Native playwrights treat local audiences to award-winning play

PALMER — When Yup’ik Eskimo playwright Jack Dalton drove from Homer to Palmer Sunday, he was carrying the weight of the Arctic on his shoulders — all 12 panels of it.

The exquisitely painted scenery backdrop on 4-by-8-foot slabs of particleboard were secured to the top of his Saturn SUV with bungee cords and a blue tarp.

“I only went 45 miles per hour the whole way,” Dalton laughed Monday as he and fellow Native storyteller Allison Warden prepared to treat Alaska Job Corps students and local audiences to a “leaner and meaner” version of their award-winning 10-vignette play “Time Immemorial” in the Job Corps gymnasium tonight and tomorrow.

First debuted to rave reviews at Cyrano’s Playhouse in Anchorage in the spring of 2009, “Time Immemorial” takes audiences on a 105-minute journey from “creation” through several incarnations of generations and family relationships as seen from the eyes of an eagle and a raven in human form.

As Native symbols of light and darkness, “Miti” the eagle and “Tulu” the raven explore various struggles between Alaska Natives and whites — and Alaska Natives themselves — within characters of fathers and sons, sisters, mothers and daughters, and grandmothers and grandsons.

The arrival of white missionaries, the signing of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, battles over natural resources, preservation of cultural traditions and struggles against alcoholism and suicide are all interwoven within the stories acted out by Dalton and Warden.

“These are really just stories about people and how they make their way in the world over time,” said Dalton, who was born in Bethel and adopted by a non-Native Anchorage couple when he was 5. “We show both sides of every issue. We don’t try to either glorify or vilify history. Every decision that was made was made by human beings who were doing what they thought was best at the time.”

Made possible by funding from the Alaska State Council on the Arts, the Western States Art Federation and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Palmer Arts Council worked in collaboration with Job Corps to bring these productions and theater workshops to local schools in the Valley this week.

Job Corps, in fact, is integrating the experience with its hands-on business, carpentry, culinary and building maintenance programs to help it all come together.

“We’re excited about working with the Palmer Arts Council,” Job Corps Recreation Supervisor Ben Rowell said. “We’ve done big events like tournaments, town halls and craft shows. But this — a professional theatric production — is really neat.”

Job Corps Community Liaison Barbara Hunt said that because more than half the students at Job Corps are Alaska Natives — many of whom come straight from tiny villages — most have never seen a live play.

Cherilyn Jacob, a mother of two from the village of Napaskiak who is enrolled in Job Corps’ office assistant program, said she doesn’t ever remember seeing live theater.

“It looks like it’s going to be amazing,” Jacob said as Dalton and Warden rehearsed a scene, putting their microphones and their memories to the test. “I can’t wait.”

Warden, who was raised in Fairbanks and now lives in Anchorage, said that because the play involves 10 separate acts — all involving different characters — it takes a tremendous amount of focus and emotional strength to pull it off each time.

“There are some pretty intense scenes, so we have to connect with each other between each act and be able to get into the next character quickly and with all our being,” Warden said. “We have two souls who are trying to work through various issues within several lifetimes and, in the end, they learn to love and respect each other. Some of it comes from our own lives and experiences, so that always makes it more personal and emotional. But it’s a beautiful way to portray history and we’re excited to have such a large Native audience here.”

Hunt said she hopes the production is embraced by the Valley community in general as much as it was in Anchorage and Homer over the past few years.

“I’ve heard such wonderful things about it and we’re so lucky to have it here,” Hunt said. “We’re hoping to fill this gymnasium as much as possible over the next couple of nights. Jack came a long way to do this. I can’t believe he strapped the show’s entire backdrop to his car and it didn’t get a scratch!”

The show is at 7 p.m. tonight and tomorrow at the Job Corps gym. Tickets are on sale at Fireside Books in Palmer and Pandemonium Books in Wasilla for $15 for adults and $10 for students and seniors age 65 or older.

For more information, contact Bridgette Preston of the Palmer Arts Council at 745-2846.

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.