detailed series of drawings and stories were seen in a recent monthlong solo exhibition at the Audubon Center. After an article about me appeared in the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper, over 25 readers called or e-mailed me with amazing stories about ravens in their lives. This response encouraged me to continue gathering stories for a book."
She figures Alaskans may be an especially productive source for such stories. Check out her site at www.bethsurdut.com and, if you have a good yarn about the big, black birds, contact her via e-mail at the site or call her at 978-793-1062 .
Find Mike Dunham online at adn.com/contact/mdunham or call 257-4332.
By MIKE DUNHAM
mdunham@adn.com