Snow Child musical cancelled in Alaska

ANCHORAGE— Eowyn Ivey’s debut novel and Pulitzer prize nominated story, the “Snow Child” has amassed a lot of positive attention and international recognition since 2013, prompting a series of musical adaptations outside of Alaska. Alaskans, however will have to wait longer for the Snow Child musical since the Anchorage and Juneau shows were cancelled.

“Today we made the tough decision to cancel the Alaska dates for the world premiere of Snow Child,” said Art Rotch, Executive and Artistic Director of the Perseverance Theatre in a recent press release.

Performances in Anchorage were scheduled to begin next week, starting on May 25. Four performances at the theater’s home base in Juneau were also booked between June 9 and 10.

Due to “logistical” and “financial” restrictions, the theater opted out, according to Joshua Lowman, Anchorage General Manager for the Perseverance Theatre.

Lowman did not want to comment further and referred further comments to Rotch. Rotch provided some insight in an interview. He affirmed that logistical needs did play a role in the theater’s decision.

“We’re a small team growing into the work we’re doing,” Rotch said.

Essentially, the staffing and resources were too small and the theater took on more than they could handle at this time. Rotch said that he is a huge fan of Ivey, who lives in the Mat-Su Valley, near Chickaloon.

“What a brilliant writer… A lot of people’s hero,” Rotch said.

Rotch said he wanted to do the story its due justice with a quality production.

“It’s such a beautiful work, something that the fans should see in the state,” he said.

The theater was founded in Juneau and its 40th anniversary is next year. In light of this overexertion, the theater is brainstorming how to add more staff and resources to better prepare for the future. They currently have 12 people on their staff and Rotch said they are looking to add at least 3 or 4 more.

“I can’t say enough about Arena Stage, our partner,” Rotch said.

Rotch said that it’s unlikely they will be able to start Snow Child production next year but, “anything is possible after that.”

The theater is currently contacting anyone who reserved tickets to issue refunds.

“We regret we couldn’t successfully bring Snow Child to Alaska this season and will look for other ways to share this adaptation of Eowyn Ivey’s novel with Alaskans in the future,” Rotch stated in the release.

Ivey said she did not want to make any public comments at this time.

The author did however, take to Facebook in light of the news of the cancellation breaking.

“I am sorry to have to share this disappointing news -- Snow Child the musical will not be coming to Alaska. All shows in Anchorage and Juneau are cancelled. My understanding is that Arena Stage and Perseverance Theatre concluded that it was not economically feasible to bring the show north…”

The Snow Child musical is currently running in Washington D.C.