{"id":9491,"date":"2015-10-18T08:02:57","date_gmt":"2015-10-18T15:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/sitka-awaits-visit-from-russian-performers\/"},"modified":"2015-10-18T08:02:57","modified_gmt":"2015-10-18T15:02:57","slug":"sitka-awaits-visit-from-russian-performers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/sitka-awaits-visit-from-russian-performers\/","title":{"rendered":"Sitka awaits visit from Russian performers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>SITKA \u2014<\/strong> A troupe of Russian performers who were set to visit Sitka for the upcoming Alaska Day weekend is unlikely to make it in time for the celebrations.<\/p>\n<p>The group\u2019s coordinator in an email to the Sitka Historical Society Director Hal Spackman said the troupe wouldn\u2019t be interviewed for their visas until Oct. 19, a day after the Russian-themed celebration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur group is ready and gathered in Moscow (some of the singers and famous dancers have canceled their tours) but the Embassy has not issued visas yet,\u201d Alex Chupilkin wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The troupe of performers had several things planned for the event, including horse riding stunts, a monastery choir, a Russian modern circus and opera singers. The group\u2019s tentatively scheduled performance for Thursday night at the Sitka Performing Arts Center was canceled, The Daily Sitka Sentinel reported.<\/p>\n<p>Spackman said despite the visas situation, the group is still looking to make a trip out to Alaska. He\u2019s just not sure when.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt looks like they still are planning on coming. But at this point, when they get here is another idea,\u201d Spackman said.<\/p>\n<p>Spackman said he has been told by Russia\u2019s Deputy Consul General in Seattle, Khalit Aisin, that he plans to visit Sitka for Alaska Day. Spackman said Aisin is expected to arrive Friday morning.<\/p>\n<p>City Administrator Mark Gorman said the situation reminds him of the 1966 film, \u201cThe Russians are Coming, The Russians Are Coming,\u201d which is set during a period of tense relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s quite intriguing to me,\u201d Gorman said. \u201cEverybody who\u2019s been touched by this thinks it can\u2019t be real. But if it is real it could be wonderful for the community. It\u2019s inspirational and it could be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Information from: Daily Sitka (Alaska) Sentinel, http:\/\/www.sitkasentinel.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SITKA \u2014 A troupe of Russian performers who were set to visit Sitka for the upcoming Alaska Day weekend is unlikely to make it in time for the celebrations. The group\u2019s coordinator in an email to the Sitka Historical Society Director Hal Spackman said the troupe wouldn\u2019t be interviewed for their visas until Oct. 19, [&hellip;]<\/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":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-9491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9491","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=9491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9491"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}