Alaska News

ArtBeat: Alaska Overnighters to spend a night at the Museum

The Alaska Overnighters have challenged playwrights and performers since 2002, so the drill should be familiar to Anchorage theatergoers by now. Writers are given a theme, idea or phrase and have 12 hours to turn it into a short play. Then directors and actors have 12 more hours to put the finished product on stage, off-book.

This year the presenters, Three Wise Moose and Anchorage Community Theatre, have added a new element to the mix. Instead of putting the plays on a regular auditorium-style stage, the work will be presented in the galleries of the Anchorage Museum. Which gallery gets assigned to which playwright will be another random element in the process.

The audience, too, will have a little more work than usual. Instead of sitting in cushy seats, they'll be on their feet, walking from space to space, standing throughout each play. (Talk about a surefire way to get a standing ovation.)

Only three plays will be created this time around -- four or five plays in the course of an evening have been the rule -- and there will be only a single performance, at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 22. Only 40 tickets are being sold, $20 each. Call the ACT ticket line to find out if any are still available: 868-4913. No tickets will be sold at the door.

The familiar two-night on-the-stage version of Overnighters will still take place in January.

Season of generosity

Over the past couple of weeks, we've had the opportunity to report on fundraising efforts involving local artists. Today we can report some happy results, thanks in no small part to you wonderful readers.

The Jazz Fighting Hunger concert on Nov. 9 raised $13,000, said organizer Ray Booker. That puts the total raised for the Food Bank of Alaska from this event over the years at $105,000. Since the Food Bank folks are experts at squeezing food from a dollar, that represents a whole lot of meals.

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A bonus for Booker was the guest artist, singer Carmen Bradford, who opted for a smaller ensemble, which gave him the night off. "It was a refreshing change to not play and have a chance to enjoy and listen," he said.

The effort to create an "ambassador" library of Alaska books as part of the Detroit Little Libraries campaign got a big boost when a generous Anchorage reader responded with a substantial donation. The fundraising drive was in its final hours, said organizer Kim Kozlowski in an email, when "I came home from work and opened a letter with a postmark from Anchorage. Inside was a clipping of your article and a hand-written letter from a woman originally from Detroit but has been living in Alaska for 35 years. Attached was a check for ... $1,000!!!!!"

Organizers say that with the final boost, they have enough to build, post, cement and stock not just the ambassador library of Alaskana but two additional libraries in Detroit.

Opera lovers stepped up to Anchorage Opera's "Pennies from Heaven" challenge, making $60,000 in donations by last week's deadline. It will be matched by the Henry Penney family in the name of Gloria Allen. That challenge grant was part of -- and a propitious start to -- an even larger effort led by Ed and Cathy Rasmuson that will continue through the rest of the season.

Not all windfalls are monetary. For many presenters, the opportunity to reach more people is worth more than mere money. That happened recently with the production of "'night, Mother" recently staged at Alaska Pacific University. "The Executive Director of the Arctic Resource Center for Suicide Prevention saw your review and was inspired to contact us about bringing the show to Fairbanks," wrote Audrey Weltman Kelly, part of RKP Productions, which is co-producing the show with Alaska Community Theatre. "He'd like to partner with us with a conversation after performances."

Kelly and associates are discussing how to make that happen; the two-woman play should travel easily enough, but maybe not with the detailed set.

Empty Bowl seeks vessels from previous years

One of the more venerable fundraising events in Anchorage is the annual Empty Bowl Project to benefit Bean's Cafe. The happening has grown from a few hundred diners to 1,700 last winter. Participants get a bowl of soup served in a clay bowl made by local artists. Over the years, some people have collected a bunch of bowls and are having trouble finding a place to put them all. So Bean's is inviting bowlers from previous years to donate their older bowls back to the project. This not only will recycle the bowl and make space in your cabinet, it will also help expand the event, which includes professional and amateur potters, students, club members and others, who will have their hands full trying to create what may exceed 2,000 bowls next year.

Those interested in turning a bowl back over to Bean's can contact Lauren Nelson at lnelson@beanscafe.org or call her at 433-8603.

Nelson tells us that the 2015 bowls will include wooden ones from the Woodturners Association and that bowls made from glass or papier-mache will be accepted. In fact, the bowl art doesn't even need to hold soup to be part of the project, she says. It can be a drawing, painting or any form of art that depicts an empty bowl.

While we have Bean's on the mind, they'll be selling soup mixes, mugs and coffee at several locations during the run-up to Christmas, including the Arts & Crafts Emporium, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23, in the Dena'ina Center lobby; the Alternative Gift Fair, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7, at First Presbyterian Church, 616 W. 10th Ave.; and 7:30 a.m.-1 p.m.Tuesday, Dec. 9, in the Frontier Building skybridge, 3601 C St.

High school musicale

More than 400 fine high school musicians from around Alaska have been practicing this week at the All-State Music Festival. They'll present a gala performance concert for the public at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 22, at the West High auditorium. Tickets are $10, $5 for seniors or high school students and free for students in elementary grades or younger. This is one of the best opportunities we get each year to expose young people to other young people exercising exceptional talent.

Reach Mike Dunham at mdunham@alaskadispatch.com or 257-4332.

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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