“Whale Song” sounds utterly confounding at first.<\/p>\n
Perseverance Theatre’s latest offering<\/a> tells a story set in the not-too-distant future about a young Inupiat women destined by prophecy to unite people and bowhead whales through marriage to a whale.<\/p>\n However, the two-act play written by Inupiat playwright Cathy Tagnak Rexford uses the far-out concept to show characters grappling with societal expectations, anxiety, pressure and overcoming adversity.<\/p>\n “It’s really relatable in a way,” said Erin Tripp, who portrays the prophetic Ani.<\/p>\n [Film experiment could only happen here<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n Madeline Sayet, the play’s director<\/a>, said “Whale Song,” also tweaks the trope of star-crossed lovers and tells the story of a hero’s journey with a headstrong female protagonist.<\/p>\n “It’s like reverse ‘Romeo and Juliet,’” Sayet said. “Their families want them to get married, and they don’t want to.”<\/p>\n The mythic premise is a platform to show people and whales wrestling under the realistic weight of the responsibility of what they are expected to become.<\/p>\n “There’s a sense throughout it that it’s more about being caught and trying to fight your destiny,” Sayet said. “Everything is a little abstract. Nothing is super literal.”<\/p>\n “Whale Song,” which opens Feb. 1, is a distinctly indigenous production.<\/p>\n It was written by an Alaska Native, includes a diverse cast and is directed by Sayet, who is a member of the Mohegan Tribe.<\/p>\n The Mohegan tribe is a federally recognized tribe with a reservation in Connecticut.<\/p>\n Frank Katasse, a Tlingit actor who plays Jack in “Whale Song,” said Alaska Native plays are a rarity, and he is glad “Whale Song” exists to offer well-written parts to Native actors.<\/p>\n “They say you’re walking in two worlds as an Alaska Native, and this play explores that,” Katasse said.<\/p>\n Whale of a story<\/strong><\/p>\n The whales in the play are meant to be actual, living-in-the-water, zooplankton-eating whales, but they are portrayed by people as a community with a give-take relationship with the indigenous humans in the Arctic.<\/p>\n “The thing that’s really cool is the whales and the people are depicted as two nations rather than two species,” Sayet said.<\/p>\n [Play features 30 time jumps and a new tune<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n The cetacean nature of the whales is communicated through actors’ body language and staging.<\/p>\n “A lot of the physical vocabulary we made in the rehearsal process,” said Hali Duran, choreographer for “Whale Song.” “The whales have this round vocabulary, and the humans have a pedestrian vocabulary.”<\/p>\n That means actors portraying whales move with an implied rotund buoyancy while humans are angular and hyper aware of their extremities.<\/p>\n “Using elements and imagery has been a really big part of the process,” Duran said.<\/p>\n Ty Yamaoka, a Juneau actor who plays a level-headed whale Nukaaluk in “Whale Song,” said he focuses on taking deep breaths with his chest while in character and shared some other aspects of playing a whale. <\/p>\n “Everything is really rounded,” Yamaoka said. “We try to keep angles out of our bodies.”<\/p>\n The fluid motions were on full display during a rehearsal that featured a pod making its entrance amid group vocalizations.<\/p>\n Tai Yen Kim, an Anchorage-based actor who plays Agviq, the whale expected to be a groom, said it’s the first time he’s played a whale.<\/p>\n “I’ve played a goose before,” Kim said. That was for a production of “Charlotte’s Web.”<\/p>\n A lot of newness<\/strong><\/p>\n “Whale Song’s” cast and crew said it’s been fun to be involved in a play’s debut.<\/p>\n Duran said it’s fair to compare the experience to playing in a sandbox.<\/p>\n “It’s been really fun to watch this play grow,” Katasse said. “You’re inventing so much through this. You have these character ideas you have to get through on stage.”<\/p>\n Katasse said he’s seen the play change into what it’s become over the course of multiple workshops. Rexford is a Los Angeles-based member of the Perseverance Playwright’s Circle.<\/p>\n [Musicians stood together in the Shuka Hit clan house<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n