Perseverance Theatre on Dec. 4 held a fundraiser for Juneau playwright Frank Henry Kaash Katasse\u2019s upcoming play, \u201cThey Don\u2019t Talk Back.\u201d<\/p>\n
The multicultural dance group Yees Ku Oo started the fundraiser off with songs in the Tsimshian, Aleut, and Tlingit languages. Song and dance, Katasse told the audience, is part of the inspiration behind the play, which focuses on a Tlingit family \u201cin their everyday lives, dealing with their everyday problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
The money will help produce the play, but it will also be \u201chelping perpetuate Alaska Native theatre at PT (Perseverance Theatre,)\u201d Katasse wrote in an email. Tlingit\/Athabascan playwrite Vera Starbard\u2019s play \u201cOur Voices Will be Heard\u201d started off 2016 at Perseverance Theatre; Katasse\u2019s will start off 2017. Starbard now has a three-year writing residency with the theatre.<\/p>\n
Katasse met other indigenous people involved in theatre during the production of Starbard\u2019s play, for which he was an actor, and was encouraged to submit \u201cThey Don\u2019t Talk Back\u201d for a competition at Native Voices at the Autry, which dedicates itself to new work by Native American artists. The organization chose his play, producing it in California this spring.<\/p>\n
Perseverance artistic director Art Rotch told the audience that fostering connections like that is part of Perseverance\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you find the people that get you, you can really soar,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to be a place people can meet one another and develop those collaborative relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each dollar donated for \u201cThey Don\u2019t Talk Back,\u201d up to $20,000, will be matched by matching grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Gaguine Foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best way for the community to help PT keep that commitment (to Alaska Native theatre) is by donating and\/or going to the shows,\u201d Katasse wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey Don\u2019t Talk Back\u201d will begin Jan. 27 and will run four weeks in Juneau. Afterwards it will head to Hoonah, then to Anchorage.<\/p>\n
To donate, go to www.ptalaska.org. The fundraising goal is $40,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Perseverance Theatre on Dec. 4 held a fundraiser for Juneau playwright Frank Henry Kaash Katasse\u2019s upcoming play, \u201cThey Don\u2019t Talk Back.\u201d The multicultural dance group Yees Ku Oo started the fundraiser off with songs in the Tsimshian, Aleut, and Tlingit languages. Song and dance, Katasse told the audience, is part of the inspiration behind the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":14112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14111"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}