FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) \u2014 Marilyn Monroe liked the champagne: \u201cIt arrived, I drank it, and I was gayer,\u201d she wrote to the German consulate general.<\/p>\n
Clyde Barrow had a soft spot for fast cars: \u201cI have drove (sic) Fords exclusively when I could get away with one,\u201d he scribbled to Henry Ford.<\/p>\n
And Alec Guinness wasn\u2019t too sure about his role in a little movie called \u201cStar Wars\u201d: \u201cCan\u2019t say I\u2019m enjoying the film \u2014 new rubbish dialogue reaches me every other day … Harrison Ford \u2014 ever heard of him?\u201d he lamented to a friend.<\/p>\n
Those are actual snippets of fame by the famous, and in some cases the infamous, as brought to life in \u201cLetter\u2019s Aloud Presents \u2018Fame! (They\u2019re Not Going to Live Forever)\u2019,\u201d a cultural journey on the ups and downs of celebrity and our obsession with it. The conceptualization, co-produced by the Fairbanks Concert Association and Theatre UAF, opens Sunday for one performance at the Lee H. Salisbury Theatre at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, followed by a Monday performance in Delta Junction and a Tuesday performance in Healy. \u201cFame\u201d is but one part of the \u201cLetters Aloud\u201d series in which real letters by real people are brought to life on stage by actors telling the tales of the writers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a fan of live stories being told on a stage, and there are more and more letters made available to the public thanks to the Internet,\u201d said Paul Morgan Stetler, the founder, producer and curator of the \u201cLetters Aloud\u201d series. \u201cIt\u2019s culture and a history lesson.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stetler, who also is former co-artistic director of Seattle\u2019s New Century Theatre Company, has always been fascinated with human correspondence. His \u201cLetters Aloud\u201d project started by crafting a theatrical journey around handwritten letters. Past anthologies have included \u201cLove Me or Leave Me,\u201d centered around love letters; \u201cDear Dad,\u201d letters to and from famous dads; and \u201cFrom the Front,\u201d letters to and from military servicemen. Most of those anthologies were performed near corresponding holidays \u2014 Valentines Day, Fathers Day, Veterans Day \u2014 so when Stetler had a chance to perform a show not centered around a holiday, he dove into examining the aspects of fame. Now, \u201cFame (They\u2019re Not Going to Live Forever),\u201d is getting its Warholian 15 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce I locked down this theme, the idea of what fame is, the good and bad and what it\u2019s like, then I went and decided what letters, and then came up with the dramatic arc,\u201d Stetler said. \u201cWe wanted to go through the start of their careers, getting rejected, getting their fame. Then you get to the point where people are at the height of their careers, and we end the show with people looking back on their careers. It\u2019s a sense of a journey the audience is going on. It takes these people who we put on pedestals and makes them human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stetler equates \u201cFame\u201d to theater\u2019s version of reality TV: viewers at home peeking into the lives of the Kardashians or Chrisleys or Duggars, fulfilling a humanly scopophiliac need.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our reality TV culture, we\u2019re immersed in voyeuristic pursuits, and this is a higher version of that,\u201d Stetler said. \u201cIt\u2019s a literary reality that wasn\u2019t meant for us. It helps us look at ourselves in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the \u201cLetters Aloud\u201d project centers around the concept of celebrity, the project itself has led to a look at letters from Alaskans, albeit many not quite as famous as Marilyn Monroe or Clyde Barrow or Alec Guinness. To foster interest in \u201cFame,\u201d Anne Biberman, executive director of the Fairbanks Concert Association, created a letter-writing project for Alaskans to tell their stories. Those letters will be on display throughout Fairbanks venues with readings slated for later this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get this intimate look into someone\u2019s real life, whether it\u2019s someone local or someone famous, and it\u2019s all applicable to yourself,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s so appealing, and so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nIf You Go:<\/strong><\/p>\n What: \u201cLetter\u2019s Aloud Presents \u2018Fame! (They\u2019re Not Going to Live Forever)\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n When and where:<\/p>\n \u2022 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15, Lee H. Salisbury Theatre in the University of Alaska Fairbanks Fine Arts Complex<\/p>\n \u2022 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16, Delta Community Center in Delta Junction<\/p>\n \u2022 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, Tri-Valley School in Healy<\/p>\n Tickets: Available online at www.fairbanksconcert.org, by calling 490-2858 and at Grassroots Guitar, 1019 College Road<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) \u2014 Marilyn Monroe liked the champagne: \u201cIt arrived, I drank it, and I was gayer,\u201d she wrote to the German consulate general. Clyde Barrow had a soft spot for fast cars: \u201cI have drove (sic) Fords exclusively when I could get away with one,\u201d he scribbled to Henry Ford. And Alec Guinness […]<\/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-9735","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\/9735","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=9735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9735"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}