I finally got to the International Gallery of Contemporary Art to see painter Sharon VanStarkenburg's exhibit cheekily titled "The Debutantes." It was accurately billed as "raw, vulnerable, fierce," rife with sex, pain, blood, organs and (yikes!) wisdom teeth. The human characters often suggested famous human characters, movie stars or Queen Elizabeth I, but in depictions calculated to make the viewer uncomfortable.
VanStarkenburg was able to make it from Canada for the exhibit's opening and gave an artist talk at the gallery. In fact, the mounting of the show here was paid for by a grant from the Province of Ontario. But, we're told, the paintings themselves barely made it in time for the show. Something about "a long and arduous ordeal with U.S. Customs."
At any rate, this will be the last weekend to see the work. The gallery is open noon-4 p.m. Friday and Saturday. There is nothing displayed in the guest room this month, but the side galleries are hosting a display of sculptural work by UAA students that's well worth a look. The shows come down Sunday in advance of what sounds like a big exhibit by Rachelle Dowdy, opening May 1.
Oxford versus UAA
On the heels of hosting the U.S. Universities Debating Championships earlier this month, members of the UAA Seawolf Debate Team will go head-to-head with debaters from Oxford University, a perennial powerhouse in the event for the past 800 years or so. The topic will relate to whether or not classical music should be supported with money from the public purse. The showdown will happen at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 30, in the Discovery Theatre.
We note that the finals for the championship filled Wendy Williamson earlier this month. Tickets for the April 30 showdown are available at centertix.net. Proceeds will benefit the UAA debate program.
Schedules announced
Next year's lineup of plays at UAA was previously included with our review of "William Shakespeare's Land of the Dead" (published April 11). Since then, three more performing arts groups have let us know what they have coming up for 2015-16.
Perseverance Theatre's Anchorage offerings will include the dark cowboy comedy "Annapurna" (Sept. 25-Oct. 3); "Othello" (Oct. 16-Nov. 1); "A Christmas Carol" (the adaptation by Arlitia Jones and Michael Haney, reprised from this season and moved to the Discovery Theatre, Dec. 18-28); a new play by Alaskan Vera Starbard, "Our Voices Will Be Heard" (Feb. 19-28); Sarah Ruhl's hit "In the Next Room (or the vibrator play)" (April 15-24); and, in May, Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd," presented in the Discovery Theatre.
Anchorage Community Theatre will open with the modern classic "Bus Stop" (Aug. 21-Sept. 20) and continue with Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit" (Oct. 9-Nov. 11), "The Secret Garden" (Nov. 20-Dec. 20), "Over the River and Through the Woods" (Jan. 7-Feb. 17), "Visit to a Small Planet" by one time Alaskan Gore Vidal (March 4-27) and wind up with the thriller "Deathtrap" (April 15-May 14).
The Anchorage Symphony Orchestra's opening night program will include Janacek's brass-packed "Sinfonietta" and Grieg's Piano Concerto along with Respighi's "Pines of Rome" on Sept. 26. The concert on Nov. 14 will star Eliesha Nelson in Bartok's Viola Concerto with the rest of the program to be determined by members of the public contacted via email and social media.
ASO concert master Kathryn Hoffer and principal cellist Linda Hart Ottum will pair up for a new concerto by Eric Ewazen, whose pastorale "Down a River of Time" for oboe and strings was presented here in 2011, on Jan. 30; the rest of the program will include "Blue Cathedral," the most-played work by Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higdon, and what appears to be the Anchorage premiere of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony. On March 5, Liszt's "Les Preludes" and Saint-Saens' "Carnival of the Animals" will share the bill with John Corigliano's "Pied Piper Fantasy" for flute and orchestra.
On April 2 and 3, Alan Hovhaness' evocative "Mysterious Mountain," a suite from Copland's opera "The Tender Land" and Dvorak's "New World Symphony" will close things out in a program that includes photos of Iceland and Alaska.
Musher musical comes to town
We always look forward to Asian Culture Night and the variety of international dance, drum and performing groups it brings to town. This year the guests will be a huge cast of young actors and singers presenting a musical titled "Chasing the Aurora: The Samurai Musher, the tale of Jujiro Wada."
Wada was an important presence in Alaska during gold rush times. Among other things, the Seward Chamber of Commerce hired him and Alfred Lowell to blaze the Iditarod Trail in 1910; a marker at the Seward waterfront still notes the true start of the trail.
Fittingly, the group, the Mikan Ichiza Playgroup from Japan, will open their Alaska tour with a show in that city's William H. Seward High School at 1 p.m. Wednesday, April 29. Additional performances will take place at 7 p.m. May 1 in Atwood Concert Hall in Anchorage and 2 p.m. May 2 at West Valley High School in Fairbanks, another city associated with Wada. More about the upcoming show next week, but tickets are now available at centertix.net; click on "Asian Culture Night."
More about the musical, including a graphic novel about Wada, at thesamuraimusher.com.