For the CCW<\/p>\n
Haines<\/strong> – Control, tragedy, oppression and class prejudice are just a few of the thought-provoking themes audience members can expect to encounter in Lynn Canal Community Players\u2019 rendition of \u201cThe House of Bernarda Alba,\u201d a 1936 play by Spanish dramatist Federico Garcia Lorca.<\/p>\n Directed by Haines resident Tod Sebens, \u201cThe House of Bernarda Alba\u201d opens on the Chilkat Center stage at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12. Additional showings are at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 13, and 1 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 14.<\/p>\n Lorca\u2019s play \u2013 the final work he penned before his murder in 1936 \u2013 features 19 female characters living in 1930s rural Spain. Its titular character is 60-year-old matriarch Bernarda Alba, a domineering widow fixated on preserving her family\u2019s reputation and controlling the lives of her five daughters.<\/p>\n Judith McDermaid, veteran of the Chilkat Center stage, portrays Bernarda, who has just imposed a traditional eight-year mourning period on her household following the death of her second husband. Severe and stoic, McDermaid said Bernarda\u2019s austerity is her way of preparing her daughters for society\u2019s expectations of women. <\/p>\n \u201cAs strict and mean as I appear, it\u2019s because I love them and I want the best for them,\u201d McDermaid said.<\/p>\n Cheryl Mullins plays Bernarda\u2019s eldest daughter, Angustias. Angustias, 39, was the product of Bernarda\u2019s first marriage, and she has just inherited a hefty sum following her father\u2019s death.<\/p>\n That inheritance is the source of envy for her four half-sisters, as is the fact that she is betrothed to Pepe el Romano, who never appears on stage.<\/p>\n The humorous parts of the play belong to Carol Tuynman, who plays Bernarda\u2019s semidemented mother Maria Josepha, and Lorrie Dudzik, cast as Poncia, Bernarda\u2019s chief maid.<\/p>\n Poncia, 60, has worked as Bernarda\u2019s servant for 30 years. Though she desires to be treated as Bernarda\u2019s friend and confidante, Poncia is constantly reminded of her place in the rigid caste system. <\/p>\n \u201cI aspire to be her friend, but as far as she\u2019s concerned, I\u2019m a servant, nothing else,\u201d Dudzik said.<\/p>\n Like all of the characters in the play, Poncia is multifaceted. She likes to tell stories and make the girls laugh, but she also is a harbinger of disaster, warning Bernarda about the consequences of the suffocating environment she is perpetuating. Dudzik said she will consider the play a success if audience members leave the theater not thinking, \u2018Wow, what a bunch of mean, spiteful shrews,\u2019 but instead see through to the deeper sense of desperation, sadness and isolation the women feel.<\/p>\n Director Sebens said \u201cThe House of Bernarda Alba\u201d drew him in for several reasons, including Lorca\u2019s poetic style and use of symbolism. The work\u2019s heavy themes \u2013 oppression of women, class prejudice, tradition, beauty \u2013 also attracted him to the play. \u201cThis is not just some make-believe thing,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is based on fact and how women were expected to behave and how they were treated in Spain in the mid-1930s. They were expected to mourn for eight years when the father of the household died, not go out, not do anything. Just stay home and embroider.\u201d<\/p>\n Lynn Canal Community Players (LCCP) is the oldest continuously operating community theatre group in Alaska. It was organized in 1956 by a group of culturally minded Haines residents who decided it would be fun to put on plays for the entertainment and enrichment of the community.<\/p>\n LCCP has continued to foster the arts in the Upper Lynn Canal in many ways: Sponsoring and operating the Concert Series during the 60s and 70s, organizing and hosting the biennial Alaska State Community Theatre Festival (ACTFEST) for 20 years, producing a long running summer melodrama to enhance the tourist season in Haines, operating a Summer Youth Theatre Conservatory, providing drama workshops and scholarships to drama camps, in addition to producing a season of plays each year. <\/p>\n The Alaska Arts Confluence started collaborating with LCCP this season on River Talk, a dynamic, community-powered storytelling series that draws lively crowds to share in the stories of Chilkat River Valley residents.<\/p>\n Alaska Arts Confluence is a 501(c)3 tax exempt nonprofit dedicated to promoting participation in the arts by providing art education and cultural enrichment opportunities for artists, residents and visitors of the Chilkat Valley. Projects include Art on Main Street, which showcases the work of local artists and artisans in professionally designed storefront window displays downtown, and the Historic Fort William H. Seward Sculpture Garden and Interpretive Wayside Project, revitalizing Historic Fort Seward with commissioned art works by local artists, locally designed interpretive signs and an interpretive walking tour. Art on Main Street and the Fort Seward project are funded by a grant from the ArtPlace Foundation. Alaska Arts Confluence programs and projects provide arts education opportunities open to the general public to foster an appreciation of all arts, with the goals of community enrichment, visitor involvement, and cultural exchange.<\/p>\n For more information, contact Carol Tuynman at 303-0222.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For the CCW Haines – Control, tragedy, oppression and class prejudice are just a few of the thought-provoking themes audience members can expect to encounter in Lynn Canal Community Players\u2019 rendition of \u201cThe House of Bernarda Alba,\u201d a 1936 play by Spanish dramatist Federico Garcia Lorca. Directed by Haines resident Tod Sebens, \u201cThe House of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"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-2138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2138","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=2138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2138"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}